Page 57

I f anyone had told me a month ago that I’d be lying in a luxury hospital suite, watching viral videos of my three ridiculously hot not actually brothers fighting dark vampires while a vampire researcher hovered outside my door like an anxious pendulum…

well, I’d have assumed they’d been reading too much supernatural romance manga.

Yet here I was, surrounded by enough medical crystals to open a new age shop, while Alan from the Blackthorn research team performed his daily ritual of almost-but-not-quite entering my room.

His tablet recorded everything from my breathing to my supposedly fascinating “power resonance patterns,” whatever those were.

“You can come in, Alan,” I called out, not bothering to look up from my phone. “Before you wear a groove in the floor.”

He practically teleported to the visitor’s chair, tablet clutched to his chest like a security blanket. “Prince Luca! Your readings this morning are extraordinary! The way your power interfaces with the medical crystals?—”

“Still suggests I should be discharged,” I finished hopefully. After a week of being trapped in this gilded cage, even Alan’s enthusiastic research babble had become oddly endearing. He reminded me of my old roommate Mike, who’d get equally excited about his biochemistry experiments.

My head still felt fuzzy when I tried to remember exactly how I’d ended up here.

The last clear memory I had was of that night in the brothers’ car, overlooking the city.

Holy vampire gods, that memory was crystal clear—Zane’s commanding kisses, the taste of Ryker’s storm-flavored blood, Archer’s wandering hands…

Heat flooded my cheeks just thinking about it.

I remembered the fever that followed, how my skin had felt too tight, too hot.

How I’d collapsed in my room, burning up with need and want and something else…

something that made no sense because I wasn’t supposed to have any powers yet.

I was barely twenty-one—practically a baby vampire.

But even if vampires manifested their abilities, it was usually just basic stuff like enhanced speed or strength.

Not whatever this was that made ancient vampires bow and research crystals go haywire.

But here I was, apparently leaking enough power to make Alan’s instruments short-circuit whenever I thought too hard about that night. About the brothers. About the way their scents made my fangs ache and my skin glow…

“Prince?” Alan’s voice snapped me back to the present. “Your power just spiked again. Should I call?—”

“If you call my brothers again because I had a mild power fluctuation, I will personally ensure that all your research crystals play nothing but K-pop for a month.”

He blanched. “That’s… oddly specific.”

“I learned from the best.” I grinned, thinking of Hunter’s creative threats.

The tech-savvy teen had been merciless during my recovery—when I tried to sneak out of bed during their visits, he’d threatened to hack every screen in my room to play nothing but those embarrassing K-pop idol videos where they act cute and baby-talk to the camera.

And when that didn’t work, he promised to make my phone automatically text the brothers every time I so much as twitched toward the door.

Between his digital surveillance, Sylvie’s puppy eyes, and Aunt Senna’s worried hovering, I’d finally surrendered to being the perfect patient.

“Now, help me figure out why everyone keeps bowing to me in the hallway. I found these viral videos…”

Alan’s tablet slipped in his suddenly nervous grip. “Videos? What videos? I mean, there might be some footage of the, uh, incident, but?—”

“These videos.” I turned my phone to show him the trending supernatural news feed. “Apparently, Dark Haven tried to invade New Vale? And there was some kind of kidnapping attempt on a vampire prince…”

I paused, trying to piece together my fragmented memories.

I remembered waking up in the hospital with Lady Helena fussing over me like a gothic mother hen, insisting I drink every drop of some ancient Blackthorn blood that shimmered like liquid rubies.

The brothers had been there, their power wrapping around me protectively while the Blackthorn researchers documented every breath I took.

Poor Alan had nearly fainted when I smiled at him—which, honestly, was kind of adorable in a nerdy vampire way.

Then the brothers had to leave for some urgent council meeting and after that…

nothing. Just strange dreams about an orb of pure light and then waking up here a week ago with three very intense, very overprotective alpha wolves who now treated me like I might float away if they blinked.

Since then, it had been a blur of worried family members and medical staff who treated me like I was made of spun glass. Something had changed—I could feel it in the way everyone looked at me, in the way the brothers hardly left my side. But no one would tell me exactly what happened that day.

I stared at the blurry screenshot again of someone who looked suspiciously like me being carried by Archer. “This was me, right?”

“Well, technically…” Alan adjusted his glasses, a sure sign he was about to start babbling scientific facts to avoid real answers. “The council’s official statement focused on the territorial violation aspects rather than the specific?—”

“And then there’s this,” I cut him off, scrolling to the most viral clip. “My brothers going full alpha mode on those Dark Haven vampires.”

I might have watched these videos hundreds of times in the past week.

For research purposes, obviously. Not because watching three massive wolves transform into my ridiculously hot brothers made my heart stop, or because their combined powers turned the battlefield into something out of a supernatural action movie.

And I definitely hadn’t spent hours replaying the part where Zane’s massive silver-white wolf, frost crystallizing in his magnificent fur, led the charge.

Or where Ryker’s dark-blond form crackled with storm energy that lit up the night sky.

And I absolutely hadn’t memorized the exact moment Archer’s golden form shifted mid-leap to catch me, his solar magic making him glow like some avenging angel.

The comments section, though… that made my fangs ache.

‘Those wolves! The Whitlock alphas are MAGNIFICENT in both forms!’

‘The way Alpha Archer shifted mid-leap to catch the prince… I’ve watched it 497 times. For science.’

‘That moment when their powers combined—frost, lightning, and solar light? DECEASED. Someone check my pulse!’

‘Can we talk about how protective they are of their prince? That growl when anyone got too close? HOT.’

‘The way they went from deadly wolves to deadly hot alphas? Supernatural genetics are just unfair.’

‘Did you see Alpha Zane’s face when he made that threat? I volunteer as tribute!’

‘Their combined howl at the end? Pretty sure I’m pregnant now.’

A low hiss escaped me at that last comment. My fangs definitely made an involuntary appearance.

“Those are, um, very creative interpretations of a serious security incident,” Alan offered diplomatically, though his tablet recorded my reaction with suspicious enthusiasm.

“And why exactly”—I scrolled to another clip that showed Alpha Blackthorn’s forces joining the fight—“is everyone suddenly treating me like I’m some kind of actual prince? The nurses practically bow when they bring my blood bags. Even the Council Elders have been visiting.”

Which was weird on so many levels. Lady Victoria Lionheart—whom I recognized from my late-night research binges on the council’s website as one of the founding elders and head of the Lionheart clan—had spent an hour discussing celestial tea ceremonies with me.

Lord Thanatos Shadowmere, the terrifying death angel elder whose bio had made me sleep with the lights on for a week, had personally delivered a shadow-wrapped gift that turned out to be an ancient grimoire.

And Lady Wei Cheng, the dragon elder whose achievements section on the council database read like a supernatural history book, had left me a set of protection scrolls that made Alan’s research crystals chime every time he got too close.

I’d spent countless hours studying the council archives since arriving in New Vale, trying to understand this world I’d been dropped into. But reading about these legendary figures was very different from having them visit my hospital room like concerned relatives checking on a favorite grandchild.

Alan’s tablet chimed urgently. “Oh! Would you look at that? Lady Helena needs these readings right away. Very important. Very scientific. I should?—”

“Alan.”

He froze halfway to the door.

“If you don’t explain what’s going on, I’ll tell Lady Helena about how you nearly fainted into her ancient blood fountain. Again.”

He spun around, his face a picture of horror. “You… you saw that?” He slumped back into his chair. “I thought everyone was distracted by the power readings at the time…”

“I see everything from this luxury prison cell.” I gestured around at the ridiculously opulent hospital suite. “Including how the brothers growl at anyone who comes near me. Even the doctors have to ask their permission to check my vitals now.”

Which was both adorable and slightly concerning. This morning, a nurse had dropped my blood bag—lavender straw included, because apparently being kidnapped didn’t change my aesthetic—and Zane had appeared out of nowhere like some frost-wrapped avenging wolf. The poor nurse probably needed therapy.

“That’s… perfectly normal alpha behavior,” Alan tried, his tablet recording everything with suspicious enthusiasm. “Given the circumstances and the unique power resonance patterns?—”