Chapter 64
Arthur glared at Tom as he panted. His shoulders heaving and his face contorted with anger. Perhaps he was out of line, but he meant it and he wouldn’t take it back. To bow to a vampire, to accept her as luna would make a mockery of every comrade and loved one he’d lost in the war.
“I refuse to serve a luna with vampire blood,” Tom turned. “Mark me, Your Majesty, she’ll reveal her true colors in the end! She is likely the traitor among us!”
Arthur glared at Tom, “I had two demands, Tom.”
He froze and looked at him, eyes wide and shocked, “You would abandon your throne, your birthright, your family’s legacy for a vampire?”
Daphne put a hand on Arthur’s shoulder, squeezing gently to keep him in place. She could feel his fury roiling from his shoulders. Tom didn’t seem to understand what kind of buttons he was pushing, or maybe he did and thought they had such a good relationship that it didn’t matter.
Daphne knew better.
“Arthur, please calm down…”
“I had two demands,” Arthur repeated. “Watch what you say about my wife.”
Tom glared at her, “And if she turns out to be the traitor? Then what of your demands?”
“She isn’t,” Arthur hissed through his clenched teeth. His body trembled with the need to attack, but he held back.
“Arthur, please,” Rex said with a sigh. “Be reasonable.”
“You be reasonable!” Arthur growled. “It’s Daphne! Blood relations or not, she’s my mate! You’re asking me to turn my back on the one gift the moon goddess has given me? How is that reasonable?”
Daphne’s eyes burned with tears as the tension filled the air. She knew Arthur loved her. She didn’t know much about the history between werewolves and vampires. She knew Arthur didn’t either and she knew that right now it didn’t matter.
Tom huffed and turned away, leading most of the group away from the house. Rex took one last suspicious look at Daphne before leaving. Blade remained there, rubbing his head.
“I will… go see what I can do,” Blade said and looked at Daphne. “You are welcome to stay as you always have been.”
Daphne’s eyes burned and she nodded with gratitude. Arthur drew her close to him and met Blade’s gaze.
“Thank you, Blade.”
He nodded and hurried after the group. His stomach churned at what Tom was thinking and what he was going to say. Tom was one of the only werewolves who had survived the war and the collapse of the werewolf kingdom. He knew things about vampires that no one else did, but that didn’t mean he was necessarily right.
Daphne was a sweet, innocent young woman. He would see reason, one way or another.
Tom marched away and called a meeting of everyone who had been at the meeting and the alphas who had been left behind in one of the buildings closer to the training pitch. He looked out the window to where the burned bodies were still piled in a blackened heap. The scent of the smoke had soaked into the wood of the building, but at least it had remained standing.
He shuddered, hearing her cold voice at the back of his mind.
Blood will run through your streets and flood your rivers just as it had before…
He remembered General Steward from the days that Dean led the armies. Then, they’d called her the Queen’s Sword. She was the fiercest general of the vampire queen’s forces. Whole packs had been destroyed by her unit alone with minimal casualties on her side. They had nearly lost the war because of her, but she had disappeared from the battlefield around the time the queen had been reported missing. Without her leadership, the tide of the war had begun to turn in the werewolves’ favor. Where had she been all this time? Was their queen dead or was it a ploy?
Vampires were sneaky, conniving, and pure evil as far as he was concerned. No one understood what the wars were like because they were all too young to have witnessed it, but Tom knew and he would never be able to face King Dean and Luna Sabina in his afterlife if he allowed their son to be the reason for another war.
He shook his head; it was all a mess. To have Daphne, the key to keeping Arthur in the kingdom and on the throne, mixed up in this and a vampire of all things was a blow he hadn’t anticipated and couldn’t readily think of a way around.
One thing was for sure, she and Arthur had to be separated. A vampire could not sit as luna. He needed to start arranging to expose Arthur to female werewolves. He thought of his daughter first and several other members of his pack who would be suitable. They were just as pretty as Daphne. Surely, one of them would catch his eye. He was a young man. Stubborn and headstrong, but he wasn’t old enough to control his passions.
It shouldn’t be hard.
“What happened?” Diana asked.
“Daphne is the granddaughter of the vampire queen. They want her returned to them in exchange for stopping the attacks,” Tom answered.
“His wife is a vampire?”
“Isn’t it obvious then who the traitor is? She should be executed!”
“We have no proof,” Rex said, sitting with a mug of ale in his hand. “To think I’ve had a vampire in my pack for all this time…”
“You can’t blame yourself,” Tom said, looking at his reflection in the mirror. “Vampires are a cruel and unnatural race of creatures. Sneaky, conniving, more ruthless than any werewolf… the undead. She fooled everyone, even His Majesty and she’s sunk her claws into him so deeply…”
His skin crawled thinking about how he’d asked Daphne to convince Arthur to stay on the throne. How she had deceived them all into bowing their head and calling her luna.
If Luna Sabina could see them, she would be ashamed and furious that a vampire had taken her place.
“What do we do?”
“Arthur won’t part from her easily.”
“Watch her,” Tom said. “If we catch her, he’ll have no choice but to accept the evidence.”
“He thinks she’s his mate,” Rex said. “How the hell do we get around that?”
“He’ll reject her,” Tom said firmly.
Blade gasped, “You can’t be serious.”
Tom turned and glared at him, “What other choice do we have?”
Blade shook his head, “You have no idea what that could do to him. What it will do to him to reject her.”
“It must be done,” Tom said. “For the good of the kingdom.”
“Even if you managed to convince him to do it, how long would it take for him to kill us all?” Blade asked.
“We’ll have him bond with someone else as soon as possible.”
“You’re not listening—“
“And you don’t know what those monsters are capable of!” Tom hissed. “It must be such a privilege to have been born after the war was over. They revel in bloodshed. You think she's sweet and innocent because she’s been playing the part. Just watch how quickly and easily she will turn on us all!”
It had happened before, vampires masquerading as humans in the time when humans were also protected by the throne.
Blade shook his head, “You’re treading on dangerous ground, Tom, and I can’t be a part of it.”
“Blade—”
“No,” Blade shook his head and looked at Rex. “I have obeyed your orders as my alpha for years. I have always trusted your judgment, but in this, you are wrong. You have no proof that Daphne knew or has had any connection with the vampires since they came to Sharp Armor. More than that, she loves him just as much as he loves her.”
He went to the door, “Trying to tear them apart is not something I can participate in. You’d be better off talking with them than conspiring like traitors.”
Tom took in a sharp gasp as Blade left the building and headed back to his old house. He wished this was all less complicated, but it didn’t seem like anything about the last war or dealing with vampires would ever be easy.
Mamie was waiting for him when he reached the house. She threw her arms around him and pulled him down for a lingering kiss. He groaned, holding her close and savoring the feel of her in his arms.
“I love you.”
“I love you,” Blade smiled, bumping his nose against her. “What was that for?”
“For believing in what you’ve seen and not letting their panic take you too.”
Blade nodded and looked up at where Arthur was sitting with Daphne. She was curled up to him, wrapped in a blanket and seemingly asleep.
Blade closed the door behind him.
“Do what you believe is right, Your Majesty,” Blade said. “I just ask that you consider what will happen in the coming days.”
Arthur swallowed and nodded, “Thank you, Blade.”
