Page 70 of Rejected and Pregnant by the Alpha (Forbidden Alpha Kings #52)
Julian
As the vampires rounded up the captured hunters, I wipe the blood from my face and take a long, shaky breath.
This battle had been the hardest since none of us wanted to wreck the warehouse.
There was too much at stake if we destroyed it, one of which was alerting the human authorities to the massacre we just initiated.
“Well, that was fun,” Aileen says from beside me, her eyes glowing red as she scans the vampires who were freed from the cages below, their thin bodies nearly collapsing.
They have been denied blood for so long that Aileen is now working with Coven Zatia to find a safe place to feed them their first meal in what seems like weeks.
“I hate to say this, but locking them in the cells with a hunter each may be the best option. Let them feed,” Christa Zatia, the leader of this area’s coven, says.
Aileen frowns but ultimately agrees. Her own vampires will be the ones to handle the starving vampires as they can manage the scent of human blood without the urge to feed from a human taking control.
“Oh, Julian,” Aileen calls out to me as she is about to walk away.
“Call Hannah once you get a chance. It’s been three days since you last talked to her, and I bet she is antsy about not hearing from you.
” With that, the blonde vampire zips away, stopping in front of a trembling vampire who, after some coaxing, follows Aileen back toward the cells.
After checking in with my wolves about escorting the rogues to Salted Howl’s pack—using the boats docked out front—I make my way outside to retrieve a phone.
I need to call Hannah. Goddess, I miss hearing her voice.
I can still sense her through the mate bond, still feel her emotions, and how much she has been missing me.
Now that this mission is done, we can finally focus on turning this warehouse into our new international trade base.
At the docks, I find Fabian speaking with Salted Howl’s alpha. I wait as he finishes giving instructions. Once Alpha Preston Scott heads back inside the warehouse, Fabian turns to me.
“All good, Your Majesty?” Fabian asks, his stiff formality something I dislike. Unfortunately for us, we need to maintain the formality as we have too many eyes and ears watching the royal wolves.
“Yes, I was just wondering if I could borrow your phone for a moment. I have a mate to call,” I reply to my friend, who gives me a sly smirk before digging around in his jacket and handing me his cellphone.
I thank him, quickly unlocking it and rushing to the end of the dock, as far away from prying eyes as possible.
I scroll through the contacts, quickly finding Hannah’s number. Clicking on it, I hold the phone to my ear and wait for the call to connect so that I can finally hear her voice.
“Fabian, what’s going on?” Hannah’s voice comes through the phone, concern lacing her words. “Is everyone okay? Is… is Julian okay?”
Without thinking, I let out a chuckle at her frantic worry, finding the situation both amusing and adorable.
“Ju-Julian?” she asks, her voice now a faint whisper.
“Hi, Hannah,” I reply, earning a sigh of relief from her.
“I… I thought something happened to you guys,” Hannah says, a whimper in her voice. “It’s been three days since you last called me and… I thought…”
“Everyone is fine, Hannah. We just had a bitch of a time trying to deal with these hunters. There were more than we thought.” I go on to explain how this operation started three days ago, how we snuck in during the dead of night thanks to our spies, and slowly worked our way through the building, taking out their communication system and preventing the hunters inside from contacting their allies.
Without fail, we gradually moved on to capturing hunters alive with the help of Coven Zatia.
Christa Zatia had her vampires compel the hunters into silence and placed them in rooms where they would be safe while we took out what we could.
The goal was to save as many hunters as possible so that the covens in the area would have enough blood slaves to last them at least a century.
“We have the wolves being transferred to Salted Howl for now while Aileen helps feed the starved vampires we found in the cells. We will need to wait for the sun to set to move the vampires, but even then, we need to make sure that bloodlust won’t take over their minds or risk the lives of all the humans in the area and our wolves,” I state, running a hand through my hair and grimacing at how greasy it feels.
Goddess, I worked up a sweat fighting for my life over the last three days.
“Will you be coming to Haven Trail after everyone is situated?” Hannah asks, her loneliness seeping into the mate bond.
“I am not sure. We managed to visit over half of the packs here in Canada and have eleven more to go. Our estimated six months might be longer after leaving Salted Howl since we need to focus on the legal routes of claiming the hunters’ base as part of the companies I own,” I answer her honestly, letting the sadness I feel at being away from her and Saben for so long show.
I want to see my mate and son and hold them close.
Just talking to them over the phone is too much to bear at times.
“Aileen already has a lawyer friend here in Vancouver from Coven Zatia ready to help forge sale documents. We plan to split all the hunter assets between Coven Zatia, Salted Howl, Coven Sunblaze, and the royal pack,” I continue, getting a chuckle from Hannah.
“Aileen must be giddy to know she is getting some good money from this,” Hannah muses, and I chuckle. My little luna queen has no idea how much Aileen has planned for this money, one of which is capturing deer and raising them to be food for vampires.
“Aileen has already bought some land to start her ‘vegan’ farm for vampires. Trust me, we are already capturing deer for her as we speak so that her coven can breed them,” Hannah says, and this time, I break into a laughing fit.
Of course, Aileen would wrangle Haven Trail into helping her with her plan.
“How much is she paying you guys?” I find myself asking, turning to look out at the sea.
“Half of the money her coven is getting from this expedition,” Hannah gloats.
Shaking my head, I grin at how ruthless my mate is when it comes to business. It’s no wonder Haven Trail rose to the ranks it did with her in charge.
“Well, with the hunters taken down here, we plan to take a day or two off to rest. I will call later tonight to talk to Saben,” I say, looking back to see Fabian waiting for me at the entrance to the dock, a pissed-off look on his face.
“It seems something came up, and Fabian is not happy. I need to go see what they found inside.”
Hannah sighs but reluctantly agrees. After telling me to be safe and that she will talk to me soon, the call ends, and I make my way down to Fabian.
“What is it?” I ask him, handing Fabian his phone back.
We found a secret room. It has something in it that nearly brought Aileen to the edge of bloodlust in her anger, but I can’t say what it is as she doesn’t want Christa Zatia to know, Fabian answers through our private link, his voice shaking and deep with rage.
Shocked, I motion for him to lead the way, reminding him to play it cool. If Aileen found something she doesn’t want the vampires here to know, then it’s something that means a lot to her.
We walk down the many winding halls of the warehouse and toward the cells. Many of the vampires we found in the cells were happily sucking away at a hunter like a juice box, the stench of blood making my nose itch. They looked healthier, though, the starvation in their eyes gone.
“How many hunters have they bled dry?” I ask, looking at a vampire who appears no older than sixteen.
“Two each so far. Aileen is having her vampires bring animals to them now from the forest to help supplement their blood supply,” Fabian answers, his voice curt.
I nod, already used to the sight of vampires drinking the blood of hunters from taking out five other headquarters of the Hunters Association.
Slowly, the cells grow empty as we walk down what looks to be a decrepit hall, forgotten over the years.
However, I scent recent activity from hunters and know these halls are just a facade.
We quickly reach the end of the hallway, where I notice a door left open.
Miella and Mikos are guarding it, their keen eyes scanning the hall.
I know Aileen put them there, as Miella will be able to intercept any curious vampires not part of her coven.
“Aileen is waiting inside,” Miella says, her usual playful voice filled with dread and anger. “It’s… it’s not a pretty sight,” she adds, her teeth gritted in anger and fangs poking through.
Worried about what I might find, I take a deep breath and pause. I smell… pups.
Without thinking, I rush inside, using my nose to find my way to a wall of bookshelves, with one thrown to the side, a gaping hole in the back.
The sight that greets me shocks me to my core as I find cribs in neat rows.
Inside are pups as young as just a few weeks old to some that seem to be as old as two.
“Why?” I find myself asking as I see five of Aileen’s vampires zipping around and feeding each pup. They must have been at this for a while.
“They were looking for a special bloodline,” Aileen answers, her voice so cold that I feel like my blood has frozen over.
“What sort of bloodline?” I ask, turning to face my friend.
“One with a witch in it. And they found it.”
There, in her arms, is a little pup, her black hair and pale blue eyes looking at me with wonder. She must be no older than a month, and without thinking, I reach out and take her little hand in mine. She is so small.
“The books on the shelves behind us are records of all the pups that were born here, dating back one hundred years. They were looking for a witch from my sister’s bloodline, one who mated a wolf, and they found it.”