My Vampire Queen

Mason the shifter and apparently long-time friend of our Queen turns to leave the room, giving us a salute on the way out. Our Queen goes to one of the chairs, she looks back at me and I move to her. I had let her do all of the talking, she is the Queen and I have no relations to these shifters. When I get close enough her arms wrap around mine, I can feel through our bond she calms as soon as we touch, and that calms me. She sits in the nearest chair, which is right next to another one I sit in.

“This is Bjorn my Alpha.” She looks over to Nathan and Vinny. “The cute long-haired one is Nathan, the brutey one is Vinny.”

Vinny scowls at that, Nathan throws him a smirk. I’m sure we won’t hear the end of it from Nathan later on. Luna looks back to the alpha shifter. “And Keith, my dad’s best friend I grew up with him like he was my uncle.”

That made more sense, most Queens wouldn’t even be able to step onto the property of a shifters hangout. They would be body blocked on the way. The big man meets my eyes, I hold them for a heartbeat before moving my eyes down and nod my head to him. This was his home, I would be respectful to make this easier on our Queen. I see his head dip in acknowledgment and he says. “A lot of things have changed.”

“They have.” Luna agrees. “I’m still getting used to all of it.”

“When did you find out?” Keith asks.

“A few days ago,” Luna answers him.

“Do you have a...” He moves his hand around in a circle. “Home thing.”

“A nest?” She asks and laughs. “Not yet, I’ve found a house but it needs work before we can move in.”

“Do you need security? We can help with that.” The alpha of this pack is offering to help a Queen with security? I didn’t think there would ever be a day the shifters would offer help to Amina, or vice versa.

She shakes her head but stops to think for a second. “We have human security guards at the moment, armed ones. I would love to have you guys over though, the house I’m at now has a backyard big enough for a grill out.”

I can see the alpha’s interest peak as he sits forward. “Grill out? We will have to come by at some point.”

A woman comes through the doorway, with blond yellow hair, heavy on makeup, and a tight shirt that shows off her chest she heads straight over to Luna. My Queen gets up to meet the women’s tight hug.I didn’t think I would miss Laura as much as I did. I had resigned myself to my room and work, and then everything happened. I’m glad Tabitha had brought up the location and I recognized the address of the bar. I missed Keith and Mason sure, but Laura was the aunt I wish I had seen every holiday, the aunt I wish my mom had gone to for help.

Laura pulls away putting my face between her hands, she looks over my face. “Your eyes are so different.”

“I know it was shocking to me too.”

She gives me a soft smile, the wrinkles around her mouth getting more prominent. “It is shocking, I’m not that surprised though. I knew you’d always be more than normal.”

I snort and she hits my shoulder playfully letting me go so she can go over to her husband. He immediately swats at her ass, she rolls her eyes and steps out of reach. I know she likes the attention, and he likes to bug her. She turns her attention back to me, I sit back in the chair, and Bjorn rubs his hand on my back in a soothing motion. Laura shakes her head and crosses her arms. “You have some explaining to do.”

And so I do. I tell them pretty much everything in a condensed version to save us some time, answering questions only when I needed to. They did give me some funny looks when I told them about Caine, and that I couldn’t ask him to show himself because he needed time. Keith rubs his chin like he’s thinking and asks. “So you don’t need them to be Amina to be Blood?”

“No, they just need to be right for me. As far as I know, it doesn’t matter what they are.” Though we hadn’t tried to bring in someone who wasn’t Amina besides one demon. Could I really bring a shifter into the mix? Didn’t someone say it was painful for them to be bitten by us? So how would that work exactly?

Laura leans a hand on Keith’s shoulder as she leans back on the side of his chair. “So what brings you here now?”

I take in a large breath and begin telling them about the sleepwalking, about Rue, and the room she’s in. When I’m finished Laura shakes her head. “I don’t know a little girl named Rue.”

“We know most of the other groups around us and none of them would treat a little girl like that,” Keith said turning to Laura. “In fact if we knew of a group treating kids like that they wouldn’t last long.”

“We don’t personally know many of the others, witches, fae, and the such. But if a shifter girl was kidnapped we would have known, all the packs would know.” Laura said. I let out a sigh, I know they wouldn’t lie to me so I know what they’re saying is true. It’s just disappointing that they didn’t know anything. Even if they had known if she was kidnapped or not would have helped in a way. Now I don’t know if her parents know or just don’t care.

A thought popped into my head. “Maybe she was just a random girl and was turned into a shifter?”

Laura gives me a sad smile and shakes her head no. “Shifters are born, you can’t be turned into a shifter. Were-animals are only turned.”

“There’s both?” I ask feeling a little stupid, I thought if there was just one that was it.

Bjorn’s hand squeezes my thigh. “Yes there are both, but there are more shifters than were-animals, in a wide range of different animals. Were-animals are mostly wolves, bears, and a few big cats that I know of.”

“He’s right,” Keith said and pulls Laura into his lap. They were always touching, like me with Bjorn. “It’s much harder for them, and I doubt the girl is a were-animal. The change would kill a child or even a teen.”

There was so much I’ve learned just today, things my Blood hadn’t even thought of teaching me. Something we would have to work on because I needed to be on the same level as everyone. I needed to know the basics like there are both shifters and were-animals. At least I was learning this with Keith and Laura and not someone who would judge me for not knowing.

“We can ask around,” Keith says. “Other packs will want to know if there is a missing girl, they will also want updates.”

“I can keep you guys updated on her.” I agree.

There’s a knock on the door before it opens. My curiosity peaks at seeing the man who peaks into the room, it shouldn’t considering I’m in a room with all of my men. I can’t stop my thighs squeezing together though. This guy is the same height as Nathan, his body type is not much different his shoulders just a bit more muscular. His white and red Bulls jersey tank top gives me a great view of his shoulders and arms. There’s a gold chain around his neck, a silver hoop on either nostril and a flashy gold watch on his wrist. His arms are both sleeved up and his shoulders and neck to his jawline. His hair is shaved close on the sides and back showing more tattoos on his head, the hair on top is long, straight and black, shiny and wet looking like he’s either just showered or put a ton of gel in it. From his facial features, I would guess Hispanic, wider nose with a slightly rounder face, and thick lashes framing honey-gold-colored eyes.

“Emma.. er Luna this is Tank, our werewolf,” Keith said. That makes me look back to Keith, then back to Tank. A were-wolf? “Tank this is Luna, Vampire Queen and friend of the pack.”

“A vampire that’s a friend of a pack?” Tank’s voice has a slight accent to it, and he sounds completely confused. “That doesn’t happen.”

“It’s happening now,” Laura said waving Tank inside. He looks between us all, a suspicious look and frown on his face. He slowly steps into the room letting the door close behind him.

“Why am I in here?” Tank asks.

“I was thinking you could go with them,” Keith said and looks straight at me when he asks. “You can have non-vampire Blood right?”

My mouth drops open, Tank doesn’t seem all too happy about it as his fists curl into fists at his side. “I came here for a pack not to be served up for dinner.”

“You came here because you keep getting kicked out of packs, we were the only ones willing to take you in before HE took you,” Keith said. When he says HE, Tank’s hands tighten farther than loosen, his shoulders still tight.

“He was kicked out of packs before so you want him to come home with me?” I question, holding up a finger I also ask. “Also who is HE?”

Tank crosses his arms over his chest and I couldn’t help but watch the muscles under his tattoos flex. How can someone have such nice arms?

“Tank likes picking fights with pack members, they didn’t want someone so aggressive near children,” Keith said giving Tank a hard look. “We brought him in because he had run out of options besides joining HIS pack. The Beast lords pack, he is a man who takes in all the unruly shifters and were-animals to try to give them a chance before they have to be put down.”

I look between the three of them, Keith still giving Tank a hard stare and Laura had a look of pity. That was.. a real thing? There is a man who has a pack of ‘unruly’ shifters and were-animals too dangerous to be in a regular pack? And they want Tank to be one of my Blood?

“The last thing we need is infighting,” Bjorn speaks up and I’m grateful he said it. “Plus I don’t know how it would work, we are moving to our nest out of state soon, wouldn’t he need a pack?”

“You bond with your Blood right? Like on a deep magical sort of level?” Laura asks me and I nod slowly. “That bond would be in place of his pack bond. You would be his pack.”

“Do I get a say in this?” Tank asks seething, trying to hide the anger I knew how he was feeling.

“No,” Keith said the same moment I said. “Yes.”

“Go pack your bags,” Keith says to Tank. Tank doesn’t say anything as he turns and walks out almost robotically. I turn to Keith and I knew he could see the anger on my face. He held up a hand for a few seconds and then spoke. “I know his sister, a nice older woman who wants her brother to live. Tank can be aggressive, my pack is unsettled with him here, and as much as I want to help him my pack comes first.”

“Then you could understand that I want my Blood and nest to come first.” I shoot back and he cringes a little and shakes his head.

“I believe he needs a large change,” Laura said patting Keith’s arm. “He needs a woman who can keep up with him but also people around him who can handle when he wants to get out of hand.”

“What if I want kids?” I ask them.

“He’s never hurt a child,” Keith says quickly. “He tends to pick fights with more dominate pack members, full-grown men.”

“Just see if he fits with you until you leave, if it doesn’t work by then well take him back into the pack,” Laura says, lets out a sigh, and adds on. “I hate trying to push him off but I truly believe this will be good for him in the long run, and it could be good for you. Taking in a werewolf as Blood would help with relations with other packs. They will see you as more open, different from other Queens.”

That gave me pause. I hated the idea of forcing this man to come home with us, but if it was something that would help us with other packs I had to consider it. Looking at Nathan and Vinny I could tell their positions on it just from a glance. Vinny seemed to completely hate the idea, Nathan was more looking at me to see how I felt. He was going to roll with whatever I decided. Next, I look to Bjorn.

“I don’t like the idea of bringing in someone known to cause problems.” He said, he wraps his hand around my waist. That is probably my biggest issue, I don’t want a bunch of infighting. I don’t want to be responsible for someone who won’t listen. “What do you think of him?”

“That he’s hot,” I admit and I see Nathan crack a smirk. “But he looks like trouble, more than Caine.”

“More trouble than a demon?” Bjorn asks a little humor in his voice.

“Maybe we’ll just let Caine discipline him,” Nathan says it under his breath, just barely loud enough for me to catch.

“That would be fun to see,” I said making Nathan crack a bigger smile.

Bjorn shakes his head at us, I look at Keith and Laura. “I’ll only consider him for you guys, if he causes too much trouble I’m dropping him back off to you.”

Both of them seemed relieved by my saying that. It doesn’t last long because a sly smile breaks on Laura’s face. “So you’re thinking about kids?”