Page 14

Rocco had been to a lot of fancy fundraisers in his time, but he’d never been to one in New Trinity City.

Voices hushed as they stepped into the room, and his eyes scanned the space, taking in everything.

The ball was traditionally held on the first day of winter, and they’d leaned right into the theme.

Huge braziers hung from the ceiling with open fires blazing.

They weren’t just for show, either. Attendants stood near each one, ready to toast marshmallows or roast meat.

In direct contrast to the heat, a huge ice sculpture filled the centre of the room—a masterpiece of design that recreated a stylised skyline of the city in frozen water, complete with Cruor Coven’s fanged tower soaring above everything else.

The vampires were such assholes with their phallic architecture looming over the city like they were somehow better than everyone else.

As if their pharmaceutical company wasn’t a front for glorified blood harvesting, and their ports weren’t used for human trafficking.

As he always did in these situations, Rocco let his awareness spread out through the room with his power, noticing the subtle water magic that had been used to stop the sculpture from melting and the telltale familiar power signatures of the few MC members scattered around the room.

Most of the humans here wouldn’t notice the magic.

The witches’ assistance was merely a subtle favour for the mayor to acknowledge his continued support for the supernatural families who actually ruled the city.

Speaking of which, Blaze was approaching with the mayor in tow, complete with his gaudy, and surprisingly macabre, chains of office.

The police chief, deputy mayor, and district attorney followed closely after, although the latter two looked less than pleased with the situation.

Not surprising given they didn’t know the three families in the city were supernatural, but they sure as shit knew they were criminals by human standards.

“Marco, always a pleasure,” the mayor said, reaching out a hand. “And I hear congratulations are in order!”

“Thank you, Stewart. These two lovebirds caught us by surprise, but we couldn’t be happier. Isn’t that right, Blaze?”

“Thrilled,” Blaze said with a dry voice, taking in the way the pack had circled in close around Rocco and Emilio like they were … well, like they were pack.

“I don’t believe we’ve met. Are you going to introduce us to your friends, Your Worship?” the deputy mayor asked, judgment dripping from their voice.

Why the mayor had chosen to run with someone who clearly had the morals he lacked was beyond Rocco. It seemed like a recipe for disaster.

The police chief jumped in. “You don’t know Rocco and Emilio already, Alex? How remiss of you.”

“Not all of us run in such interesting circles, Chief Samson,” Alex shot back.

The district attorney’s mouth twitched with a smile. “I find myself similarly remiss. For some reason, I don’t come across your families as much as I would expect in my line of work.”

It was a clear dig at the way the police didn’t pursue charges against any of the families. Rocco didn’t give a shit. Human politics weren’t his concern, and there wasn’t a prison in the country that could hold him if they decided to try him under their laws.

Now, a supernatural detention centre would be another thing.

They had scary-powerful witches on their side.

As if his wandering thoughts had summoned her, a witch he wasn’t familiar with approached.

He would’ve left at that point, but a sharp look from Blaze kept him in place.

She could only be a Council representative.

“Good evening,” the witch said. She tasted of wildfires to his magical senses, and a hint of flames burned in her eyes. “Blaze, it’s been too long.”

“Always a pleasure, Gray,” Blaze replied in a tone of voice that said it was anything but.

Rocco tuned out as the standard political machinations of these events ensued. He was much more interested in manipulating the man standing beside him. For once, his desires matched up perfectly with Blaze’s expectations, given they were supposed to be selling their relationship to the Council.

Emilio stiffened in his arms as Rocco nuzzled into his neck before restarting the teasing touches with his magic that he’d been distracted from.

Sliding his hand under Emilio’s jacket, he explored the shifter’s toned back muscles with his fingers while letting his power continue to torment his fiancé’s chest. The low vibration of a subvocal growl emerged from Emilio’s chest, but he wasn’t biting his lip or giving any other sign that Rocco should stop.

Probably because Emilio didn’t realise the witches near them could sense his power and would know exactly what he was doing.

“Rocco, could you tear yourself away from your fiancé for a moment and keep our conversation from prying ears, please?” Blaze asked.

Rocco glanced up, only slightly chagrined to realise he hadn’t noticed the members of their group who’d been oblivious to their supernatural nature leaving.

Blaze’s request explained why he’d expected Rocco to stay.

His air magic was much better suited to this kind of task than either of the fire witches in the group.

Dragging his power back from where he’d spread it across the room to search for threats, he built a shield around them that would twist their words into the kind of innocuous small talk expected at these events.

Only Marco, Blaze, the mayor, the Council witch, Rocco, and Emilio remained inside its bounds.

Just as he was settling the spell into place, a blur of motion flickered in his peripheral vision, and all his senses went on alert as a vampire crossed his shielding.

It wasn’t made to keep people out. He hadn’t thought it would be necessary.

Metal flashed as Emilio snarled and drew his knife, and Rocco deftly altered his protections to include a glamour that would hide the attack from the notice of the surrounding humans as he fought the urge to pull his fiancé behind him.

When he had the shielding under control and turned to see what the fuck was going on, he found Emilio with a blade at Kyan’s neck.

Marco held tight to the vampire leader’s arm, biceps bulging, as the vampire stood poised to rip Emilio’s throat out.

The threat to his fiancé had Rocco drawing so much magic to himself so fast that every single person within the bounds of his spell gasped for the air no longer filling their lungs.

“Enough!” Gray said before he could let loose with another blast of his power. “Kyan, you know better than to sneak up on a wolf, and Rocco, you’re already on thin fucking ice. Back off. All of you. ”

She was the shortest and likely physically weakest person in their group by far, but Marco and Kyan both stepped back immediately, not willing to pick a fight. Such was the power of the Council she had backing her. Rocco waited until no one was touching his fiancé before letting his power settle.

“None of this is convincing us your families are under control,” Gray snapped.

“It’s not the vampires who are blowing up the forest and messing with the power balance in the city by entering into thinly veiled, unsanctioned alliances,” Kyan snarled.

“Now, now. Let’s all take a breath and calm down, shall we? The trouble in the forest was dealt with, and these two are clearly not faking the feelings between them,” the mayor said.

Emilio thrummed with barely concealed anger next to him, either at the way Kyan had gate-crashed their little meeting, or the implication he had feelings for Rocco.

It was hard to say which. The human mayor was impressively calm given the amount of overpowered supernatural alpha posturing going on around him.

Although, now that Rocco was paying more attention, he could feel magic of some sort coming from the mayor’s chains of office that would be giving him a sense of security.

The Council must’ve spelled them to provide protection when they orchestrated his election.

“The weapons trade is out of control, public attacks are rife, and all we have is the families’ word that this is being caused by this D-2S group and isn’t some sort of coup, either to take over from each other or from the Council,” Gray snapped.

“If we wanted you out, you’d know,” Marco shot back, holding eye contact with the Council witch as he reached out to take a glass of prosecco from one of the waiters passing by.

Rocco hid a smile as the two continued glaring at each other, shifting until he stood alongside Kyan so he’d be able to disable the vampire leader with his magic if needed.

Although as old as Kyan was, he could move so fast that Rocco might struggle to contain him, even at this range.

Plus, there were rumours he could immobilise his victims with his powers. Or worse. Fucking vampires.

“This situation is untenable. You need to nullify this engagement and banish the witch hybrid from the city,” Kyan snapped.

“Cal is pack. No one can banish him from the city except me, and that is not happening,” Marco growled.

“Nothing in the Council’s laws forbids relationships between species.

They’d have a revolt on their hands if they tried.

Cal was never part of the MC, and the fact Rocco is fucking a wolf has no effect on the business interests of the MC.

What does have an effect on the power balance of the city is the Coven’s continued disinterest in the threat of this terrorist group.

If you were properly controlling the ports and sharing surveillance from your territory, we would’ve tracked them down already,” Blaze snapped at Kyan.

“Let’s not play the blame game. I’m happy to assist as arbiter between the families if you’re struggling to play nicely,” the mayor said.