Chapter 29
Roman’s POV
It had been two days since our last meeting, we all tried finding information on Skylar, but it somehow seemed like she fell from the face of the earth. Natalia now was still the only one who was sick, and it got worse. There have been new cases but before we could even help them the virus got the best of them, and they had all passed away. The body count is now twelve.
I heard a knock on the door and walked over to open up and saw it was Riley, “Mr. Snyders called in an emergency meeting,” She informed me. I nodded and stepped outside. I saw Tallulah walking over but when she saw we were already walking over she turned on her heel and walked to knock on someone else’s door.
It was only until we all settled down at the table uncle Tristan arrived, I could tell by the look on his face that the news he was about to deliver wouldn’t be any good.
“Did something change? Did you find something?” Luca asked worriedly and desperately. A solution, cure, is always the first thing that pops to his head, wanting to help out his mate.
“I did… Roman was right to look into Skylar,” Uncle Tristan sighed, resting both hands on the table. It was clear he had everyone’s attention at the moment, yet it seemed like he was keeping the tension.
“She’s the one behind this?” Tessa frowned as if she had been expecting something different.
“Any idea about her whereabouts?” Luna Marie bombarded him with questions too.
“Oh yeah, I do,” Uncle Tristan scoffed, “Skylar has mated with a vampire,” He announced. Nothing in the world could’ve prepared us for what he had said.
“Cross-mating? Is that legal?” Theo frowned, the look on his face wasn’t exactly a pretty one. He was already busy scribbling down things on his notes. I looked over at Riley who looked at me with a concerned look on her face, not one of us would’ve ever thought she’d end up mating with a vampire. It seemed so wrong.
“It’s not against the law but hasn’t been done before,” The queen pointed out in a mumble.
“Why would she do that?” Alpha Giovani asked.
“It doesn’t just end there,” Uncle Tristan informed us.
“They’re the alliance, aren’t they,” Ayla raised a brow at him.
“How—yeah. Skylar is working together with the vampires,” Tristan sighed, rubbing his temple.
“The vampires are in Europe; how did all of this happen?” Luca wondered.
“I think the vampires want their land back, over the years their ground got smaller and smaller,” I responded, knowing if the roles were reversed we’d want the same thing too.
“How do you know all of this, if you don’t mind me asking,” Alpha Giovani turned into Uncle Tristan. His question caught all of our attention and made us wonder the same thing.
“Ainsley wasn’t the only one I saved from the dungeon, there was a witch too and she finally paid back the favor,” Uncle Tristan explained.
“Aren’t they supposed to be dead?” Tessa asked since we were later learned they had died at the hands of humans. That’s why we could never be ourselves in front of humans.
“There are very few witches left that roam this earth and she’s one of them,” Uncle Tristan admitted, being the previous king would mean he knew things others didn’t and I was sure that wasn’t all he knew.
“Do we know where the vampires and Skylar are?” Theo asked the most important question.
“They should’ve infiltrated the states already, if they want a war they can win, the kingdom will be the target,” Tallulah pointed out, looking over at her father.
“Are you sure?” Luna Marie asked.
“It makes perfect sense, if they want more land they’d have to take it up with the leader, in this case, the queen. Take her kingdom down and you're in charge now,” I explained, shrugging. It was all tactics that played an important role here.
“Well now that they know their target, we can prepare better now right?” Tessa concluded.
“Theoretically,” I pointed out.
“I don’t think the kingdom will be the only target, our pack will also be one,” Tessa said, scribbling on the piece of paper in front of her.
“Why do you think that, Tessa?” Uncle Tristan frowned.
“It’s Skylar and it seems she might have it out for us. We were the ones who kicked her out,” Tessa explained, her reasoning made quite a lot of sense.
“Tessa’s right. That’s why Erin was a target too,” The queen replied.
“Weren’t they like best friends?” Theo frowned, it was known to them that Erin, Angelica, and Skylar were seen together almost always.
“Keyword: Were. I was given her journal in which I found out you were innocent but there somewhere she wrote about her falling out with Skylar and it wasn’t pretty. Skylar asked her for help, but Erin didn’t want to help her out anymore,” Tallulah explained.
“Well, shit…” I mumbled, it made sense.
“That explains why she was a target,” Tessa remarked.
“Sorry to interrupt but there’s been some new data,” Ayla came walking through the door, piles of files in her hand.
“Is Natalia okay?” Luca asked worriedly, reaching for the file she handed over.
“For now she is, I’m afraid it won’t be for long though,” Ayla mumbled, handing me one of the files.
“What do you mean?” Theo frowned, blue eyes focused on his mate.
“These are the new reports,” She informed us, resting the palm of her hands on the table as she waited for us to read these.
“Her blood keeps getting drained? How?” Tristan asked, reading it over again, trying to make sense of it.
“I’m not sure how they did it,” She seemed confused, tired. Ayla had been working on this for quite some time already.
“Beta, you can fix this,” Riley nudged me, raising a brow at me. I narrowed my eyes on her, I didn’t want to start this conversation but now it was too late.
“He can?” Luca asked, a twinkle of hope in his eyes.
“Do you think?” I raised a brow at her, it seemed like a stretch. The thought had crossed my mind before, but I didn’t think to actually do it or that it would even work.
“Beta, that plant and its water helped before and it will again this time. That might be the cure,” Riley explained, she seemed to be full of hope about this.
“What is she talking about?” Tallulah frowned everyone’s eyes on me now.
“A little boy once had the same problem with his blood and I went to go find this plant and the water of the stream nearby was supposed to help too,” I explained. All I could think of was how happy the father was when he heard his child would still live. To this day I get his famous chicken lasagna on Easter and Christmas.
“Did it help?” Alpha Giovani questioned.
“Why didn’t you tell us about that earlier?” My father asked in an annoyed tone.
“It did help, and I didn’t mention it because the bloodwork had different results before,” I answered, mimicking Luca’s tone as I answered his question.
“You have to go again,” Riley said, her words seeming more like an order, however.
“Riley, I told you before that place is hell on Earth, not to mention a dangerous trip,” I whisper-yelled, I meant every word I just said about the place. There’s a reason nobody goes or barely knows about it. It’s because no one returns to tell its tale.
“You’re the only one who made it there and came back alive, Roman, this is something only you could do,” Riley pointed out, standing still by what she said and wanted. I forgot how persistent she could be.
“I don’t—” I was in the middle of saying when Luca said, “Don’t let your mother die over this.”
“She’s not—” I sighed then heard Tessa’s plea, “Romie, please don’t let mom die. Riley said you can do it.”
“It will also create our cure, Roman,” Riley tried sweetening the deal.
“Tessie—” I wanted to decline but the look on her face stopped me from doing so, not to mention the way the other’s judged me. “Fine,” I sighed.
“I’ll accompany you,” Tallulah established. I chuckled, thinking she was joking for some odd reason, but she seemed dead serious.
“No, don’t you need to prepare your people for war?” I turned down her ‘idea’ and reminded her of her tasks.
“I shall leave the preparation notes behind for my father to take care of,” The queen already started writing something down.
“And why exactly should I bring you there?” I raised a brow at her. “It’s no little girl’s playground, your royal highness,” I informed her, her title rolling off my tongue mocking.
“You cut that shit off right now,” Tallulah slammed the pen on the table and pointed her finger at me, “I am still your queen and need to be treated with respect.”
“Did I do something wrong?” I cleared my throat, “I avoided death thrice there, and taking someone else would only make it much more dangerous,” I shrugged. Surely it made perfect sense.
“This time you’re not going for some droplets of water for a little boy. You’ll be needing to get more and two people are better than just one,” Tallulah rolled her eyes.
“I have no problem taking you with me, just know I won’t be responsible for your life,” I gave in, she was the queen after all and if she wanted to come I wouldn’t be able to stop her. I just needed to be clear now that I didn’t want to be responsible for her.
“I didn’t expect you to,” She rolled her amber eyes at me. We were both like children at this table, everyone around us just sat still and waited for it to pass by.
“Good,” I crossed my arms and looked away from her.
“Good,” She mumbled back. After a few moments of silence, she finally spoke up and began splitting the tasks and giving orders, “Okay… Luna Marie, you will help my father with our army once the time comes. Miss Baker, I’ll need you to get a hold of your alpha so we can discuss things. Alpha Giovani, you take charge of the medical team with Ayla. Theo, you will have to enforce better protection for your pack,” Everyone listened to their part of the job and gave her a nod for confirmation.
“What am I supposed to do?” Tessa asked when she didn’t hear her name coming up. I looked over at Tallulah, hoping she wouldn’t give Tessa anything too dangerous. I knew she was a big girl and could handle herself but that didn’t mean I wanted her to risk her life.
“You and Luca help Theo out. You know your own grounds better and know exactly how and where to defend,” She ordered.
“Sounds good,” Luca and Tessa said.
“Let’s get to it then,” Uncle Tristan stood up, ending the meeting.