Page 7

chapter Six

Enzo

T he following night, I entered the bustling cafeteria. I was running late because of some work stuff. I wanted to get here in time to warn Phaedra and the others about the vamps coming.

Even though I spent last night with Nadia, the leeches’ words about those slave masters stayed with me. How dare she think our situation is anything like that? We are the oppressed victims, not the vampires. We’re just fighting back now. I was going to show her just how much restraint we had when it came to them.

The cafe was full of the unmated members of our pack. Usually, the mated pairs ate at home. Sometimes they’d join us.

“Enzo, over here,” Zyion calls out. He’s standing at the back of the cafeteria, where Phaedra and a few other female wolves are serving the food.

I hurry over to them. Before I can say anything, they ask questions.

“Any news?” Zyion asks hopefully.

Everyone is waiting for something that will get those two kicked out.

“No, still nothing.” I’m disappointed to have to report this.

“Don’t worry,” Phaedra says. “They’ll mess up. It’s in their nature.”

“How have they been eating?” Zyion asks with a grimace.

“They hunt deer at night,” I tell Zyion what I’ve witnessed. “Plus, Miko told Chayton they’ve had groceries the two weeks he’s gone by. One of the vamps even had the audacity to offer him something to eat.”

Zyion growls, and Phaedra turns her nose up.

“Disgusting,” Phaedra sneers. “I hope Luna isn’t eating her food. She came in for her twelve-week checkup yesterday. I checked her thoroughly for bite marks.”

“You think she’s feeding off our Luna?” I can feel Zyion’s anger and his wolf. Like me, the thought of our Luna being fed on by that parasite makes me want to kill.

“I wouldn’t put it past them.”

“No,” I say. “Chayton asked Luna if she believed the leech had ever fed off her, and she vehemently denied it. He too searched her body for puncture marks.”

“Damn, I kind of wish it had. That would be a significant reason to kick them out.”

I agreed with Zyion on that.

“Anyway,” I say, getting to the point of why I came. “I need to give you guys a heads up. Luna offered…” before I could finish, a hush falls over the room.

Phaedra gasps in front of me. I turn around to see what’s going on and a growl slips pass my lips. Standing at the entrance of the room are the two vampires. The youngest is smiling as she scans the area. Her straight black hair is in a high ponytail that brushes over her shoulders. She’s wearing a belly shirt and leggings. The oldest is wearing a long sleeve thermal shirt and jogging pants.

The first day we met, I couldn’t see anything past the stench of their vampire blood. However, over the past two weeks, I’ve noticed a little more about them. Especially the oldest one. For instance, her eyes, though light brown, are colder than the sisters’. It isn’t uncommon for vampires to have cold dead stares, but hers seems darker.

Whispers go around. Things like, why are they here, and they need to leave, circle the room.

“I’m starving,” the youngest vampire says.

Immediately, the tension in the room increases. Growls fill the space. The youngest walks through the room as if she doesn’t sense the animosity surrounding her. For as carefree as the youngest is, the oldest seems to watch everyone and everything all at once.

She slowly follows behind the sister.

“Ohhh they have corn too,” the youngest one says as she stops in front of the dinner table. She scans over the corn, rolls, salad, and lasagna. She then grabs a serving tray and cutlery before coming back over to us.

“, please,” she says with a smile, holding out the tray for Phaedra to place her food on.

This is what I wanted to give them a heads up on. I didn’t want the pack to be caught off guard by their appearance.

“I don’t serve your kind,” Phaedra nearly growls. She tosses the serving spoon back in the pan and folds her arms over her chest.

I watch the young vampire closely, waiting to see her reaction. Her smile falls slightly but never disappears.

“Ooookkkkay,” she says, spreading the word out into three syllables. “I’ll serve myself.” She reaches for the spoon handle, holding the tray with one hand.

Once again, the room gasps. Phaedra’s face turns bright red. She then snatches the spoon out of the vampire’s hand and shoves the girl’s tray to the floor.

Before the tray hits the ground, the older one has the youngest behind her protectively. She moved so fast, I didn’t even notice. The tray hits the floor with a loud thud.

Phaedra takes a cautious step back as she comes face to face with a stone-faced vampire. I quickly step in front of Phaedra.

“Kill,” my wolf growls. My eyes glow with my need to transform and let my beast out.

The vampire watches me closely, her eyes giving nothing away. The more I watch her, the more I can read her expression. Her eyes soften slightly, right before turning angry again.

She thinks we lied to her. Admittedly, Chayton told her it would be okay for her to come in here. I just didn’t have time to warn the others. But honestly, she should’ve known she wasn’t welcome here. I don’t fault Phaedra for her reaction.

“Marley,” she finally says, not taking her eyes off mine. “We will go somewhere else for food.

The younger vampire’s face falls as she takes in the quiet wolves around her.

Her shoulders drop. “But he said it would be okay?”

That comment guts me. It made it seem as if my Alpha didn’t have his pack under control or that he was setting them up. That wasn’t the case.

“It was a misunderstanding,” the oldest explains.

The youngest vamp turns and walks toward the door. The oldest turns back to me one last time, her face still blank. She looks past me over to Phaedra and then down at the tray that was knocked to the ground. She takes a deep breath before bringing her gaze back to me. She then turns and follows her sister out.

The room takes a collective breath once they are out of the building.

I turn to check on Phaedra.

“Are you alright?”

She shakes her head. “I’m trying to be patient for our Luna. But seeing them here reminds me of everything I lost.”

“You know I love our Luna. But I’m with Phaedra on this. This is hard,” Zyion admits.

“Be patient. It won’t be much longer. We almost broke her today.”

This wasn’t my plan when I told Chayton I would have this under control. But seeing how close she came to breaking might have been worth it. The way she stared at me let me know she wanted to fight back. If she’d tried to attack Phaedra, it would’ve been exactly what we needed. The perfect action that would’ve justified me taking her life.

After wrapping up dinner and making sure the vampires didn’t come back, I head out of the cafeteria. I make my way over to Chayton’s office. I needed to give him the details of what happened in the dining hall tonight.

Using the back of my hand, I rapped against his office door.

“Come in, Enzo,” his voice calls out.

I push the door open and walk in. Luna is sitting in his lap, a bright smile on her face. I turn away from the happy couple, giving them their privacy.

“I can come back.”

“Nonsense,” Elizabeth chuckles. “I was just leaving.”

I turn back just in time to see her place a kiss on Chayton’s lips.

“Go straight home and lie down. I want you off your feet,” he lightly scolds as he lets her go.

“I’m pregnant, Chayton, not fragile.”

“You’re pregnant with a wolf pup. You need your rest.”

“Didn’t my best friend tell you it’s no different from being pregnant with a human baby?” she asks, placing her hands on her hips.

“Yes, but she also said you should still listen to your body. And your back has been hurting you lately.”

Elizabeth chuckles as she stops beside me. “Can you please tell your Alpha to relax?”

“I’m sorry, Luna. I have to agree with him on this. You need your rest.”

She looks shocked before she shakes her head. “Oh I see. Team up with your friend. Well, now that my bestie is here, I know I have at least one person on my side.”

Her light joke churns my stomach. I hate she considers that leech her best friend.

Elizabeth leaves, closing the door behind her. I walk over to the empty seat behind Chayton’s desk.

“The day my wolf gets to sink my teeth into the neck of that vampire can’t get here fast enough.”

Chayton leans back into his chair. “You want to explain to me what happened in the cafeteria?”

I narrow my gaze at him. “They got there before I could warn everyone. They demanded to be served and the oldest even threatened Phaedra?”

“She what?” Chayton leans forward in his seat.

“Relax,” I tell him. “You know, if it had been serious, she’d be dead already.”

I quickly filled him in on what happened in the cafeteria. He leans back in his seat, pinching his brow.

“They refused to feed and serve her?”

“Of course they did.”

“Enzo, you told me you had that under control. Now you have me looking as if I set them up. The plan is to get them to fuck up on their own. If you provoke her and she reacts, you will only convince Elizabeth that we are the villains.”

I scoff. “We’re doing the best we can. We don’t want them here.”

“I know that. But at the moment, they have done nothing to garner your disrespect.”

I shoot to my feet, nearly knocking the chair over behind me. “Have you forgotten all the wolves we’ve lost to them? Your brother-in-law being one.”

Chayton holds up a hand. “Of course I haven’t. But if I want my mate to get away from that vampire, I have to prove to her that particular vampire is bad news. Holding Michaela accountable for the sins of other vamps will not work on Elizabeth. My concern right now is protecting Elizabeth.”

Understanding has me sinking back down in my chair. Chayton has a point. If I do anything to make the parasite attack, it won’t help us turn Elizabeth away from her. In fact, it might push her closer.

“Fine,” I grumble. “I can’t believe she came and ratted us out to Luna.”

He shakes his head. “She hasn’t said anything. I’m still the Alpha around here. Nothing gets past me.”

Chayton and I spend the rest of our time going over pack business.