Chapter 1
Merlot
He sat listening to the meeting of the Coven leaders with his siblings. His father and his mother sat side by side, while their stepfather stood behind them, forever her protector. This meeting had gone on for 9 days, and they were finally almost finished. For lower species, the cats had a lot of problems. Panthers, tigers, servals, and lions all sat at the table, self-absorbed and thinking they were the big dogs in the cat community. They all knew that the sabers ruled even though there were only 6 left in the world over 18.
Their father had trained them in the way of the cats, and with their dragon, witch, and vampire DNA, they were unstoppable, and everyone bowed to them faster than the thought of challenging them could cross their minds. That was why their father sat at the head of the table. Their mother didn’t have to show up. Everyone knew it was a power play, one that was unnecessary, as everyone was well aware that their mother would not hesitate to kill for him.
His sister, Joyce, shook him, making his attention snap back to the present, and he stood in preparation to shake the others’ hands. The door banged open as an aura made almost everyone in the room lower themselves to the ground. Great Aunt Sommer glided over the floor, dragging a severely beat-up man behind her. She tossed him easily onto the table.
“So sorry to interrupt,” she sneered sarcasticly, “but can one of you tell me why this fucking toad was caught on my land trying to lure our children away?” She turned furious eyes on Lyle, the Alpha of the Slimmer Coven. “Anyone? No? Well, let me tell you. This excrement of flea larvae is named Harris. He is a disgusting human who, after many hours of my beta’s persuasive conversation, has decided to enlighten us about a coven who has been stealing children to beat, eat, and sell for a multitude of disgusting things. To this coven, it does not matter what species the children are; they just have to be children.”
Her eyes changed as her wolf surfaced. She turned to glare at Amerald and Lucy. “You have one chance to fix it. Do not even think that this chance has anything to do with who you are. It only has to do with who your mother is. You have 24 hours before I rip that fucking Coven apart.”
Lucy stood up, her body vibrating with anger. “Merlot and Joyce will take over and tend to the matters at Slimmer.”
His head snapped around to stare at her. “Us?”
“Yes, you. You know everything about being an alpha, and your sister will be a great beta. Keith will assist. He will fill in as your gamma until you choose one. Even if you don’t choose a gamma, you couldn’t do better than your brother.”
“Dad, we-”
“You heard your mother. Don’t argue. You will gather your things and go. Slimmer is now yours.”
Sommer leaned across the table. “24 hours, boy, or your head will be on my wall beside theirs.”
She grabbed Harris’ ankle and Lyle’s throat before forcing them both out of the room with her. The alphas in the room were dismissed, leaving just the saber family staring at each other, trying to make each other bend to their wills. Merlot finally looked away.
“Fuck! She’s going to kill us. I don’t want to die over something that doesn’t involve me,” he told his parents.
Amerald bared his teeth at him. “Sometimes, as alphas, we have to do things that we don’t want to do. This is your coven now, son. You will come to see that even in the middle of a drought, things grow. You can do this. If we didn’t think you were capable, we would never have put you in charge. Now, go home and get your things. We will meet you at Slimmer.”
“Whatever!”
He opened a portal back to Locust and stormed through with his little brother and sister hot on his heels. He threw the front door open so hard that it bounced off the walls and splintered. He let out an angry roar and yanked the broken door off the hinges.
“FUCK!”
He started towards the stairs when Noel, one of his mother’s maids, came running out of the servants quarters.
“Future Alpha Merlot, you’re home. There’s something you need to know. There’s-”
She fell silent as his furious gaze landed on her. “Well, what is it? SPEAK!”
“T-there’s girls… they… we tried to remove them, but… they wouldn’t leave…” she whispered, fading off.
“What girls? Where?”
“T-they are in your room, Alpha.”
“WHAT?! WE WERE GONE FOR A WEEK, AND YOU CAN’T HOLD THE COVEN TOGETHER WITHOUT FUCKING UP FOR A WEEK? HOW DID THEY EVEN MAKE IT THAT DEEP INTO THE HOUSE?”
“We d-don’t know. They weren’t there Friday night when we went to dust, but when we went Saturday morning to mop, they were there.”
“Where are they from?”
“We don’t know that either.”
“THEN WHAT DO YOU KNOW?”
“They refuse to leave. We can’t force them to leave without hurting them. We tried to, and they screamed if we even got close.”
“Gonna fucking remove them myself,” he grumbled as he stormed up the stairs.
His siblings followed behind him up to his room and kicked the door open. The blanket in the middle of the room had two lumps under it, and he growled. These little intruders had taken his comforter off of his bed and made a nest on the floor. All his pillows were gone, too. They were probably under the blanket, too. He stomped over and ripped the blanket off the floor, uncovering the two females under it. They both looked up at him, terrified, and he froze. His heart stopped beating as he stared at the too-thin, bruised face of one of the girls.
He heard his sister say something behind him, but he was so focused on the shaking girl that he couldn’t make out what she said. He picked her up and immediately sank his teeth into her neck. She screamed and thrashed in his arms, hitting him weakly in the chest with her fists. He pushed his venom through the bite before retracting his teeth. She slumped against his chest, and he carried her to the bed. He cradled her tenderly to his chest and looked at the other girl, who had tears streaming down her face.
“Who are you? Where did you come from? And who in the hell am I killing for hurting my mate?”