Blood Moon (MalexMale Paranormal Fantasy)

Chapter 19 ∞ REEVE

Delta Banks interrupts my early morning training with Rainer in the combat yard. "Young Alpha, there is a vampyre asking for you at our borders. He says his name is Peter Gerard."

Daire's combat partner. I nod and swallow my temper, and Rainer matches my quick strides toward the eastern trails. "I'm coming with you."

We rush along muddied shortcuts and I try to keep my heart from pounding through my chest, the desperation to hear news of Daire overwhelms me.

When we reach the male I've heard so much about, his scent is non-threatening, though his appearance is clearly built to intimidate: tall with muscles to rival Banks', knives strapped to his chest and hips, and a forest green glare that appears as deadly as his blades. "Young Alpha Reeve Rimeara?" he asks, sounding almost bored.

"What do you want with him?" Rainer asks, stepping in front of me.

"And you are?"

Rainer saunters forward, always thrilled by an antagonistic encounter. "You don't come to my pack border and ask me who I am, vampyre. Who the fuck are you?"

"Rainer," I say in warning.

"Ah, the brother," the vampyre says as if that explains everything. "I came to inform you that I'll be stationed outside your borders as a level of protection in case any vampyres try to target your pack before we bring our fight to the coven."

"You can't stay here," Rainer replies, voice breezy.

"Technically, I can. I'm in communal lands."

"We'll have the Council remove you," my brother threatens with a shrug.

"The Council that's sitting by while packs are being attacked? That Council?"

"Our deltas can forcefully remove you citing intimidation and public nuisance," Rainer counters.

The vampyre grins, showing his fangs. "Am I intimidating you, Beta?"

"You're definitely a nuisance."

"Alright, enough," I say, disrupting their pissing match. "Did Daire send you to do this?"

"Correct, even though you cast him out into the Demerian wild where he's being hunted from every direction. Tell me, which questions of yours did he refuse to answer after you found out who he was?"

I keep my lips pressed tight. It seems he already knows the answer.

"Or should I ask, how many questions did you bother to ask at all? Did you even let him try to explain before you judged him and threw him aside?"

"I know the stories of what he's done."

"Do you? Do you really? I'm curious, was it the stories of us hunting violent and criminal rogues that bothered you? Or when he stood up to the king in defense of a pack who wandered too close to our coven lands? Or when he went behind the king's back with his sire to abolish the use of blood slaves? Or when he nursed his sire through years of poisoning? It seems, Young Alpha, that you are a victim of the king's as well, spoon fed a calculated narrative so that no wolf would dare think the prince was a sympathizer."

"To what end? Keep us trapped by fear so that he can rule all of Demeria?"

"That's part of it, but it's deeper than that. It's more about prejudice and his sense of pride. There's a lot of bitterness that's been cultivated since long before Frederick."

"How so?"

"Your history is filled with legends proclaiming wolves as Satu's most blessed creatures, above all others. Do you know what our legends say?"