The Alpha’s Mate And The Vampire King (The Alpha Series Book 3)

‘Nina, please don’t ask me again. We are not allowing Alec to leave that dungeon,’ Magnus growls.

‘If you saw what he showed me, how it all came about. You would see how unjust it is for him to remain in there,’ I say.

‘Nina, I would never put myself in that position in the first place. Your blood flame made his choice, and he now suffers the consequences,’

‘If I was burned at the stake, would you not try and kill those responsible?’ I ask.

Magnus stiffens, and instead of responding, he walks away upstairs to our room and slams the door.

With Reaper on my shoulder, I sigh and stroll over to the open window.

‘That didn’t go down well,’ Reaper mind-links.

‘Well, it’s a complicated situation for Magnus, he is my mate, and the vampire king is my second mate,’

‘Did you hear that, Reaper?’ I ask as I hear a gasp from the garden.

‘Yes,’ he says and flies from my shoulder and circles through the garden, searching.

‘Who’s there?’ I shout out the window. ‘Come out now, and I might let you live,’ I crack my knuckles and climb out the window. When Reaper lets out a caw, I know he’s located something… or someone. So I take a step forward and tackle the person.

‘Don’t kill me, please don’t kill me,’ Hank begs.

‘Hank? What are you doing in my territory? You were exiled from here. You were never supposed to return,’ I growl.

‘I came to ah, apologise, yes apologise and make amends for my… terrible behaviour trying to blackmail Magnus into a mateship with my sister,’ he says in a higher-pitched voice.

‘You know I have every right to kill you for returning and trespassing?’

‘Y-yes,’ he says, falls to his knees, and bows before me, ‘But you are such a kind, understanding Luna. Would you really kill someone for trying to right their wrong?’ He says, making me think of Juniper and how she would have wanted Alec to forgive the humans. I frown in thought. My gut is telling me to kill him, right here, right now. But my heart is thinking of Alec and Magnus and what would be the right thing to do.

He looks up to see my outreached hand and takes it to stand up. ‘Thank you, Luna,’ he says.

‘What were you doing in the garden anyway? Why didn’t you just knock at the packhouse door?’

‘Um, I thought if Magnus or someone else were to greet me at the door, they would not be as understanding as you would be and kill me without hearing me out first,’ he explains.

‘I see,’ I say.

‘Now that you have heard what I have to say and accepted my sincerest apologies, I will be on my way then,’ He says, taking his leave.

‘Wait, how come I can’t smell your scent? The warriors should have known you were here,’ I say.

Hank fondles a symbol made from a precious stone around his neck. He doesn’t know what to say. I step forward and hold the symbol and take a closer look. ‘I’ve seen this symbol before,’ I say, trying to think of where I have seen it. I yank it from his neck, turn my back to him, and hold it up for Reaper to see. ‘Wasn’t this mentioned in one of the spellbooks? I’m pretty sure it hides your scent?’

‘Yes, that’s an excellent observation,’ Reaper mind-links. I return my attention to Hank, but he has already left.

‘Something odd about that, Hank,’ I say.

‘Are you going to chase after him?’ Reaper mind-links.

‘No, I need to check on Magnus,’

Reaper flies over me and onto the railing outside my bedroom window, readying himself to eavesdrop on our conversation. Rolling my eyes at him, I enter the packhouse and ‘Skedaddle Dash’ upstairs and knock on the bedroom door.

I hear a grunt which I take as a sign to enter. Magnus sits on the end of the bed with his head down. Instead of saying anything, I sit on his lap and snuggle into him. He immediately relaxes and wraps his arms tightly around me.

‘I’m sorry,’ I whisper.

‘I know, I am too,’

We stay embraced silently in each other’s arms for a while.

‘I should finish off the paperwork in the office. Do you want to come with me?’ Magnus asks.

‘I think I’ll go down to the basement and socialise with my coven sisters,’ I smile.

Entering the basement, there is a new large circular table with wooden seats that have carvings.

‘This table is beautiful,’ I exclaim to Ela, Fern, Lilac, Ria and May.

‘We materialised it together. It’s just for us witches for meetings and other such things,’ May says.

I notice the back of each chair has a name. I take the seat with Luna written in gold on the back. It’s very comfortable. ‘Well, we could utilise it right now. I have something I want you all to know,’

Everyone stops brewing the potion and takes their seat.

‘What is it, Luna?’ Fern asks.

‘Alec showed me what had happened to Juniper, his first blood flame, and why he attempted to wipe out the human race. I want you to all know his story. I’m going to tell you what I saw in the vision he showed me,’

‘Wait a minute. We have a vision spell as well. Please allow me to get the book for you.’ Ela remarks as she walks over to the spellbook rack. She flips over the pages, places the book in front of me, and retakes her seat. When I look down at the paper and pronounce the words, ‘Visionous Memorias,’ a great circle of magic appears and shows what I’m thinking about. I start where Alec left off, with Juniper rushing down the cobblestone path, entering the cottage, putting the healing potions in her basket, and departing to give the potion to the Hillsburys. When the vision is finished, everyone is wailing and crying, their eyes downcast. Behind me, I hear a shuffle towards the stairs. Magnus had witnessed the entire vision, and tears streamed down his cheeks. I dash over to him and give him a tight embrace. He gently squeezes me back.

‘That was… incredibly difficult to watch,’ Magnus says quietly.

I wipe the tears from his face and turn to face the others. They are crying into their familiars. Sabre, the fennec fox whimpers as he licks May’s tears from her face.

‘It’s so sad,’ May sniffles, ‘Alec never even got to spend a whole day with Juniper, and she was killed before his very own eyes,’

‘And Juniper never got to take her grandma back to Alec’s castle,’ Fern cries.

‘They killed her grandma,’ Ria cries.

I take Magnus’s hand, and we walk upstairs and out of the packhouse and sit under the moon tree.

Reaper caws and flies down from the tree onto the grass for a pat.

‘I can see why you think it’s unfair that Alec is still in that dungeon, but it’s also for the best,’ Magnus says.

‘Are you kidding me? It’s for the best?’

‘Let’s say we let him out, Nina. What do you think he is going to do? Prance around and pick flowers from the garden? No, I’m your mate, which means he will want me out of the picture and will probably attempt to kill me or succeed and kill me,’

‘He wouldn’t,’ I say.

‘Are you willing to stake my life on that, Nina?’

Would Alec murder Magnus if we let him out of the dungeon? I’d never considered it before.

‘If Alec truly loves me, Magnus, he would never do anything to hurt me, and if that means you staying alive and being by my side, then I’m sure that is something he will accept and adjust to,’ I say.

‘I need to let my wolf out for a run. I’ll see you tonight.’ He says and shifts into his wolf, bolting towards the woods.