“A new program to develop. I have the base of it completed, but I know you can finalize it,” I reply, standing from my chair and stretching. “It’ll take a year with your skills to finalize it and have it released by this time next year.”
She nods, pocketing the flash drive into her blazer before standing as well. My stomach grumbles, and without needing to be told, Claira and I leave my office and head toward the dining hall.
“Well, how is the merging of Haven Trail and the royal pack going?” Claira asks as we descend the stairs.
“Good so far. Our wolves have gone to the royal pack to get a feel for the land with Aliah helping them. Some are even assisting with searching the archives and have found instances of inter-species mating.” I shrug, pride swelling inside me at how adaptable my wolves are. Julian and I agreed that if we are to merge our two packs together, we need to ensure they are comfortable on our land and accept each other’s rules. Even now, I can scent out a handful of royal pack wolves in my pack house, hear them laughing up a storm down the hall in the dining hall. Everyone has slowly become a large family in just three short months, and I couldn’t be happier.
“Well, this is just the beginning of our new life. We still have to head to the ball at the royal pack in three months, and you will be forced to face all the wolves who wronged you there,” Claira points out, and I frown. I am not looking forward to facing therest of the wolves in the royal pack. They all believed I was a gold digger who was holding out for the luna queen throne. Now that it has been confirmed that I am Julian’s soulmate, the throne rightfully belongs to me. Those who despise me will have to face two choices in six months: bend the knee and swear their loyalty or be turned rogue and forced to find a new pack.
“This is something we can worry about when the time comes. For now, I want food,” I say dismissively, the smell of barbecue chicken pizza making my stomach growl with hunger.
Giving me a helpless smile, Claira and I line up at the lunch buffet and fill our plates. I look around the room and smile, happy to see so many cheerful wolves chatting about sparring matches in the training ring or what new job Aidan’s company has planned. I had done it; I had built a pack where wolves in need of a family could join. Now, I need to help Julian unite the rest of the packs into one big family and help our kind easily find their mates.
70
Julian
As the vampires rounded up the captured hunters, I wipe the blood from my face and take a long, shaky breath. This battle had been the hardest since none of us wanted to wreck the warehouse. There was too much at stake if we destroyed it, one of which was alerting the human authorities to the massacre we just initiated.
“Well, that was fun,” Aileen says from beside me, her eyes glowing red as she scans the vampires who were freed from the cages below, their thin bodies nearly collapsing. They have been denied blood for so long that Aileen is now working with Coven Zatia to find a safe place to feed them their first meal in what seems like weeks.
“I hate to say this, but locking them in the cells with a hunter each may be the best option. Let them feed,” Christa Zatia, the leader of this area’s coven, says.
Aileen frowns but ultimately agrees. Her own vampires will be the ones to handle the starving vampires as they can manage the scent of human blood without the urge to feed from a human taking control.
“Oh, Julian,” Aileen calls out to me as she is about to walk away. “Call Hannah once you get a chance. It’s been three days since you last talked to her, and I bet she is antsy about not hearing from you.” With that, the blonde vampire zips away, stopping in front of a trembling vampire who, after some coaxing, follows Aileen back toward the cells.
After checking in with my wolves about escorting the rogues to Salted Howl’s pack—using the boats docked out front—I make my way outside to retrieve a phone. I need to call Hannah. Goddess, I miss hearing her voice. I can still sense her through the mate bond, still feel her emotions, and how much she has been missing me. Now that this mission is done, we can finally focus on turning this warehouse into our new international trade base.
At the docks, I find Fabian speaking with Salted Howl’s alpha. I wait as he finishes giving instructions. Once Alpha Preston Scott heads back inside the warehouse, Fabian turns to me.
“All good, Your Majesty?” Fabian asks, his stiff formality something I dislike. Unfortunately for us, we need to maintain the formality as we have too many eyes and ears watching the royal wolves.
“Yes, I was just wondering if I could borrow your phone for a moment. I have a mate to call,” I reply to my friend, who gives me a sly smirk before digging around in his jacket and handingme his cellphone. I thank him, quickly unlocking it and rushing to the end of the dock, as far away from prying eyes as possible.
I scroll through the contacts, quickly finding Hannah’s number. Clicking on it, I hold the phone to my ear and wait for the call to connect so that I can finally hear her voice.
“Fabian, what’s going on?” Hannah’s voice comes through the phone, concern lacing her words. “Is everyone okay? Is… is Julian okay?”
Without thinking, I let out a chuckle at her frantic worry, finding the situation both amusing and adorable.
“Ju-Julian?” she asks, her voice now a faint whisper.
“Hi, Hannah,” I reply, earning a sigh of relief from her.
“I… I thought something happened to you guys,” Hannah says, a whimper in her voice. “It’s been three days since you last called me and… I thought…”
“Everyone is fine, Hannah. We just had a bitch of a time trying to deal with these hunters. There were more than we thought.” I go on to explain how this operation started three days ago, how we snuck in during the dead of night thanks to our spies, and slowly worked our way through the building, taking out their communication system and preventing the hunters inside from contacting their allies. Without fail, we gradually moved on to capturing hunters alive with the help of Coven Zatia. Christa Zatia had her vampires compel the hunters into silence and placed them in rooms where they would be safe while we took out what we could. The goal was to save as many hunters aspossible so that the covens in the area would have enough blood slaves to last them at least a century.
“We have the wolves being transferred to Salted Howl for now while Aileen helps feed the starved vampires we found in the cells. We will need to wait for the sun to set to move the vampires, but even then, we need to make sure that bloodlust won’t take over their minds or risk the lives of all the humans in the area and our wolves,” I state, running a hand through my hair and grimacing at how greasy it feels. Goddess, I worked up a sweat fighting for my life over the last three days.
“Will you be coming to Haven Trail after everyone is situated?” Hannah asks, her loneliness seeping into the mate bond.
“I am not sure. We managed to visit over half of the packs here in Canada and have eleven more to go. Our estimated six months might be longer after leaving Salted Howl since we need to focus on the legal routes of claiming the hunters’ base as part of the companies I own,” I answer her honestly, letting the sadness I feel at being away from her and Saben for so long show. I want to see my mate and son and hold them close. Just talking to them over the phone is too much to bear at times. “Aileen already has a lawyer friend here in Vancouver from Coven Zatia ready to help forge sale documents. We plan to split all the hunter assets between Coven Zatia, Salted Howl, Coven Sunblaze, and the royal pack,” I continue, getting a chuckle from Hannah.
“Aileen must be giddy to know she is getting some good money from this,” Hannah muses, and I chuckle. My little luna queen has no idea how much Aileen has planned for this money, one of which is capturing deer and raising them to be food for vampires.
“Aileen has already bought some land to start her ‘vegan’ farm for vampires. Trust me, we are already capturing deer for her as we speak so that her coven can breed them,” Hannah says, and this time, I break into a laughing fit. Of course, Aileen would wrangle Haven Trail into helping her with her plan.