Page 294 of Cruelly Bitten

I gazed at Ismerelda, her green eyes shining. “Yes,” I murmured. “We’ll be staying here.”

The room fell silent.

“In the compound?” Jace finally asked, his surprise evident.

I pulled my focus away from my queen to address my cousin. “Perhaps notinthe compound. But in Rome. We want Italy.”

“Italy,” he repeated. “Only Italy? Or Sofia Region, too?”

“Helias Region?” Khalid added. “That could also be a possibility.”

“Just Italy,” I murmured.

“But there are very few resources in Italy,” Jace said slowly. “The country has been abandoned.”

“Thus giving us an opportunity to grow in our way,” I told him. “However, we’ll be keeping any of the humans who wish to stay, including the immortals my brother created. The lycans can go to whoever wants to attempt to rehabilitate them. And, of course, the Blessed Ones will continue to rest here.”

Several lycan alphas offered to take themutt unitsurvivors into their territories, making that an easy concession.

However, my claim on theimmortal blood bagssparked a whole new debate, with Sahara pointing out the unfairness of me being the only one with access to the blood slaves my brother had created.

But Jace was quick to point out that I didn’t have any other humans in this territory aside from the Vigils, thus saying it was a fair allocation of resources.

“He has all the blood virgins, too,” Sahara hissed.

“We’ve already decided that those will be evenly distributed among vampire kind,” Khalid reminded her. “Just like the humans enrolled in the Blood Universities.”

She sputtered and drummed up a few more excuses, but in the end, she lost.

“Italy is now Cam Region,” Khalid said after a nearly unanimous vote.

“Izzy Region,” I corrected him.

He glanced back at me, his eyebrow arched. But he smartly didn’t comment and instead retitled the area on the map.

The discussion moved into a list of potential royal candidates, the priority assigned by birthright.

Darius was at the top.

He declined a region, saying he was happy to remain in the northwestern United States with hisErosita.

His progeny were also on the list, as well as several other older vampires with ancient bloodlines.

“We’ll need to meet with them to decide their desire and placement,” Khalid said. “Until that happens, the vampire regions will remain under control of their existing sovereigns. Similar to how the clans fall to their alphas’ next of kin.”

Luka and Thida dipped their chins in acceptance, as did several other lycans.

A deal was then drawn up regarding the human resource distribution, roughly ninety percent of which was allocated to vampire regions.

“The lycans will keep any and all existing humans within their clans. Should you choose to continue breeding them, or devouring them at the moon chase, that’s your choice,” Khalid said. “But you will not be given more, unless it’s done so via a trade with another clan or region.”

More nods rippled through the room.

Khalid stared at the map he had pulled up in the center of the stage—the image matching the one on all of our screens. “I believe… that concludes our business.”

Silence fell, everyone exchanging glances as though this might be the last time we’d ever see one another.

No one said a word for several long minutes, the lycans and vampires taking in over a century’s worth of history. One hundred and eighteen years of brotherhood.