Page 292 of Cruelly Bitten

“And what should we do with the rest of you?” Brandt demanded, the Calgary Clan Alpha clearly agitated. “We obviously can’t trust you.”

A few lycans grunted in agreement.

“We’re not asking you to,” Jace replied. “In fact, we don’t expect you to at all.” His gaze drifted across the stage to a burning pair of turquoise irises. “Khalid?”

“Hmm,” he hummed, silent for a long moment.

Then he hopped up on the stage.

“I think our solution is a fairly easy one,” he informed the group as he held up one of his fancy little devices.

Screens appeared throughout the room, causing several lycans to jolt in surprise. But I was becoming used to his parlor tricks, the display before me one I’d almost anticipated.

“Once upon a time, we met as an alliance to design our future,” he said, indicating the detailed map unfolding before us all. “We divided ourselves into eighteen regions and seventeen clans, the regions going to the vampire royals and the clans going to lycan alphas. It worked for us then. But this is no longer that time.”

The map began to change, names being crossed out by an invisible marker.

Silvano was replaced by Ryder.

AnXmarked out Lilith.

Helias, Ayaz, Jasmine, and Robyn soon followed suit.

Khalid glanced at the lycans, the demonstration seeming to pause. Then a line formed across Sofia’s name.

And a note appeared beneath Kostenka Clan denoting Yulian as the new clan alpha.

“So much change,” Khalid mused. “So much left unsettled.”

My name appeared then at the top with a question mark beside it.

“We need to create a new map,” Khalid went on. “And we need to decide if we want a global alliance governing all of the territories or if we want to simply govern ourselves.”

Several of the lycans shared glances, while some of the vampires arched their brows.

“How will blood and human lives be regulated without a global governance?” Claude asked, his eyebrow arched. “What will happen to the Blood Universities? To the Coventuses? And what about the immortal slaves?”

“The same could be asked about the breeding camps and moon chases,” the Stella Clan Alpha muttered.

“We’ll divide the human assets evenly among all the regions and clans—or whatever we create with the revised map—and close down the universities. Blood and human life, as well as the activities we use humans for, will be regulated amongst ourselves rather than dictated by an alliance,” Khalid explained.

“It’ll be similar to how the humans used to govern themselves, only with far less politics,” Cedric added from his seat. “At least in certain regions and clans.”

“The humans had global governance,” Claude pointed out.

“That they solely used when it suited them,” Cedric returned. “And it was only utilized by certain governments. Others ignored it entirely. I imagine we’ll form similar allegiances—however, between like-minded regions and clans.”

Khalid nodded. “Yes, we can trade, share resources, and allow border crossings, as well as everything else that comes with allying ourselves with another clan or region. But we won’t be required to adhere to one specific set of rules.”

“Rules created by the Blood Alliance, you mean,” Luka clarified. “You’re suggesting we dismantle what we’ve built and go our separate ways.”

“I’m suggesting we move on from what we built and focus on our independent nations for a while,” Khalid rephrased. “Weall have different wants and needs. Why are we conforming to a single set of rules?”

“To keep things equal,” Sahara told him. “To ensure our resources are not squandered. Toshareour food.”

“Equal?” Brandt scoffed. “The system was designed to benefit vampires. None of this has ever been for the benefit of my kind.”

“Agreed,” Thida echoed. “Cane never wanted to create immortal lycans, which was the only reason I’d aligned myself with him and Mira. But all of his notes revealed the truth—he only ever cared about immortal human slaves.”