Page 6

MACK

N o. No. Fucking no.

He couldn’t leave Ella with Brianna and Madison. They’d lead her astray. Mack might not have been in the castle long, but it was long enough to witness some of the shenanigans the girls got up to.

Ella wasn’t staying at the castle—he’d purposely got her a home nearby. He needed her safe, but not right under his nose (or was that cock!) where both he and his wolf would be at risk of succumbing to the bond that tugged him to her.

Right now, he wanted to teleport her to his room and strip every inch of clothing from her body. Then take hours exploring her soft creamy skin and let every fucking vampire under the castle roof hear just how well he could make her scream.

Over and over.

Then one more time for good measure.

Shame the rooms all had vampire noise protection.

But unfortunately, Mack hadn’t been able to ignore Craig’s order. While not an official member of the SLC team—or the king's army—he still had to obey. That’s how a military structure worked. Everyone had to play by the same rules.

“What did you do to my mate?” Craig growled as Mack strode into the room.

It was almost empty.

“Where’s the fire? The meeting doesn’t start for ten more minutes?” Mack glanced around, noting the clock on the wall.

Craig crossed his arms as Brayden, Ari, and the king walked in via a side door. “Bri said you were upsetting her?”

Mack rolled his eyes, and the commander’s brows slowly lifted right to the top of his head.

Probably shouldn’t piss him off.

“I had a friend with me, and they took off with her. Your mate just manipulated you.” Mack shrugged.

The brow stayed where it was.

Then dipped.

Finally, the big male’s arms dropped to his side.

“Jesus fucking Christ. Fucking females.” Craig’s eyes snapped to him. “Repeat that, and I’ll rip your head off. Slowly.”

Mack held up his hands and laughed.

“Never heard a thing. But I need to make sure Ella gets home. I’ve set her up in a house nearby,” Mack admitted, wondering if he could do a quick teleport or two and then head back before the meeting started.

He had no idea where they had taken her so that it would slow things down.

“If Brianna took Ella under her wing, and if Willow has been introduced already, you’ve lost her forever buddy. Sorry. My condolences.”

“Jesus Christ.”

Mack flopped down into a chair. The girl gang seemed to adopt new females like they were running a damn ASPCA shelter.

“You talking about your girl?” Ari asked, propping open his laptop and connecting it to the technology.

The fuck, Ari! Ella wasn’t his girl. Well, she was, but she couldn’t be, and he’d just explained all of that to the ancient vampire earlier.

Craig and Brayden paid close attention as he physically recoiled. “No! She’s just a family friend. We grew up together.”

Mack pulled out his phone all, whatever, and sent her a text. There was no time to go hunting around the castle for her.

Go back to the house, Ella. I’ll see you tomorrow.

...

...

...

The hell is she doing?

Next minute a photo of Ella holding Princess Isabella with Bri’s, Willow’s, and Madison’s grinning faces surrounding her appeared on the screen.

Brayden leaned over.

“Aww, look at my little princess. Wow, is that your girl? One of the warriors is going to snap that one up, mark my words.”

Mack lifted his head, deciding how dangerous, on a scale of one to a hundred, it would be to punch the prince.

At least eighty.

Almost worth it.

“We should call you the mate-whisperer.” Vincent laughed, leaning over to glance at the screen, so now they all were. “You seem to have a knack for it. Which warrior do you think?”

The hell?

Mack pocketed his phone and crossed his arms. “Don’t we have a war to fight?”

There was no fucking way he was letting any of these males date Ella. The senior males were messing with him.

Sadly, it was working.

Seeing her walk around the castle with another male’s hands on her would make it extremely hard to control his wolf.

It was clear the moment he saw her that his wolf had claimed her. He’d suspected it would happen after witnessing some of the other hybrids mate. They’d lost their damn minds—and willpower—or so it seemed, and Mack was getting his first hint of how that felt.

In a word, destabilizing.

When Ben and company had strode past half goddamn naked, he’d felt insane and pulled her into a private space. Only then to realize his mistake. Mack was almost certain if he went back into that room, he’d find claw marks in the wooden table.

The urge to clamp down on Ella’s soft neck and feed, to rip her way-too-tight top and tight jeans from her body, and to taste every inch of her had been intense. Mack thought he might shift into his wolf at any minute.

And that was why his pretty little would-be mate had to stay away from the goddamn castle.

He wasn’t sure he could control his wolf.

Between his growing lust and need to mate her, his wolf might dominate him and take over. That would be bad.

Very fucking bad.

The king had been clear with Callan and the rest of the hybrids that keeping their new species highly top secret was important. Especially considering the exposure vampires were now dealing with.

“The last thing we need is POTUS or any of the world leaders losing their minds over the fact there are two unknown races walking the earth,” Vincent had said.

“Sure, but they’re responsible for creating it,” Callan replied, and the small but important group of people in the room that day had heard every ounce of anger in his voice.

While he tried to contain it, no one blamed him.

Callan had been taken and tortured by the BioZen scientists for around six months. His DNA had been altered, and unknowingly, he’d infected Mack and a dozen other vampires.

All were now hybrids like him.

So yeah, he had every right to be pissed.

“I don’t disagree,” the king had said. “However, we can’t have that conversation right now.”

“I know.” Callan sighed and glanced at Mack.

“There’s no reason to tell anyone. There’s plenty of land here to shift and run when we need.” Mack had shrugged, referring to the castle grounds. “The others can stay in Greenwood, tucked away from most of the world.”

Brayden, Ari, and Vincent had shared a look, probably telepathing, and then nodded.

“It’s agreed then. The SLCs know, and obviously our science team, but otherwise no one else is to know without my express permission.” Vincent sat behind his desk, his gaze sliding between Callan and Mack, ensuring his intent was clear.

When the king gave an order, you listened.

Living in the United States, led by a democratic government, while also being part of a monarchy, was an interesting dichotomy. The Moretti royal family had been clear since day one that they had to respect human laws, but the vampire king was the first ruler.

Rarely was there a conflict.

So, yeah, he’d taken a risk having Ella in Maine with him, but renting the house and popping in occasionally had seemed like a great plan at the time.

When she’d shown up at the castle, it had blown everything. He hadn’t been prepared. Not with her wearing that damn top. All that cleavage... Jesus .

Now Brianna had taken Ella under her wing and kidnapped her. It wasn’t just his wolf he was concerned about. He couldn’t blame him completely.

Mack had finally gained control of the need to fuck five hundred times a day since becoming a wolf—the canine gene clearly a highly sexual one that affected all the hybrids—but seeing Ella had ignited that spark like she was a tiny little bottle of gasoline.

Boom!

“We do have a war to fight.” Brayden interrupted his thoughts.

Mack noticed the room had filled up.

Jesus, he’d zoned out.

“What’s up?” Tristan dropped down beside him.

At least the male had put some fucking clothes on since the last time he’d seen him. Ella’s reaction was predictable. Another reason she shouldn’t be on the castle grounds.

He really didn’t want to kill his friends.

“Hey.” He forced his usual smirk on his face. It was fake as fuck.

“Pretty friend you had with you earlier. Is she mated?” Tristan ripped the top off a bottle of water and downed it, then let out a loud sigh.

Enjoy the oxygen, could be your last.

“Ah.” Mack adjusted his cap a couple of times. “No. No, I don’t think she is. Doubt she’s your type.”

Tristan stretched out his legs, crossing his ankles. “You kidding me? She’s hot as hell. Cute little ass, small tits—”

“Not that small,” Mack interrupted, mostly because if the guy kept doing an audit of Ella’s body, he was going to snap his neck.

Craig would be even more pissed then.

“I mean, they weren’t more than a handful.” Tristian shrugged.

This wasn’t going the way he’d hoped.

“Pretty small.” Mack counted to ten in his head.

“Hard to tell.” Tristan turned. “Was she wearing a sports bra?”

Fuck.

“No. Jesus. I don’t know.” Mack snapped.

The male stared at him. “You on your period?”

Asshole.

“Yeah, do you want me to shove my fucking tampon up your nose?” Mack snapped.

Kurt snort-laughed behind them while Brayden chuckled and kicked a chair out of the way.

“Don’t threaten me with a good time.” Tristan drank some more of his water. “Give me her number and I’ll assess her body and get back to you.”

“Read the room, dude.” Darnell kicked his chair from behind.

“What?”

“Who’s the girl? She yours or your sister?” Darnell asked Mack.

Fucking hell.

It was like being at high school in this place some days. And that was saying something given he owned a gym back in Seattle where it felt like everyone seemed to fuck everyone on a good week.

He hadn’t been innocent.

While he did what he could to interfere with Ella’s romances, he’d guiltily slept with a lot of females. None of them satisfying for very long.

Especially when he caught Ella’s gaze when they’d bump into one another or were at the same parties.

“Neither.” He grunted. “She’s not staying, so find someone else to play with.”

“Spoilsport.” Tristan pouted.