The Amethyst Pack (Book 1)

I didn’t sleep well at all that night, all I got were flashes of the night of the fire, my parents faces screaming as they died, of course I hadn’t really seen that, but my dreams haunted me.

I woke up screaming as someone was pounding on my door. I got up wiping away the tears.

“Serena! Serena!” They shouted from the other side of the door as I opened it with puffy eyes.

“Vance, I’m ok. It was just a nightmare” I cry as he looks at me with concern as he takes me in his arms.

“What was the nightmare?” He asks.

“Fire, my parents…I’ve had the same one for years” I answer, wiping my eyes.

“Well, how about you go have a shower and I’ll set you up some of your baking supplies, we could do with a batch of freshly made cakes today…” He smiles, he knew baking would lighten my mood.

“Sure, I’ll be down in a bit” I nod as he hugs me briefly and heads out.

5:38am…He was here early…

I got showered and dressed, having a quick breakfast before going down stairs to find Vance in the kitchen with an apron as I smirk.

“Why are you here so early and why have you got an apron on? You don’t cook…” I laugh as I make him jump.

“Well, I got here early hoping you would teach me something new. Would you teach me how you bake?” He asks.

“Really?!” I squeal happily, no one had ever asked me to teach them.

“Yes. Now come on. We’ve got baking to do” He smiles as I clap happily before joining him in the kitchen with my hair up and apron on.

Vance was terrible at baking, flour went everywhere, and he couldn’t crack an egg to save his life as I laugh at him, trying to teach him.

After an hour he was finally getting the hang of it, he could memorise a recipe easily enough, but trying not to make a mess seemed to be difficult.

“You look like a ghost” I laugh as I cleaned up the tabletops when we put the last batch into the oven.

“I’m going to go wash up” He laughs.

“I’ll get the frostings sorted for when the cakes are done” I smile as he nods and leaves the kitchen to head to the bathroom.

“Oh, I forgot to mention, Tony and Pauline…They know about wolves too” Vance pops his head in quickly, winks and heads straight back out, leaving me more confused than I had ever been.

The first couple of batches of cakes were done as I set them to cool before frosting and icing any of them.

“Good morning little Lucy” Tony walks in at 7:30am ready for the day ahead.

“Morning” I smile as I finish the designs on the cakes before transferring them to the new cake counter we had by the tills.

“Wow, they smell amazing Lucy” Pauline smiles.

“SERENA” Vance sings as I look at him wide-eyed.

“What?” Pauline asks.

“Tell her what you are Pauline” Vance smirks as Pauline smacks his arm and looks shocked.

“What the fuck you talking about?” Tony growls out.

“Don’t start Tony…You can tell her what you are too. And her name is Serena, not Lucy. Although, you can call her Lucy in front of the customers” He says before shutting his office door behind him, leaving us all standing in shock.

“I…I…” I stammer.

“I knew there was more to you…” Tony eyes me, his eyes go red as I let out a squeak of surprise as his teeth elongate into fangs.

“Holy shit!” I cry out.

“Oh just you wait honey” Pauline smirks as she lifts a hand and one of the service trays begins to fly in the air.

“So, I’m a vampire, Pauline is a witch and Vance is a werewolf that doesn’t shift anymore, what are you little one?” Tony looks at me curiously.

“My parents were werewolves…I didn’t know until yesterday…” I murmur.

“What? Why? How?” Tony asks.

“Long story…” I sigh.

“Tell us as we finish your cakes” Tony says as I nod and head back into the kitchen as I tell them everything I had told Vance last night.

“I knew there was something about you” Tony smiles.

“Something is hiding you…I can’t sense your wolf…Even one that hasn’t turned I would still sense you” Pauline says as she takes my hand.

“Hiding me?” I frown.

“What could be hiding her? Who?” Vance says leaning on the doorframe.

Pauline begins to move her hands over my body but shakes her head.

“Nothing on her body” She says.

“Serena, take her upstairs to the flat. Pauline, we have to keep her safe, I need to know what is hiding her from her own kind and why. Her parents were the Baldo’s” Vance says as Tony and Pauline gasp.

“My god…You’re royalty” Pauline says as she takes my hand and leads me upstairs as I open the door and let her in as she moves across the floor slowly.

“Anything?” I ask.

“Something is…Odd…Not this room though” She says as she moves towards the bedroom.

“What’s in the suitcase?” She asks pointing to the case on top of my wardrobe.

“Nothing, it’s empty” I shake my head.

“No its not…” She frowns as she uses her magic to bring it down to the ground as it bursts open, her hands hovering over it as slowly the fabric lifts up and off the case.

“What is that?!” I ask as I see a gem attached to the lining of the case.

“That is a gem that has been infused with a spell. It’s what’s stopping your own kind finding you…” She sighs as it begins to throb with light as I step back.

“What are you doing?”

“Finding out who made it” She says with a frown as sweat begins to drip from her and her legs wobble.

“Woah! Pauline!” I cry out as I catch her as she passes out.

I pick up her frail body and place her on the bed.

“VANCE!” I scream as I go and grab a flannel, wetting it and placing it against her head.

“What happened?” Vance and Tony rush in as they see Pauline passed out on my bed.

Tony rushes forward, pierces his own skin and places the open wound to her mouth as a few drops of his blood reaches her lips.

A few moments later, his wound is gone, and she begins to wake up.

“We have to keep her safe…” She mumbles as they look at me.

“Why do I have a really bad feeling about this?” I groan.

“Something or someone strong is hiding you. I’ve never felt something so powerful before…” Pauline groans as she sits up slowly.

“Any ideas who it could be?” Tony asks.

“No…I will have to talk with the coven. I can’t break this alone” she sighs.

“One step at a time. Today we get on with our day to day life, tonight we go see Lucien and the boys to reveal the truth and get Serena her wolf. Then we work out a plan together.” Vance says as the others nod.

“I don’t want you guys to get hurt for me. If it comes to it, I’m leaving” I say.

“No you’re bloody not kid.” Tony rounds to me.

“But…”

“No! We will not lose you. We’ve all become quite fond of you in this short period of time. This here is a family unit and you’ve made that even stronger. We will keep you safe. We will work this out and you will have a life worth living again!” Tony says sternly as tears fall from my eyes. This was the first time in years I had felt I had a family and I did love them dearly.

I burst into tears as Pauline rushed to my side and hugged me tight like my mother had once done, cooing softly in my ear.

I sniffed and caught a whiff of something, something oddly familiar as I looked towards the door.

“SHIT!” I screamed as I headed towards the door, jumping down the stairs and straight to the ovens which were filled with smoke as my cakes were burning.

I turned the oven off and grabbed the burnt cakes, putting them on the rack as Vance opened the door to let out the smoke as I coughed.

“What were you thinking?! What if something was on fire and you went straight into it?!” Vance screams at me as my hands shake.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry” I cry.

“I’m not going to hurt you” he says calmly as I’m on the floor, shaking from fear.

“My god, they did a number on you over the years didn’t they?” Tony sighs as he helps me up slowly.

“Come here Serena” Pauline asks as Tony leads me to her.

“What are you doing?” Vance asks.

“I want to see it, everything” She says.

“S…see it?” I gulp.

“Yes, take my hand” She orders as my hand shakes above hers as Tony gives me a reassuring nod as I place my hand in hers. Her eyes turn white as I feel power flood my body as my eyes close. Memories flood my vision as I feel her there next to me, she’s watching.

“Please don’t, not that” I cry as she gets to Sebastian and the others, but she pushes on, watching everything she said she would.

I gasp as she’s finished, both of us feeling heavy as her eyes are flooded with tears.

“My poor girl” She cries hugging me tightly.

We begin to calm as the guys are cleaning up the mess from the burnt cakes as they watch us with worry flooding their eyes.

“Guess we just have the one lot of cake today” Tony smirks as I giggle through the tears as he shows me the wreck of burnt cakes.

“Today is just not going well” I laugh.

“Right! Enough tears, let’s get on with work, distract that brain of yours. Then tonight we will ALL come with you to whatever is happening tonight. I want to see that wolf of yours. Alpha’s are huge compared to normal ones so I’m curious at how big you’ll be…Oh and the colour…I’ve seen some rare colours before, one even had a red streak down its back!” Vance smiles, pinches my cheek, leaving me and Tony in the kitchen as I wipe my face.

“You’ll get through this” Tony kisses my head.

“Thank you” I murmur as I begin throwing away the burnt cakes, tying up the bag and taking them out to the bins.