The room fell into an almost palpable silence after Claire's confession, each word hanging in the air as if suspended in time. The atmosphere was thick with shock, the weight of her revelation pressing down on everyone present. It was as if the very walls of the sitting room absorbed the enormity of her words, amplifying the tension that gripped the space.Claire stood in the center of the room, her posture defiant yet vulnerable. Her eyes met Curtis briefly, a flicker of uncertainty crossing her face before she steeled herself once more. She had laid her heart bare, and now she awaited the reactions of the people with bated breath.The silence was abruptly shattered when Curtis stepped forward, his expression hardening into one of cold denial. "Claire," He began, his voice firm, "I don't know what you're talking about. We aren't mated."Claire's face fell, the hurt and confusion stark in her eyes. "Curtis, please," she pleaded, her voice trembling with emotion. "I know this is my fau

In the midst of the subtle chaos that had ensued with Freya and Lucille groaning in pain, Nathan stood with an air of solemnity in the large living room. His gaze was fixed on his two daughters, who were slithering on the floor like frustrated, pained, snakes. Beside them were their mates.“Kane!”Kane turned sharply to his Prince, his attention divided between his almost wailing mate, and his stern Prince.“Take Lucille outside. She is about to shift. She would need the calmness of the forest air.”Kane, without the slightest hesitation, obeyed. He carried Lucille in his arms, and hurried out of the room, without turning aside to notice the positions of the others. However, Shane and Clem followed after him, including Dobah, to offer protection incase of unpredictable circumstances.“Peter, are there rooms which we can use to work for healing magic?”Peter nodded, eager to be useful in this situation.“Then, take Eva to one of the rooms. Margo, and Keturah, you go with him. We might

Two Days Later:Emma woke with a start, disoriented and groggy. The room seemed unfamiliar, shadows playing tricks on her tired eyes. She blinked, trying to remember where she was. Slowly, the events of the past day flooded back to her consciousness.Shift.Annabel.Rare humans.She remembered that she had transformed into her wolf form after a long shift, her duties as a chosen one demanding all her strength. The change left her feeling strange, now she was in her human form. It was terribly intense. Emma wasn't sure she would want to go another round. She wished it could be a one time thing. But how possible was that?Rubbing her eyes, Emma sat up in bed, the sheets clinging to her skin. Her limbs felt heavy, as if they didn't quite belong to her yet. She ran her fingers through her tousled hair, noticing how coarse it felt compared to usual. Everything felt sharper, more acute. It was like her senses had been turned up to their highest levels.Glancing around the room again, Emma s

Silence descended in the room when Freya uttered the name, ‘Emma.’ A silence that was different from the others that had fallen on the room at intervals since the meeting started. This particular silence had everyone’s ears at attention, and everyone at the edge of their seats. Anticipation thrummed in and around the hearts of everyone in the room, including Claire. ‘Put the call on loudspeaker, my love.’ Freya turned up her lips at Aiden’s suggestion, but she was too happy to ignore or get annoyed over the suggested intrude in her privacy. She obliged. She removed the phone from her ear, tapped the loudspeaker tab, and kept the phone on her lap. “Emma…is that you?” A lighthearted chuckle resonated from the speaker, a chuckle that caused the drum of joy to begin to beat in the heart of Nathan, who was just hearing his first daughter’s voice for the first time. He had heard from Kane, that once, the girl had spoken to him through his mind, had bypassed the mind barrier. For the l

The breaths of everyone in the room was held on standby, until Emma's voice crackled through the phone. "He is not a vampire. He is a mage. Like you, to some extent. But he is evil. Evil. I couldn't even get closer to his thoughts. They were too sinister. I just couldn't stay in the environment. One thing I can say is that he is very old, despite being in a youthful body." 'Ask her, how old.' Aiden communicated to Freya. "How old do you think he is…" A beat of silence. "More than a century. Perhaps two?" Freya looked at everyone in the room again, aware of the sharp increase in the beating of their hearts. A mage of more than a hundred years old, in a youthful body. The ancients kept exchanging glances. 'What is it?' Freya couldn't help but ask Aiden. 'Mages like that are very rare, not like the witches of this region. They are darker. Possessed by spirits some times. Those are the ones that can perform that sort of thing you had seen the shifter do. However, I don't know if t