Chapter 14

The nearby table of Lycan Werewolf royal brothers focused their attention on Jessica, all hoping to have a connection with her, not aware that she already had a mate.

King Juno immediately grabbed Jessica by her arm and dragged her out of the Sunroom.

“Let go of me!” Jessica protested.

“It appears your king and queen have been hiding a bride,” Queen Amirah said, speaking to the royal brothers.

Not wanting to miss their opportunity to have a mate bond with Jessica, the young men got to their feet and almost fight each other to get in front of one another, making their way out of the Sunroom, attracting stares.

***

Back in Alaska, Wynn jumped to his feet abruptly. “I have to go, I will meet you guys in New York.”

“Dario said we must travel together,” Hannah stopped Wynn.

“My mate is in trouble and I cannot lose daytime because the Vampires cannot travel during the day,” Wynn said making his way to the door and leaving before anyone could say another word.

Wynn was a hundred percent sure that what just happened; was Jessica letting him know where she was and that she was scared. Wynn knew immediately where she was when he saw her surroundings and her memories. She showed him the Castle.

“Where is he off to?” Paris asked, entering the living area of their host vampire nest.

“Council, we should leave tonight,” Hannah said.

“You must be anxious about becoming a vampire after so many years?” Paris asked, taking a seat near Hannah.

“More worried than anxious. I have not heard from Dario since he left the Penthouse in Toronto.”

Paris took out his phone and called Dario, but only received a message back. ‘CANNOT TALK NOW, OCCUPIED.’

“He must be busy with council business,” Paris said, getting up to get ready for their trip to New York, leaving Hannah with her troubled thoughts.

Hannah thought that within the next two weeks, she will become a vampire. Dario will no longer drink from her, but from another. She did not like the idea of that, but she knew that it was time to become a vampire.

***

Back at the council.

“What are you doing here?” King Juno asked furiously. He was furious; not because he didn’t love his daughter, but because he knew that his head and his wife’s head will roll because they have been hiding her.

Queen Jovita looked at her daughter and decided to embrace her instead of scolding her. “Let’s go somewhere private,” she suggested when she noticed the Royal Lycan Werewolf brothers closing in on them.

Queen Jovita heard her husband’s urgent thoughts; he wants them to flee the council before they get executed. Knowing that the council will end them as they now have a successor and plenty of royal men to mate and create successors.

“How about my room?” Jessica said, walking towards the room she was given.

When her parents stepped into the room, they were shocked to see it decorated in a teenage theme.

Jessica noticed the confused looks on her parent's faces, “so you didn’t decorate this room and filled the closet with clothing in my size?”

“No, must be Queen Amirah and Andre. Because Andre is a Vampire-Owl Hybrid he has speed and strength and that enables him to whip up this room in a matter of minutes.”

Jessica thought back to the previous day, ‘how long did we really walk in that magical hallway?’

“Why did you come here? Where is Ondrink?” King Juno asked, nervous and eager to get away from the council, a place he never wanted to be in the first place.

“Well, I obviously came of shifting and mating age without warning, thanks to the two of you!”

“We only wanted to protect you from this world,” Queen Jovita defended their actions.

“Well, it didn’t work!” Jessica said.

Jessica noticed for the first time that no one here had spirit wolves. She looked up and noticed that neither did she.

“What happened to my spirit wolf?” She asked her parents.

“It is a spell, it breaks the bond when you enter the council. It is to level the playfield. We Werewolves already have so much power the other species are extremely threatened by us,” Queen Jovita enlightened her.

“We have to leave,” King Juno said with urgency in his voice.

“We might be the most powerful at the council, but all of them against the two of us will be no match. The royal Lycan werewolf brothers will most certainly vote us to be killed, take you as a bride, and replace our place in the council,” Queen Jovita said, taking her husband’s hand.

“Really? In the Sunroom, it looked like everyone feared you, and by the way, I am already mated.”

“They will still force you to marry one of the royal brothers,” King Juno said.

“Instead of acting like my presence is a surprise. Why not introduce me as your daughter that was kidnapped and finally escaped when I shifted for the first time? Introduce me for who I am and throw in that I am eager to un-mate my current mate and to be wed and take my rightful place next to my parents. That should save your heads from rolling and we can deal with the rest later,” Jessica suggested, impressed with herself for whipping up such a smart plan.

“She defiantly did not inherit her smart-assness from us,” King Juno said, telling his wife with a mind-link that their daughter was so much like his wife’s twin sister that died 18 years ago protecting her and them.

“It could work. We are busy arranging the Vampire New Cummings Ball. We might as well make them believe that we were going to introduce her then. After all, we have a room that was apparently prepared by us for her.” Queen Jovita convinced her husband.

The door burst open and in come stumbling a bunch of hunky build guys behaving like teenagers.

On the Lycan, royal brother’s heels followed a sneaky Queen Amirah and Prince Andre.

“Gentlemen, allow us to introduce our daughter, Jessica. She has just come of age two weeks ago and has already shifted. We have thought her dead shortly after her birth when we were attacked by other packs, but recently found out that she was alive and well. We immediately send for her.” King Juno introduced Jessica to the royal brothers.

Jessica could not help but noticed that all of them had plain looks. They were not ugly looking but they defiantly won’t stand out from the crowd, ‘at least they all seem well-build,' she thought to herself.

“I hear I am to be wed to one of you lucky gentlemen?” Jessica put on her sweetest smile.

The group of brothers pushed out their chests and stood up straight, one trying to out-look the other for Jessica’s approval like teenagers even though they were all well over three hundred years old and all had fated mates before, long dead from one or the other supernatural war or attack.

“Unfortunately, I have already mated, but not to worry. My mate is on his way and we will un-mate on his arrival,” Jessica assured them.

“If you gentlemen don’t mind, I would like to spend some time with my parents, after all, we have not seen each other in eighteen years,” Jessica said sweetly, knowing that she already has them all wrapped around her finger, mate-bond or not.

“For sure, take as much time as you need,” one of them said, pushing the rest of them out of the door.

Once the brothers were all out, Queen Amirah closed the door. “You really think the rest of the council will be fooled like the royal love-sick puppies?”

“Not sure what you are talking about,” Queen Jovita said, snarling at Queen Amirah.

Prince Andre quite liked Jessica and decided not to say anything against her parents. “mother, come, let us give them some time to reunite.”

They left the room, but not before Prince Andre gave Jessica a wink. Jessica smiled at him, wishing she was forced to rather marry him, ‘damn he is sexy.’

“It is so strange that you guys look just a tat older than me,” Jessica said, finding it weird to look at the young couple that was supposed to be her parents.

“We always loved our youth and to keep us strong, we swift at least once a month. We never miss a full moon. Sifting on a full moon keeps us strong, stronger than any other species,” King Juno said with pride.

Unexpectedly, he embraced Jessica, “my little girl. I have accepted that I will never see you again, but now, here you are, practically a grown woman. I just hope we can get out of the whole marriage thing.”

He let go of her and held her at arm’s length. “tell me about this mate.”

“Well, he is a hybrid.”

“Well, that is disgusting,” Queen Jovita cut her off.

“I didn’t choose to mate with him. I didn’t even know what I was when it happened.” Jessica said, slightly offended.

“Do you guys know a Vampire Nest leader, Dario? Wynn is part of his nest,” Jessica said, just remembering that Mr. Carden was also there.

“We don’t really know the Nest leaders. Werewolves might be the strongest, but for every werewolf, there is a vampire, unlike the other species that are greatly outnumbered.”

“Wynn Mateo? twin brother of Shysie. The oldest Vampires alive but not prehistoric,” Queen Jovita asked.

“That’s the one. I did not know they are the oldest alive. How come they are not royals, then?” Jessica asked.

“They gave up their position as royals, but they are still treated in high regard.” King Juno said not to oppose to Wynn being her mate as he sometimes felt that Wynn could control him with his authority out ranking him, knowing that if he might be able to overpower him he could overpower anyone, protecting his daughter.

Jessica could feel someone trying to mind link her but decided to ignore it. She returned to the Sunroom with her parents and they told the lie they agreed on that was already told to the Lycan brothers.

After breakfast, she met up with William and Ann for a short while before she joined her parents again.

William and Ann were joined by Ami all day. After lunch, Ami took them to the gardens. They sat under the trees. Nearby was a group of people ranging from young to teenagers doing some sort of martial art to toddlers running around.  

“Who are they? I hope not the humans the Vampires feed on?” Ann asked, worried for the young children amongst them, some even in the arms of women.

“No!” Ami laughed. “They are Vampire Hunters in training.”

“My father is a Vampire Hunter. Are they not a thread to the Vampires here? My father got really weird when he met my x-boyfriend, and he is not even a full vampire!” Ann asked, worried again, but this time not for the children but for the Vampires as she fancied becoming a vampire herself.

“That is why they get breaded here and trained to contain their instinct to kill vampires. They get trained to kill Prehistoric Vampires, as they are the only real threat. They are not only a threat to humans but all species, including Vampires.” Ami said, wondering in the back of her mind if Ann was not perhaps related to the Willows here.

“We have a group of children here that has the same surname as you, Willow,” Ami stated, to get a reaction from Ann, ‘perhaps Ann knows about them,’ she thought to herself.

“I am an only child, as far as I know,” Ann responded, now curious. “My father and mother met when they were in their teens, so there is no way he has other children.”

“Well,” Ami started, not sure if she should let these humans in on how it works for hunters. “When a hunter turns 18 years old, they join their family of archaeologists. Even though they do not always stay in the same household, they do travel together. If they don’t fall in love and marry a fellow hunter to insure the continuous line of hunters, the men have to leave one month’s worth of, um, well, sperm,” Ami said, blushing, with William's eyes on her.

“Why?” William asked, noticing Ami’s face changing color.

“Is it not obvious? They most likely insert it into women to carry babies and create more hunters, right? My father told me that hunters age, unlike Vampires and Lycans, and I guess whatever other species here.” Ann said, sounding like she knows more about this world than she should.