Wyatt
“Wyatt, there has been news,” Jaxson says stomping into the room, where I was sitting with Winter quietly. Winter looks up with a smile at Jaxson. The quiet is ruined because Jaxson doesn’t know the meaning of it; he never sits fucking still for a second. It used to drive me mad as a kid, it still pisses me off now.
“Yes?” I ask him.
“Two of my wolves who watch the old castle say there are vampires in it. They have just returned to the pack to tell me.”
“Where’s Atti?” I ask standing up. Winter holds my hand and smiles up at me. She is just as happy as I am that there are survivors.
“Coming,” Jaxson says and the door slams open as Atti walks in the bedroom.
“Come on then, let’s go and check it out. Here,” Atti throws a sword at me and one at Jaxson. We both hold them at our sides as we walk over to Atti.
“I’m coming,” Winter says with her hands on her hips as she stares us down.
“No Sweetheart, we don’t know what we are walking into,” I tell her and she glares at me and her golden skin starts glowing blue, like it always does when she gets mad these days. Her beautiful eyes get even more stunning as they glow a soft silver. Winter is stunning.
“Not happening, lass,”
“Atti?” She pleads after she gives a death look to Jaxson.
“We need you here, someone to protect the pack and Freddy. Who better than their queen?” Atti says. Who knew he was the smart one? Jaxson and I glance at each other, both us wondering how he outsmarted us with Winter.
“Okay, you’re right,” Winter says and the glow slowly disappears.
“Be back soon, love,” Atti says and claps a hand on my and Jaxson’s shoulder. When we arrive at the castle, Atti makes us appear just outside. Big pieces of stone lay crumbled on the old staircase up to the castle doors. What once were two massive doors is now just an empty archway, with the doors covered in dust and laying on the ground. Fond memories of escaping here as a child sweep through me, this was the only place I can remember being happy. It’s clear someone has been here, the footprints on the ground an obvious sign, and the smell of blood is another. Jaxson gives me a nod as he moves behind me. He smells something. I hold my sword close as we move into the castle.
The first room is empty, other than the massive heaps of dust and destroyed walls. I hear a tiny noise up the stairs. I jump over the five missing bottom steps and onto the landing. I land silently, feeling Atti and Jaxson following me closely. They have my back, they always will.
I stop when a little boy comes out of an archway, his eyes widen when he sees me and he starts crying. I move closer and I know he is a vampire, I can sense him. His mother comes running out and picks him up. When she turns and sees us all, she falls to her knees with her child sobbing into her neck. Both of them look terrible, wearing old torn clothes and they are both pale enough that I know they need to feed. Children can go around two weeks without needing a little amount of blood but adults can’t do that. I turn my head when Harold, a member of my father’s council, and his son Easton come out of the room. I really hope Talen, another council member, is alive so I can fucking kill him for what he did at the castle. Injecting me with silver is a coward’s move, and could have killed me. I will rip his head off for that one.
“Prince, I hoped you would find us here,” Harold says as he bows.
“How many of you are here, my friend?” I ask and move closer to the woman, I offer her a hand and she stands up. I ruffle the little kid’s hair and he smiles shyly at me.
“Four hundred of us escaped, but the rest were lost.” He says and I nod. It was my job to protect them and I didn’t. I would understand if they hated me. Whoever is left is going to have my protection and help. I don’t need to be their king or even their prince; I’m just going to help.
“How are you feeding?” I ask.
“The local hospital in town, which is only half an hour away," he says as the woman moves next to Easton and he takes her hand as the kid hides behind her.
“It’s not nearly enough, and the people are noticing all the blood going missing. Most of us don’t believe it’s safe to leave this castle and have so little knowledge of the human world it isn’t safe to go and find food.” He tells me. To say they have no idea, is a vast understatement; they have no fucking clue. Most haven’t left the castle in all their lives because they didn’t want to. They have always had everything spoon-fed to them. Time for a huge fucking change; like calling humans food for one. They have got to stop that shit.
“How did you know of this place?” I ask as not many do. This is the old home of the goddess, and it’s well hidden in the middle of the Lake District in England. There’s a huge glamour that makes it impossible to find unless you know it’s there and even then, no one ever finds it. The only reason we know of it is because Atti’s mother showed it him. He then brought us here and we used to come every week, no matter what. Jaxson had wolves watching the place just in case anyone ever found it.
“Those that believe in the goddess can always find her home. Your mother once told me of this place, a story really, my prince. I knew it was a risk but we didn’t have anywhere else to go,” he tells me and I nod, ignoring the pain from him speaking about my mother. I wish she was here to guide me and maybe she could have stopped my father’s death. I don’t feel grief for my father, not when I know every moment of kindness he showed me growing up was a lie. The only reason he kept me alive was for the demon king and I fell straight into his trap with Winter at my side. It was fucking stupid and won’t be happening again.
“How many women and young are there?” Atti asks and I glance at him.
“This ruin of castle is no place for young children, look at the boy,” Atti whispers into my mind. I nod at Harold who finally speaks. I’ll give him credit; he hasn’t backed down in front of all these princes.
“There are ten children and eight women. The rest are the guards and men that I could get out. I had an escape plan made up for weeks. Your father never told us what he was up to but I am no idiot. I will not lose my family,” he says firmly.
“I offer you my pack and help,” Jaxson says making Harold’s eyes widen in shock; I turn to Jaxson, ignoring the whispers I can hear down the corridor. A few still get through to my ears and most are in shock that the princes seem like friends.
“We need to make this place liveable and sort out a delivery of blood to come here.” I tell Atti and Wyatt.
“My prince,” Harold interrupts.
“Yes?” I turn to him as he comes to my side.
“You are our king. Tell us what you wish us to do,” Harold says and lowers himself to his one knee, his head bent. I walk over and put my hand on his shoulder.
“We work together.” I say and Harold nods. I glance back at Atti who smiles like a dickhead at me while Jaxson smirks.
The next two days I stay at the castle and help set my people up. Atti took me into town, so I could convince the local hospital to order in a regular delivery of the blood we need. I made a generous donation to the hospital for it, and now every week someone will bring the blood to a meeting point away from the castle. Jaxson helped using his earth powers to clean the place up with Atti using his gifts as well.
Alex and Drake have taken over the running of the castle, while I’ve been ordering beds, clothes and human food to be delivered to us. I also used my power on a local building company; they’re working at the castle for the next couple of weeks. That cost me a fortune but I’m lucky we have a lot of money saved up.
“This place is looking great,” Alex says walking into the bedroom with Winter. I stop to smile at her. As alwas she looks happy and beautiful. She must have been at training because she’s wearing tight black leggings and a small black top that stretches across her chest. I have to divert my gaze away from Winter when Alex clears her throat. I’m helping two guys sort their room out and the beds are finally done. I’ve done twenty of the stupid flat pack beds today, Ikea does not make those things easy to put together.
“Hey,” Winter says looking me over. I’m sure I look like a fucking disaster, with dust in my hair and dirt all over my clothes. I lift the spare wood over my shoulder to take outside and both the girls sigh deeply, making me look at them.
“You totally rock the hot builder look,” Alex says and Winter playfully hits her arm.
“That’s my mate you’re talking about,” Winter says and Alex shrugs.
“Just saying. I’m off to find Drake and then we are going to the furniture store to pick up another delivery of stuff.” She smiles and I nod. I’m thankful for all her help, I can’t stand talking to the humans in town more than I have to. One of them spent twenty minutes telling me there was a difference in two red colours of paint. I didn’t see a difference.
“Bye,” Winter says and Alex whispers something to her. I don’t listen in but the red cheeks on Winter’s face tell me that I should have.
“Thank you for your help,” A teenage boy says as he sits putting together a bedside unit. This is a huge change for the older vampires, not many of them are happy about it. They have gotten used to living like kings for years, trapped inside a castle with no communication to the outside world. The teenagers and children are coping a little better. They love the iPhones I brought everyone and I explained what the Internet is and how to use it.
“No trouble,” I say and hand him the bag full of bed sheets. I walk out holding Winter’s hand and she looks around. Jaxson’s two wolves, which have a talent for building, managed to get plumbing and electric fitted throughout the castle yesterday.
“We found something in one of the towers,” I say to Winter and walk her towards the left tower. We only just got into it yesterday because it had a powerful ward surrounding it. Atti finally managed to get in after a lot of work. The vampires stop to bow at us as we walk past, Winter blushes every time.
“What’s in there?” Winter says when we get to the door of the tower. It radiates a certain power; I can feel it now that the ward is down and I’m not surprised that Winter can too.
“Come,” I say and she nods. I love that she trusts me completely. I open the door and walk through the new ward with Winter. It only accepts Winter, me, Dabriel and Jaxson now. Atti doesn’t need to be accepted as he created the ward and can just walk in. The stairs are high and when we finally get to the top, Winter stops to stare.
A massive blue crystal glows in the empty room; there are no lights other than the crystal as there are no windows. A change I will make because it doesn’t seem right. The light should be able to be seen from afar, the tall tower as a beacon of hope to any supernatural who needs it. I can see this castle being the home we need to unite our people and live in peace with Winter. The outside of the crystal is like glass, and the inside filled with thousands of tiny blue lights that move in a swirl. Atti has never seen anything like it; he says it’s what protects the castle and the grounds.
Winter doesn’t say a word but she moves closer. I go to stop her but I’m too late as she places both of her hands on the stone. The stone threw Atti at the wall when he touched it, and it did the same for me. Winter just starts glowing the same blue as the crystal, the little lights inside the crystal moving faster into a whirlwind. The air in the room seems lost as it’s hard to breathe, yet Winter looks fine.
“Winter?” I ask her and she turns to smile at me.
“It knows me. It sings,” she says just before she collapses to the ground. I move quickly and catch her before she hits the ground. I hold her close as the crystal returns to normal and she stops glowing. I move down the stairs, holding her in my arms and Atti is coming up them with a frown.
“I felt something strange,” Atti says and stops talking when he sees Winter.
“Winter, is she alright?” he runs up and places a hand on her forehead.
“Yes, I think so. The crystal let her touch it and I think it spoke to her. She just passed out.” I say and Atti strokes her cheek.
“I’ll take you both to the pack,” Atti says and places a hand on my shoulder. He moves us and we reappear in the kitchen of the house. Anna is stood washing up.
“I will not get used to that,” she starts and then she sees Winter in my arms.
“Is Winter okay?” she asks and I nod.
“I’ll return and keep the work going,” Atti says and squeezes my shoulder before he leaves. I watch him closely, the usual dickhead I have to put up with is gone and instead he’s serious all the time. It’s not like him. He hasn’t been in my room once to move my shit around.
I move Winter up to the room I’ve been using here; it’s simple with a double bed and one dresser. I lay her on the bed, smoothing her long hair out of her eyes.
She is so innocent and beautiful. Not just on the outside but in her heart as well.
My beautiful mate.