The White Wolf ||A Paranormal Romance Novel||

Mircea

The White Wolf’s guess had been correct. The topic of the Hunts had been left until last, but that didn’t mean what she thought it did. While she had assumed we left the most unimportant topic until last, it was quite the opposite. We solved the little things first, because that way we would get into a flow, everyone would trust each other and progress was made.

Leaving the big, controversial topics until last meant that there was already a rapport and those problems were more likely to get resolved in a calm manner. But I wasn’t sure if that method was really going to help with today’s topic of choice.

The room was eerily quiet as everyone took their seats. Unsurprisingly, Vali and her two advisers were here before everyone else, just as they had for every other meeting before this. She was taking her role seriously, not letting any of us question her intent to fix things.

I hadn’t spoken with her alone again since the chance meeting in the forest. Since she had started making me question everything that I had already thought. Made me think over every single action my father had ever taken, every move he ever made. She was right though, he wouldn’t let it go because of his fear of the wolves. It was deep-rooted, from generations and generations of fear and prejudice against them because of the simple fact that they could kill us without much of a thought, without any special weapons or circumstances like the human hunters we had faced had to. All they needed to do was get close enough to get their teeth or claws into our skin and we were screwed.

But that wasn’t good enough anymore.

The White Wolf was here.

And she wasn’t walking away with anything less than an ending to the Hunt.

“This will be our final meeting before the wrap-up tonight, followed by festivities.” Ianthe said, opening the meetings as she always did. “Due to it being Vali’s topic I would like to invite her to begin the conversation around the Hunts.”

“I already have.” The White Wolf said, her shoulders relaxed as she stared right at my father. The same as she had done for every other meeting of this Summit. She had made sure to sit across the table from him every single day, just to do her best to unnerve him with her stoic stare. “I have given you all of the information you need to understand that this doesn’t just affect me and my people, but everyone else’s here.” She said.

“But where is the proof you supposedly had for us? That the vampires are already killing us?” The Fae King, Adonis, asked. I watched carefully as Vali finally looked away from my father to look at the Fae, a smirk on her face.

“Would video evidence be enough for you?” She asked, hearing and addressing the doubtful tone in his voice.

“I would like to end this all before it even begins. There is no possible way that there is video evidence of this, because it simply never happened.” My father’s body was rigid as he spoke, almost as if I could push him and he would fall and shatter. Jackson moved behind the White Wolf, opening the cover of a tablet and moving to the Fae King first. I could hear the audio from across the room. We all could.

While it was hard to know exactly what was going on without visual it was easy enough to understand.

“Please... please... I’m not a wolf. I shouldn’t be here, I’m innocent. This isn’t-”

The pleading was cut off by metal singing through the air, through the familiar sound of blood hitting the ground, the gasps of whoever it was that had just been killed trying to get air into their lungs. The sound that sword had made let me know that they had been sliced through the throat, at least there wasn’t the tell-tale thud of a head hitting the ground without a body attached. A small mercy...

“Jackson, you can put it on the screen now.” Vali said, having specifically made sure to show the one person who was least likely to believe her story had seen it first. And judging from his wide eyes I knew what I was about to see on the gargantuan screen on the east side of the room. I heard the same pleading, the same metallic swing, the same gasping for life...

It was a fae.

All I could do was stare into the back of my father’s head, seeing how still he continued to sit there.

The lack of even a breath in the room meant that Vali had already won this fight. There wasn’t a possible way that my father could spin this to be in his favour, and there wasn’t any way that I would even try to help him.

“Do you need more proof? Because I have it.” The White Wolf said, my eyes turned to her as she nodded to Jackson. It was another video, this time a frail human was in the light of the full moon, a terrified look on his face as he was killed. The worst part of all of this... the videos were from cameras that were on the vampires person. Sitting around chest height.

“And before you even think to argue, Traian, that these aren’t vampires killing these people, that it isn’t during a Hunt... I would like everyone to look at the folders that Marcy handed out while you were all far too distracted by visuals of murder to even notice were put in front of you.” Vali said, and I looked in my arms to see a folder sitting on top of my tablet. Fuck. I opened it and immediately saw a zoomed in screengrab from the eye of the human we had just watched the slaughter of. In his glasses you could see the reflection of red eyes. Vampires were the only one’s who’s eyes turned red, especially during the Hunts and during moments of bloodlust.

“The date of these videos... it’s timestamped. I have a theory about why these videos even exist, but I might let you have a chance to explain it, Traian.” Vali said, her eyes locked on my father once more.

“How did you get these?” He asked, avoiding the topic. Fuck. This was my chance.

“I feel like telling you my Third has contacts everywhere should be enough for you. And I am enjoying the avoidance of responsibility-”

“The videos are a part of the process.” I cut her off, walking towards the table. I had to take what was being offered to me. A reason to throw Traian off of the throne without seeming like a manipulator, without needing to get approval and backup from everyone that was in this room. Life is made up of moments, a series of choices you make to get you to where you are and where you want to be. This was a moment where I was making the biggest decision I may ever have to make. If I didn’t do this, I knew that in a few weeks I would look back and wish I had don

I stared into Vali’s eyes, that turned gold as I said my next sentence.

“The videos are what make it competitive.”