Page 30 of Those That Defy the Realm

Cocking my head and lifting my paw, I invite him to end the vampire I’ve left as not much more than mincemeat with a heartbeat.

Ty doesn’t accept, however. Instead, he nods, giving me the green light to end the male that hurt Henry. I take great pleasure in closing my teeth around his neck and shaking him like a chew toy until his head comes free. Henry even helps by holding his torso still with a foot to his mangled chest.

There’s more talking, and the vampires drink some blood Rory practically forces down their throats, then we’re moving back outside. It seems my pack and Ty’s have done well. There’s little loss on our side, only one vampire who’d defected from Adicious’s pack.

My wolves come over to check that I’m not hurt, but honestly, I’m carrying the least injury. My side feels badly bruised now the adrenaline is wearing off, and I vaguely remember the dickhead I fought getting a couple of decent hits to my chest, but I’ll heal before long.

Emmerson is limping, possibly a fractured femur, Parker has a bloody tear in his ear, and Tally looks exhausted and bruised but has all her bones intact.

Shifting, I debrief them and await instructions. Ty and Rory are in charge now, and whilst both seem a little bewildered with the number of supernaturals seeking their orders, they start to prioritise and delegate. My pack and I begin sorting bodies and assisting the injured to get the blood they need to heal.

I want to talk to Henry so badly now that I’m in my human form but there are far too many ears around. To say my obsession with him has come back full force now I’m once again in his presence would be an understatement. Seeing him under attack certainly broke the chains around the crush that I’d stuffed into a box in the bottom of my chest, and now it’s pumping around my heart, making itself known every time our eyes lock as we begin to clear up the murder scene around us.

His arm has thankfully started to heal from the mouthfuls of blood he’s drank. The urge to offer him mine straight from my veins is one I have to ignore. At least until we’re alone. Not that the odds of that are very high. I have to settle with keeping him in my sights and exchanging a few words here and there.

When there is finally a lull in activity and a chance for me to engage with Henry looks promising, the tatted mountain of a male vampire who was re-introduced to me as Atlas, shouts “Stop!”

Honestly, I never would’ve recognised him. Not that I’d seen that much of him but he was part of Ty’s pack before the war. He’s much bulkier now, and the tattoo sleeves are new as well. I was only barely more than a pup, so beyond Ty and his parents, I couldn’t remember many of their wider pack.

“We have company,” he yells, eyes locking on the house, or most likely the driveway on the other side of it.

Ah, they finally showed.

Rolling my eyes, I seek out my pack and signal them to gather from the various areas of the outdoor space we’re spread out over.

“It’s the authorities,” Mitch says, another vampire I’ve made the acquaintance of.

“How would you know?” Aurora asks, and the blood drains from each of the vampire's faces in panic.

“Yeah, how would you know?” I repeat, bewildered but not scared like the rest of them. I probably should’ve come cleaner sooner but seeing as the fight had already broken out by the time we got here there hasn’t been much time to divulge the information.

“You need to go!” Ty snaps at me, thinking that the ramifications will be dire for us all but in particular for my entire pack, not just the ones with me here.

“Wait,” I say as Aurora shoos us. “It’s fine. We didn’t get a chance to explain it to you. We’re allowed to be here.”

“Since when?” Ty hisses as Mitch’s eyes light up and he says, “It went through didn’t it?”

I give Mitch a confused look as Ty orders everyone into the house, including my pack. I shoot them a look to obey but refuse to leave myself, instead trying to reassure Ty. My mother has been hard at work for the last two weeks and we only got the news the day before I left that her scheming had come to fruition. Her plans were much more intricate and further along than I assumed, it was utterly mindblowing when I finally passed her test to be let in on the full extent of the pack politics.

Things all get very dramatic over the next hour. A Fae detective unit turns up, one which secretly has been working on reestablishing the vampires on Froan after my mother found out that they were investigating their existence, not to kill them but to offer them a sort of asylum.

Mitch is a surprise that we weren’t aware of. Turns out he is one of the detectives and went as far as getting himself fangs to work on the project. Kudos to him honestly, that is commitment to the part.

The head of the unit, Detective Chief Superintendent Morris, explains how Froan has managed to win political independence from the continent. And how that means the law should be changing soon to give the Froan government the jurisdiction to remove the death penalty for all vampires with their citizenship.

It’s all under the guise of them taking power of their own nation, claiming the island is different from the mainland, but this is huge and will allow Ty and Aurora to live in relative safety. And it might allow for us wolves to visit from time to time so long as the federal government doesn't find out.

I can tell it’s a lot for the vampires to process but they all seem to relax the more the conversation goes on, especially when they get reassurance that the agents are also going to turn a blind eye to all the bodies strewn over the lawn.

Henry steps up and gladly offers his services as a researcher and academic. The way his shoulders hunch slightly and his cheeks blush a beautiful rose colour as agent Morris informs him of how his publications helped them form parts of the new laws, is utterly adorable. And it reminds me of how his skin flushes as he climaxes.

And now I’m the one fidgeting, trying to subtly shift my growing cock before anyone notices I’m popping a semi in this very tense meeting of sworn enemies.

Thankfully, the discussion is coming to a close and everyone starts moving as we resume our task of getting rid of a dozen bodies and clearing up a crime scene that looks more like a slaughter house than a ranch.

The detectives end up staying to help with the clean-up and to continue discussions. I get pulled into it as well and am invited to stay for the foreseeable whilst these initial decrees are signed. They can offer me a month, which after checking with my parents and the three wolves here with me, I agree to. I’m the son of the alphas after all, I wouldn’t be allowed to remain here without some of our enforcers as protection. Luckily, all three don’t have pressing reasons to return. My mum also gives me the reassurance that I can take on this colossal task. That she trusts me.

Still, it should be slightly nerve wracking. This is by far the most responsibility I have ever taken on in my life. My mother expects me to come back with some trade agreements at the least and several loopholes to our treaty written into law if possible. But the gut twisting feeling I should be experiencing is nowhere to be found because I’m buzzing with excitement for an entirely different reason.