The Vampire's Luna

Mabel exhaled sharply and pulled her hand back. "Yeah, right. Forgot about that bit," she muttered, her humor bone-dry. Stuck with him. The Alpha King. No woman in her pack could have imagined such a fate.

"Don’t worry," Kyllian said, watching her carefully. "The Vampire King is working on it already. You do not have to live with the burden of protecting the goddess for too long."

"Thank you again," she said.

"Anything for the goddess."

Mabel chuckled. "Now I feel inconsequential," she teased.

"Next to the goddess, we all are."

They both laughed then. Neither of them realized it, but intimacy was already beginning to thread itself through their half-smiles, their clumsy jokes.

*****

Councilman Richard sat stiffly in a chair at a rundown clinic perched at the very boundary of Blood City. His fingers tapped nervously against his thigh as he waited, every second stretching into eternity. He found himself muttering silent prayers to the goddess, to the ancestors, even to the walls if they were listening—anything divine that might prove Isolde’s claims false.

Because that’s all this was, wasn’t it? Another scheme. Another trap. Richard had seen women throw themselves into the fire for less than a crown. Who wouldn’t want to be queen of Blood City? To stand beside the most powerful monarch of the age, to have her name etched into history books as the mother of royalty? Of course Isolde was lying. Of course this was just another desperate plot by a woman too cunning for her own good.

But when the doctor returned, Richard’s heart sank into the pit of his stomach. "Councilman," the physician said. "The young woman is indeed pregnant. With a trueblood royal."

He blinked, waiting for the punchline, for some mistake, for the doctor to smirk and confess it was all a bad joke. But the truth stared him down, and with it came the slow, suffocating weight of inevitability.

Richard’s mouth went dry. He had dreaded this outcome. Now he would have to bring this before the council. Now he would have to tell them there was another royal heir on the way. Another child who would complicate succession.

He closed his eyes for a long moment, exhaling through his nose.

Isolde joined them minutes later and they left the doctor’s office. Richard opened the car door with a stiff hand, his mind still reeling from the physician’s words. Isolde was carrying the king’s child.

The drive back was quiet at first. Richard focused on the road while Isolde’s eyes glittered. Her lips, painted the shade of ripe berries, curled into a smile. She turned to him then.

"What’s next, Councilman Richard?" she asked.

Richard swallowed. "Nothing," he answered. "We wait for the child to be born. Then we move the child to the palace."

"What do you mean move the child? Are you saying you want to take my child away from me?"

Richard finally looked at her. "The queen is going to raise the child as hers," he explained.

"Over my dead body!!!" Isolde shouted, the pitch of her voice rattling the small, enclosed space. Her hands shook, her eyes burned with tears. "I thought you were on my side!"

Richard pinched the bridge of his nose. He was tired. "I am on the side of the royal family," he said firmly. "That family includes the queen...and your unborn child. Do you truly think you can take on the queen of Blood City? A werewolf princess whose veins carry war itself? Fighting has been injected into her blood from birth. Do you want to pit yourself against that?"

The fire in Isolde’s eyes dimmed, her rage folding in on itself. Slowly, she lowered her hands, her fingers trembling as if her strength had been drained in an instant. "I realize I have no power, Councilman Richard," she whispered, shifting into the role she wore so well—that of the fragile victim. Her lashes fluttered, her lips trembled, and she turned her face slightly away. "But I am going to be a mother. The king has already been taken from me—you want her to take my child too? The only source of joy I might have in my miserable, undead life?"

"Royals cannot be raised outside of the palace, Isolde. What would you have me do?" Every royal was an asset, a jewel to be guarded. The council would never allow one to be raised in the shadows, no matter how pitiful or desperate the mother’s plea.

Isolde sat up straighter. "I go wherever my child goes," she hissed. "I will raise my child by myself. And when the time is right, when he is strong enough to protect himself, I will leave. I am not putting the life of my child in the hands of the queen. The queen who I told you threatened my child."

The venom in her voice when she said the queen was unmistakable. Richard caught it, and it made him bristle. He couldn’t ignore how convincing she sounded. Could Luna really have threatened her? He doubted it.

"I will speak to the king and then get back to you," Richard finally said in resignation.

"Thank you," she whispered. Her lashes lowered, her lips trembled just so.

*****

Thessa didn’t understand what was going on with Morvakar. The man had vanished. She feared he had gone in search of the sorcerer who crafted the cursed necklace. The thought chilled her.

She decided to go to the queen. If anyone knew where Morvakar had gone, it would be Luna. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Thessa entered the grand parlour after being announced.

Queen Luna sat regally.

"Doctor Thessa, thank you for allowing me to stay at your house last night."

"Yes, Your Highness," Thessa said quickly, bowing her head. Gathering courage, she stepped closer. "Actually, I was wondering if you knew where Morvakar is."

"He isn’t back yet?" she asked, her brow arching in suspicion.

Thessa’s hands wrung together. "Where did he go?"

"He came to the werewolf kingdom to sort out an issue with Magnus." Luna’s gaze flicked toward the prince.