Read with BonusRead with Bonus

Chapter 3 - A ruined birthday!

Nadia

THE DRAGONS WENT TOO FAR, and the attack soon turned into a full-out war between their two regions. For two years, the vampires assisted the ghosts until finally the dragons returned what they took and it was all over. I thought it was really childish, but dragons loved collecting rare things!

In the meantime, I had been training my butt off to show my father I was ready for whatever he threw my way. The war between the dragons and ghosts was over before I could get involved, but it didn’t matter. I had another target, but first … I had my big birthday coming up. It didn’t matter which species you were. Everyone knew that when you turned eighteen, you could finally find out who your destined mate was.

I was really hoping that it wasn’t anybody I knew! I would be absolutely shattered if one of the vampires were my mate. Since I was the only eighteen-year-old that could age in our kingdom … All eyes were on me! I thought turning sixteen and meeting my wolf would be stressful, until the arrangements for my eighteenth birthday started!

Why did we have to have a special destined mate? Why did we have to have a mate at all? Vampires don’t have children! Okay, so sometimes I forgot I wasn’t one of them … I loved the dress my father had made for me and as I walked into the ball room on his arm, I felt amazing. People were having fun and I was just beginning to relax when the alarm sounded.

Our borders were being breached! I knew those mutts had been too quiet for too long! I looked at my father and saw sadness in his eyes for a moment, but I didn’t have time to waste. Shifting, I quickly made my way out of the castle and over to where the reports were coming in from. I could smell them as I moved closer, but they weren’t attacking!

“Sweetheart, stay back!” My father appeared beside me and I frowned. This was what I had been training for my entire life! Why wasn’t he letting me just take care of the damn wolves?! I hung back a little but I was unable to see them when my father joined our guards. I could hear what they were saying, but even moving a little closer, I couldn’t see the mutts! It was frustrating!

“What do you want, Angelo?!” My father hissed. The sound of bones cracking and moving echoed throughout the forest and I wondered if the wolf called Angelo had actually shifted! The tension was so thick in the air I felt as if I was choking on it! I finally saw the naked upper body of the wolf called Angelo as he stepped out of the shadows.

“You know why we are here, Sebastian! You made us think she was dead all this time!” What the hell was he talking about?! My heart was pounding. The silence was deafening as I twitched my ears to hear what they were saying.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” My father sounded strange. He didn’t sound as confident as he always did and I took one step closer. A small branch cracked under my heavy paw and all eyes turned in my direction. When a wolf stepped out of the shadows my heart stopped! It looked exactly like me! The only difference was in the eyes. I had luminous blue eyes and it had brown eyes.

I knew from the books I found in the library that werewolf coats were DNA. Your coat was similar to that of your parents, but that wolf couldn’t possibly be … My eyes snapped at my father and I saw intense sadness in them. I wanted to shift and ask him a million questions, but suddenly I didn’t feel safe! Not with any of them!

“You took our daughter and made us think that you killed her!” Angelo spat at my father. I was shocked into silence. Closing the gap between me and the rest of them, I slowly stalked the wolf that had stepped out of the shadows. Was Angelo my father and this other wolf my real mother?! It couldn’t be! My father wouldn’t lie to me! He took care of me my entire life!

Before I could react, my father attacked Angelo, who shifted in the blink of an eye. I felt torn as soon as I noticed Angelo’s luminous blue eyes! I couldn’t let them go to war! Sebastian had been my father all my life, but it was clear these wolves were my biological parents! I missed their first attack by a split-second and jumped in between them before they could kill each other. My entire world had been turned upside down and I needed to find out what the hell was going on before anybody else got hurt!

“STOP!!” I had to hope they would accept what I was about to ask. “You both say that you love me! I need time to figure out what is going on here!” My eyes snapped from one to the other. I needed to give my father the benefit of the doubt first. It was very possible I wasn’t their daughter. We were from one original pack after all. Deep down, I knew they were my parents, but I wasn’t ready to admit it to myself just yet. This was the worst thing that could have happened on my birthday!

“You can’t kill each other! I need some time to think!” I knew I was going to break the heart of the wolves, but my home was in the castle. “Give me a couple of days just to process what happened here tonight. Can we agree to a truce until I’ve made my decision?” My arms were still in the air and I had completely forgotten I was standing there naked in front of everyone!

I didn’t care! They had to agree to the truce or they could lose me!

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter