The baby has been born. Shall we prepare for a naming ceremony?
Denzel's joyful and relieved grin faded the minute his eyes landed on Cinnia's pale and limp body on the altar. Her eyes bore darkened rings around them and her chest was barely moving at all. "Princess?" Denzel called out shakily. He tried to move a muscle, anything to be close to her, to be completely sure that she was still alive and with him but Sophie's magic held him in place. Andres hefted Cinnia off the altar stone and dumped her frail body on a pew. A soft moan escaped from Cinnia's lips before she went silent. That silence all but ripped Denzel's heart out of his chest. "Cinnia!" He yelled. The veins in his neck strained as he screamed out her name over and over again. "Will you stop that, Alpha Denzel?! She's not dead yet or you'd have felt it by now." Sebastian rolled his eyes as the witch who delivered the child handed her over to him. That exchange would have seemed innocent if not for the situation surrounding it. The simple trade filled Denzel's heart with res
Cinnia quivered from all the rage boiling within her as she hugged her dead child to her chest. A child that she never got to know. There was nothing she had wanted more than to give her daughter a life and a childhood that was better than hers but Sebastian had taken all her dreams away. Her head was heavy, her throat raw from screaming, and her eyes itchy from crying. She smoothed the small tufts of dark, tightly coiled hair that graced her daughter's head and kissed her cheek. "I'm so sorry, my baby... I'm sorry you had to come into this world like this. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you from him. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Cinnia mumbled over and over again while rocking back and forth on the ground. Behind Cinnia, the battle was beginning to die down. At first, Denzel and the rest of his warriors were immediately overwhelmed by the new creatures that were out for blood as if they had hungered for days on end because of it. None of them had anticipated just how ruthless the vamp
Cinnia wordlessly threw dirt onto the little coffin in the freshly dug hole in the ground. Three days had passed since Sebastian's victory and barely a word had left her mouth. To someone who wasn't privy to her situation, they would think she went about her days like a normal person but those who knew her intimately—especially Denzel—were aware that she wasn't the same. The Cinnia he had met that starry night in Bromsken was gone and replaced by a hollow shell of the woman she used to be. Maverick was like Cinnia. The only difference was that he buried himself in business, pack duties, and hunting for Sebastian. Sophie's death had changed something inside of him. Though he never properly acknowledged the relationship they had, it didn't make him feel any better. In those three days, he was filled with unwavering regret that he couldn't have been with her the way he wanted. He finally understood just how Denzel felt about Cinnia even though she was part witch. Worst of all, he cou
"Fuck the drive. What is it?" Denzel whirled around to face Maverick, his eyes alight and expectant. "It's not good, brother." Maverick shook his head solemnly. Mya scoffed and folded her arms across her chest. "When last has anything been good around here?" Denzel shot her a look that made her zip up her mouth. "Well? Speak up, brother," Denzel pressed as his index finger drummed an anxious beat on his thigh. "Sebastian has made more vampires out of innocent humans. The council just sent a memo about a meeting tomorrow because of all the disappearances the human faction have had to cover up as freak accidents or kidnaps," Maverick informed. Denzel raised an eyebrow at him. "You aren't telling me everything." "Can this get any worse?" Mya mumbled while tracing a pattern on the ground with her foot. "It can. It has," Maverick answered her. "I don't understand how Sebastian has done it but the smaller packs have been recruited into working for him. He's making an army of vamp
Cinnia watched from her window as Denzel drove off with Maverick, Mya, Kai, and five of his best gammas. As Luna, without even being told, everyone was looking up to her to run things in the absence of their Alpha and Beta. However, she didn't feel like doing anything pack-related. Earlier that morning, she practiced various spells from a grimoire she had taken from her mother's house before the Darah Haven witches decided to try and drain her of her magic. Yet, she still experienced some difficulty in performing some of the more complicated magical spells and it made her throw the entire book aside from frustration. Cinnia leaned her head against the window frame and heaved out a melancholic sigh. Just as she was about to lock her door and try the spells again, someone knocked on her door. Her shoulders dropped as she bowed her head and let out another sigh. "Come in," She called out after a beat. Conall stepped in and shut the door behind him. "Do you people not have off
For the first time in a long while, Denzel had a dream. One that he remembered the moment his eyes fluttered open to the dimness of his room. A smile grew on his face as he recalled the events. He was happy. There were no foes. Just him and his princess. Yawning, he stretched out his muscles and then turned to pull Cinnia closer to him. But the sheets beside him were as cold as ice. He shot up from the bed, his heart racing in alarm. A glance at the bedside clock let him know that it was almost four-thirty, half an hour before the pack would assemble by five a.m. He got up and threw open the curtains. As someone who never slept for long, he should have been awake thirty minutes before. "Princess?" He called out to the eerily empty room, hoping that she was in the bathroom and just being extremely quiet or holding her breath or something. Yet, from his incredible hearing, the sinking realization occurred to him and his eyes widened. In a flash, he washed his face, threw on some c
"Beg your pardon?" Cinnia quirked up an eyebrow, uncertain about whether she heard properly. "Kneel before your King," Sebastian repeated, dragging out each syllable like she and Maverick were dim-witted five-year-olds. Cinnia and Maverick exchanged a glance. Then, Maverick scoffed while shaking his head and clutching the fresh wound caused by the grazing of the silver bullet, on his arm. "I only have one king and I don't even kneel before him..." Cinnia bit back. A second later, she added as an afterthought, "Often... And I certainly won't do it if he demands it in that tone you're using." As she spoke, she kept her right hand behind her with a portion of her mind focused on chanting a spell and channeling power to her fingertips. Sebastian barked out a laugh. "I do love your sense of humor. It's refreshing. Very rarely do average people make jest in dangerous situations." "Thank you for recognizing my immense potential." At the last word, she fired two bolts of crackling ligh
Cinnia's heart pounded in her chest as she waited and hoped that Sebastian was truly messing with her and Maverick wasn't dead. She didn't think she would ever be able to forgive herself if he died because of her rashness. She gasped when Maverick landed face-first on the ground right in front of her. A relieved smile grew on her face but promptly bled out when she noticed that he wasn't moving. "Why isn't he getting up? What did you do to him, you bastard?!" Cinnia yelled, struggling against the bonds that held her back. She felt the skin on her neck break and begin to bleed but she paid no mind to it. She screamed her voice hoarse, yanking at the chains but it was futile and all to Sebastian's glee. "What did you do?... What did you do to him?..." Cinnia sagged against the chains that held her down; her voice reduced to a pitiful croak. Sebastian sat on his heels and bent his head to the side. A wide smile that immensely irritated Cinnia was stretched out across his face. "It's