CHAPTER SIX | Present Time

CHAPTER SIX

Present Time

“I REALLY DON’T KNOW if this is a good idea, Vince,” Brayden said as he rubbed his hand over his jaw again. “Not to question your judgment, but it makes me nervous.”

Vincent slapped him on the back, and they continued walking through the castle.

“It’ll be fine. It’s only a small number of the Operation Daylight team. It’s about opening up and showing them who we are, and that we’re no threat to them. Showing. Not telling them. Of course, I expect you to arrange our best security for their arrival.”

Operation Daylight was the name given to the team of world leaders who were aware of their existence.

All their lives, they’d lived among humans undetected until a letter sent to the president of the United States and a leak from his office had seen the information go viral. The Moretti team had been able to counter it with a fake news campaign on social media, and so far, it had worked. But for how long, they didn’t know. For now, Vincent was focused on educating the Operation Daylight team about the vampire race and eradicating as much fear about them as possible. They’d already seen how humans behaved when they discovered something they didn’t understand. Dozens of his vampires had been kidnapped and tested on in the labs. It had rightfully infuriated him, but he’d turned his anger into fuel.

Now, Vincent was determined to lay a solid foundation of trust with these humans so nothing like that happened ever again. Fortunately, many of them weren’t strangers. The Morettis had rubbed shoulders with the elite and powerful around the world for centuries.

“Hell yeah, they will be,” Craig said behind him.

Vincent didn’t doubt his security team; they were the most powerful in the race.

“I see the benefits in doing this,” Lance spoke. “They’ll see we’re just like them.”

“Sure, just bigger, stronger, and faster.” Kurt laughed.

Vincent stopped as they reached the foyer in the front entrance of his castle. He eyed a whole bunch of sparkly shit. Turning as he stepped through the archway, he spotted an enormous Christmas tree.

And that wasn’t all.

Underneath it were at least fifty thousand gift boxes. The entire foyer was lined with fairy lights winding up the staircase banisters and mistletoe hanging in doorways. In one corner, there was a group of smaller trees, as if the larger one had given birth to triplets.

“What the fuck,” he cursed loudly. “Did Santa throw up in here?”

“I think the—”

Before Brayden could finish, the door burst open, and four familiar females came inside, giggling as they removed their jackets. All of whom came to a screeching halt when they saw them.

Cue the guilty eyes darting at each other.

Then, as if they’d rehearsed it, they each began to smile sexily at their mates.

Vincent frowned, not making eye contact with Kate.

“Hey, baby.” Brianna danced over to Craig and tossed herself into his chest.

Vincent shook his head.

Are you kidding me?

“What are you females up to?” Lance asked, tugging Sofia into his side.

“A good question, De Luca,” Vincent said, narrowing his eyes at Willow, who refused to look at him.

“We were just going for a walk, darling,” Kate replied as she waddled up to him (her words, not his), and he placed his hands on her belly. He caught her eye for a moment, sharing a private moment as they acknowledged their growing child.

Then he glanced around at the chaos.

“In the hail?” He frowned and she shrugged.

He didn’t believe a word of it.

Bang.

“It’s all lit up, Miss Brianna!” one of their tech guys announced as he bounded through the door, doing the same coat removal dance, freezing when he saw the king.

Suddenly, everyone began talking. The techie mumbling Your Majesty as he lowered his head. The males groaning and rubbing their foreheads. The females offering to make him his favorite drink and directing him into the library.

Did they think he was stupid?

“Stop!” he ordered.

There was silence as they all held their breath.

Vincent groaned as he thought about how best to deal with this. These females were out of control with their antics. He knew that if he walked through his front door, his blood pressure would shoot through the roof. Part of him wanted to turn around and walk away, but the old “give them an inch and they’ll take a mile” philosophy kept his feet right where they were.

He loved how his queen had female company. He was pleased that his brother had his mate and that many of the other males were coupling up.

But this was a goddamn castle. A working royal castle.

“Willow bought the baby a drum set for Christmas!” Brianna suddenly announced.

Everyone turned to stare at her.

“It’s from Santa! Could have been anyone...” Willow growled.

Beside him, Kate was giggling.

Brayden cursed.

“Are we buying gifts? Like humans?” Lance asked, sounding genuinely interested.

Vincent rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Ladies, if I step outside these doors, what am I going to see?”

A bunch of oh, well , and some decorations , and bit of tinsel sounded around him.

“Which required the help of a technician, did it?”

Craig groaned.

“What did you do?” Craig asked, tipping Brianna’s chin. “Did you buy the big set? I said no.”

Set of? Set of fucking what?

What the hell had these females done to the front entrance of his castle?

“That’s it.” Vincent marched to the large double doors as four females ran after him crying out.

“You said he never comes out here!” Brianna cried.

“Well, he normally doesn’t,” Kate answered, and he turned to glare at his mate.

Whipping open the doors, Vincent stepped out into the drizzle and stopped dead in his tracks. His mouth dropped open.

“Did I just step foot inside a fucking Christmas movie?”

“You watch Christmas movies?” Bri asked with a sparkle in her eye.

“No, I don’t watch...never mind.” He turned and pointed to the scene in front of him. “I said NO reindeer, and we never discussed life-size candy canes. And...good God. The giant Santa needs to go before I behead him.”

“You got snow delivered?” Brayden asked, glancing at Craig with a frown. “How did we not know this was happening?”

“It’s a machine. We hired it,” Kate answered as if her answer was obvious.

“Actually, I knew about it. I thought you’d signed it off,” Kurt said, narrowing his eyes at Brianna, who smiled back. “It’s been running for a few hours.”

Vincent crossed his arms and stared from one face to the other.

“Oh, come on. It’s not like we snuck in half the rebellion,” Kate huffed, frowning. “Come on, Vincent. It’s Christmas.”

He rolled his eyes so hard his head nearly fell off. “And we are v-a-m-p-i-r-e-s!” Vincent said before walking back inside.

They all followed.

“We have a handful of world leaders coming in a few days. It gives the wrong impression. Tone it down.” He looked pointedly at Brianna. “No snow. No candy canes. No Santa.”

He turned and marched off.

“ Yes! He didn’t mention the reindeer,” Brianna squeaked.

“NO reindeer!” he yelled without turning, mostly because he didn’t want them to see his grin.

“Drat.”

VINCENT WALKED INTO the operations room a few hours later.

The senior lieutenant commanders sat haphazardly around the room, as they always did, while Craig and Brayden leaned on their desks up the front of the room.

“Let’s double security in the morning and get the black team prepped for the Operation Daylight guests arrival,” Craig instructed his guys after nodding his head at the king in acknowledgement of his arrival. “Bray and I will be with the king, but I want you four monitoring every inch of the property and beyond.”

“From this point onward,” Brayden added.

“Out about two miles?” Tom asked.

Craig nodded as he turned to the map on the screen behind them. “Yup, should be fine.”

“I’m not expecting any issues,” Vincent spoke, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms. “I understand their security guys will be here to spec the place the night before.”

“I’ll be leading that,” Craig confirmed. “But I want you all across it, so check your tablets on the regular.”

“Just the POTUS team, right?” Marcus asked, and Craig shook his head.

“All of them, so we will deal with each team separately. I’m not having security experts running around the place unsupervised.”

They all nodded.

Vincent rarely interfered with these issues. Brayden was the captain of his army and Craig the commander. Together, they had worked effectively for centuries, well before he had taken the throne. Even the four senior lieutenant commanders had been in their roles for hundreds of years. It was a well-oiled machine, and they were as loyal as any king could ask for.

Their number one job was protecting him and the queen, then the prince and princess (yes, there was a conflict of interest, given Bray was the captain, but he knew the drill, and Craig was quick to remind him when he hesitated), then the vampire race.

All of it.

“I see Diego Lombardo is not on the list,” Lance mentioned, crossing his arms.

The Italian president had been found to be in bed, so to speak, with Stefano Russo. They were still uncovering exactly how deep his involvement with the rebellion leader was, but it wasn’t good. They believed he had played a part in the kidnapping and testing of his vampires. After Vincent’s private conversation with the POTUS a few months ago, they had both realized it was impossible to have him arrested or removed. They couldn’t expose his activities without going public about the vampire race.

Still, a leader could be in power and have very little.

“He’s been removed from Operation Daylight ,” Vincent informed. “And silenced, as much as we can. President Adler assures me Lombardo won’t be a problem. I’d love to know what they have on him, but no, that fucker is not stepping foot on Moretti land. And never will.”

Lance nodded a few times. It had been his mate, Sofia, who had gone into those labs and first seen the captured vampires lying helplessly on the laboratory beds.

“Okay, any questions?” Brayden asked, glancing at his watch. When everyone shook their heads, the team was dismissed. As the room cleared, the prince glanced over at him. “What’s up?”

“I want you to take part in this tour when the leaders arrive. Officially. As a royal.”

“Why?”

Vincent was expecting the question.

As captain of the army, Brayden never got involved with royal duties. He focused on security and leading his team, not schmoozing with society. He knew the prince hated the fluffy royal stuff, as he called it, and their mother had often pushed back when their father had insisted.

Vincent had never seen any reason to change that for as long as he’d been king. The structure they’d had until now was a good one. Aside from a brief time earlier in the year when they thought he was dying, Vincent had been happy for the prince to continue being captain and leading their security.

But now things were different.

The strength and visibility of the royal family needed to be a priority.

“Times have changed, Bray. I want to ensure you have a relationship with these people. You are the prince, which as they come to understand our way of life, they’ll realize is a prominent position. Willow should also attend as princess,” he explained. “We’re a royal family, and one day, that will be public knowledge around the world. We should start off as we mean to go on.”

“Fuck me,” Brayden said, staring at him.

“I’m sure your mate will be more excited than you are.” He laughed.

“Because of the dinner.”

Not a question. They both knew Willow would love dressing up. All the females would. And some of the males.

“Fancy as fuck,” Vincent answered, nodding “Wear your best stuff.”

“I’m still wearing my weapons,” Brayden muttered, crossing his arms.

“I’d expect nothing less.”