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His brows furrowed and he huffed. “Well, perhaps it’s good you’ve managed to make it past the shield. We have some questions we’d like to ask without the shifters present.”

“Kian?” Camden yelled. “Everything okay?”

“How can I let him hear me?” I asked.

The older vampyr held his hand loosely around his throat and spoke. “Your companion is safe.”

“Yeah, he better be,” Camden grunted before settling down next to a tree. “You lay a single fang on his creepy-ass pale skin, and I’m killing everyone.”

His protectiveness struck a cord with me, and I poorly suppressed the small smile that sprouted on my lips. “Please ask me any questions you’d like.”

The vampyr gestured for me to follow him and led me through the crowd towards a town square. There was a long community table, roughly hewn from one large tree, in the center. Vampyrs with their servaglios and sons sat on benches, drinking and laughing. The teenager we’d followed, Paxe, sat with who I assumed must be his father, his face red from the stern scolding he was receiving. But the father then pat the boy on the cheek and gave him a smile.

A young boy, maybe around two or three, ran around the table and tripped, falling flat on his face and bursting into tears. A nearby fae female picked him up without a thought, cradling him while she continued her conversation with a male across from her, until another vampyr took him and wiped his tears.

Two vampyrs jokingly argued with a female, her laughter growing louder as she tried to prove her point, the females near her joining the discussion and backing her up until the whole group was gesticulating wildly and smiling.

Everyone looked so happy. Comfortable. Loving.

Several of the older, more important looking vampyrs ushered me towards the end of the table, where a few other females already sat. I expected they would likely get up for us but instead the males just moved around them, and then pointed to where I should take my spot.

“You look bewildered,” said the female next to me.

I turned to her and shrugged. “I suppose I am. The vampyrs in our world don’t socialize like this, we tend to keep to ourselves.”

The vampyr across from me frowned. “That sounds quite lonely.”

“There are people in our world, humans, who don’t understand magic or vampyrs. They’ve made us out to be monsters, so we had to hide and blend in to protect ourselves,” I explained.

The vampyr at the head of the table, the one who’d led me here, took a bite of a fruit and sighed. “Well, I think we can understand the need for that. I believe introductions are in order, then? I am Cavelli, the town’s leader. This is Elyndra, my Lunessa…”

The fae woman to my right with green-tinged skin and deer antlers nodded and smiled. Cavelli went down a few seats on each side, and then I cleared my throat. “And my name is Kian. As I explained to Cavelli earlier, I came here with a pack of alpha shifters from our world in order to take back their omega, the one from the prophecy. She isbonded to them.”

A vampyr named Zareilka spoke next. “We are all aware of the exodus of our two peoples to the other realm over the years. The king has hunted us both relentlessly, one for power and one for revenge. There are a number of refuges like this, hidden away in the mountains, but we don’t dare leave the safety of our shields for long.”

Small orbs of light like fireflies drifted lazily in the air around us, and a young boy set a bowl of a hot stew in front of me before scampering off.

I hadn’t wanted to admit how hungry I’d been, but I couldn’t stop myself from scooping hot spoonfuls in my mouth, burning my tongue in the process.

“Whoa, slow down there,” Elyndra laughed. “There’s plenty more where that came from.”

I nodded sheepishly and took a sip of the wine that had been poured for me. “I’m sorry, it’s been a long journey, and we don’t know what foods are safe to eat here.”

A female across the table, Ravena, gave me a pitying, motherly look. “You poor thing, and traveling with a shifter pack as well. I’ve heard alphas are a difficult type, so I’m sure it hasn’t been pleasant.”

They had been at first, and I supposed it was for good reason considering what my people had tried to do to them. But now? “They’re all right. Smell a bit, though.”

A chorus of laughter broke out down the table, and a small hand patted me from behind. I turned around to see a young boy holding out a wooden elk in one hand and a small leather saddle in the other. “Can you fix my alderbeast?”

I felt the others’ eyes on me and I nodded, taking the items from the child. He then crawled up and sat on my lap, watching me as I worked.

He reminded me of my little brothers, and a wave of homesickness washed over me. I’d only been gone a day and a half at most, but it was starting to feel like much longer.

“Do you have any young ones of your own?” Elyndra asked.

“No,” I replied, with a shake of my head. “Aisha and Jasmin want to wait a bit.”

“And the rest of your servaglio?” asked another vampyr, Jorvane.