CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

B rayden was in the operations room pacing the fuck out of the floor. Lance, Marcus, and Kurt were standing around, looking just as stressed out. Seated among them were several of the investigation team.

“There the fuck you are!”

Alrighty, then. The prince was in an awesome mood.

“What’s going on?”

Brayden pointed to Kurt. “Lock the door.”

The guy took off and followed orders. Craig narrowed his eyes at the prince, and they did that no-speaking thing.

Something serious was going on. The prince was all aggression, and given he was the most dominant alpha in the race, his energy was damn powerful. He could feel it radiating around the room.

Craig glanced at the others and felt their tension and palpable fear. They knew they had no reason to fear the prince. The Moretti brothers lived to protect the race, but information had been shared in this room that he was not yet privy to.

“The fuck, Brayden, what is it?”

The prince pointed to the vampire at the table who handed a handful of copies to him. At the same time, the shutters began to drop as the sun peeked above the horizon.

He glanced at them all and started to read.

“We need to get the king briefed. Marcus, get Seraphina to urgently prioritize a time in the next hour. And do it discreetly. I do not want the queen alerted to this.”

Craig glanced up, surprised.

The queen was rarely excluded from anything as serious as this felt. And usually, the decision on whether she was or wasn’t lay with the king. No one else.

Brayden saw the question on his face and gave a small shake of his head.

Jesus.

“Okay, just tell me what the hell all this is about?” He slapped the papers down on the desk.

The investigator opened his mouth to speak, glanced at the prince, got a nod, then continued. “The Russo’s were working with some humans.”

Okay .

“So?”

It wasn’t unusual to do business with humans. In fact, it was nearly impossible not to. There were over seven billion of them and just over a million vampires on earth. So yeah, sometimes you needed to call a human plumber.

“And?” he repeated

Brayden punched his fists down on the desk. “And these fucking humans know. About vampires. About us.”

What?

“For how long?”

The younger vampire answered. “Months, it looks like.”

“How many?”

He shook his head. “We don’t know. Our team is following the communication trail, but right now, it’s around twenty-five people.”

“Motherfuckers. What were they thinking?”

Brayden continued his pacing. “They weren’t, or at least Russo wasn’t. He’s desperate for power.”

Banging on the door interrupted them.

“Tell them no interruptions,” Brayden growled in Marcus’s direction.

As the guy went to do as asked, the prince continued. “We clean this up. Send out a sweep team and fast. I want—”

“Captain,” Marcus interrupted, another investigator rushing in behind him.

“Sir, my lord, I have...shit, you need to see this,” he said, waving a sheet of paper.

Brayden ripped it from his hands and read.

“Fuck!” He flung the paper at Craig. “Put the entire army on red alert. Now! I’m going to speak to the king.”

At the door, he turned.

“Send Brianna home. Now!”

Craig shook his head, and the prince stopped.

She’s my mate, Brayden. She stays.

Motherfucker.

The prince stormed off.

Red lights began flashing throughout the castle as Craig looked down at the piece of paper and read the twenty lines that made his blood freeze.

Dear Mr. President,

Over the past few months, we have been working for an Italian family who are no less than a criminal organization. We’ve been asked to provide them with ingredients required to blow up large properties all around the world. Working with them, we have advised on the most effective way of destroying these building and the inhabitants.

While it may seem strange that I am confessing this to you today, there is a reason for this. The people involved are not people. They are vampires. Before you go thinking I am crazy, please know this is entirely true. I have proof.

We are holding one of them at our facility. I have the addresses of the castles around the world, their royal family, and many others.

Sir, there is another race living among us. They are powerful and dangerous. I invite you to send senior members of your administration to investigate my claims and prepare to hunt these animals and eliminate them.

Yours faithfully,

Bob Johnstone

Craig turned the email over. It was dated three weeks ago. What were the chances of the president reading the letter in that period of time?

It was a moot point anyway. While they could hack good ol’ Bob’s email, they couldn’t hack into the White House.

Fucking Bob.

“Shit.” He handed the sheet of paper to his SLCs and listened as the curses filled the room.

“Prepare to evacuate all the castles. Activate the emergency plan.”

“On it.”

The red lights would be on in every royal property around the world, and their staff would do as they had been trained for centuries. Also, an email and text were about to go out to one million vampires, give or take. Except this wasn’t about staying in place. This was an evacuation.

“Global conference set for forty-five minutes, sir.”

He nodded, then pointed to the investigators.

“I want everyone working twenty-four seven. Go to your evac locations and check in with your team leaders every two hours.”

The vampires sprinted out the door, which was exactly what Craig needed them to do because there were very few who could hear what he said next.

He glanced around at Marcus, Lance, and Kurt. The only one missing was Tom, who was on his way to Italy with the Russo brothers.

How they dealt with that particular situation was up to the king.

“Prepare the Tuscany property for the Moretti’s. We leave any moment. You all know the plan.”

And they did. Since the day he had joined the Royal Army, there had been a plan for the day humans learned about their race. Sure, it was fine-tuned and altered as technology allowed, but no matter where they were in the world, a safe house was prepared and ready for the royal family.

“Get the teams in place and prepare the vehicles.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Lance, Kurt, I need you to run this conference while I get the Moretti’s prepared.”

Determined and focused, they waited for further instructions, but Craig felt the need to say something more. In case there wasn’t another opportunity.

“This has been a possibility for thousands of years. We’ve always known this.”

“We know what to do; we’ve trained for it. You’ve trained us,” Kurt said.

Yeah, they had. They had planned and thought of every possibility, but like with all disasters, you just never really thought it would happen. Not really.

“I handpicked each of you males and wouldn’t want to be doing this with anyone else.” He looked them each in the eye so they knew he meant it. “I trust you with my life and the lives of the Moretti’s.”

He may look like a mean motherfucker, but anyone who truly knew him—and these males did—knew he had a depth and loyalty that was unbreakable.

“Priority one, activate the Tuscany property. Priority two, we relocate the Moretti’s. Priority three, activate communications out to the entire race so our people can take action as we’ve prepared them for. Are we clear?”

“Clear as day. Apparently.”

Craig smirked at the age-old joke.

“We’ve got this,” Marcus reassured, pulling out a box from their safe. They all knew it contained keys to the emergency vehicles which were stocked with everything they needed, including protective barriers for driving in the daylight.

“Telepath me immediately if anything changes.”

Craig grabbed his digital devices from his desk and teleported straight to his rooms to find Brianna.