The Mate Challenge

15

Aria glanced at the group assembled in her study. She’d called on her advisors to find out if anyone knew what was going on at Embraced. If a human girl was taken or worse, used as a blood slave, she needed to know.

“I won’t tolerate lies,” she said with steel in her voice.

She paced the large study, her red heels clicking on the marble floor. The mansion had been in her family for generations. As the daughter of a blood born and a blood born herself, she led her clan with strict rules.

“Aria, maybe you’re going a bit overboard,” her secretary said softly. Chantal didn’t normally argue with Aria’s commands, so this was new.

Aria swirled to face the other woman. Chantal didn’t cower like most would. She knew Aria didn’t want to hurt them. There was a first time for everything.

“I don’t think that human’s disappearing and being linked to Embraced is going overboard,” she snapped. “This is how wars begin. Rumors.”

“Mistress, if I may,” Claude, her cousin tried to intervene, “I understand where you are coming from, but we’ve stayed out of the shifter war.”

True. But she had a feeling something was going on that she didn’t know about. That child had to be linked to either the southern clan or her own. If someone was using human blood slaves, her clan could be at war themselves soon. Not only with the shifters, but with the humans as well.

“Humans do not go into Embraced,” she restated, marching to the large window by her desk where the moon shone through brightly. At least she still had that, the brightness of the moon. She’d stopped walking in the daylight just a few short years back, but she still missed the sun.

“I have not heard of any reports of a human going into Embraced,” Anton, her oldest advisor said. Anton had been with the clan since her great grandparents’ time. He’d been the one to tell her parents’ of her grandparents’ death. Older than most of the others, he didn’t turn until he was almost sixty, almost four hundred years back. But he wasn’t a blood born like Aria, so he wasn’t as strong.

Aria, whose family blood line directly connected her back to Miralla Abarca passed their power and strength to each blood born. Though he was older than Aria, he had a tendency of treating her as if she were still a little girl learning how to lead. “You shouldn’t worry over humans, Aria. That’s what we are here for. To take care of those matters.”

Aria stopped herself from the instant urge to turn and lift Anton by the throat. She counted to ten and back. Lately, she felt as though everyone thought she was nothing more than a child. She glanced back at the group with pursed lips. “I will not ignore what is under our noses, Anton.”

“Yes, child—”

“Don’t—,” she gritted her teeth, “call me child again.” Her Spanish accent came through more pronounced when she was angry. At that moment, she was livid. “Matters of the clan are my responsibility. It is not your job to decide what I should or should not worry about.”

Anton lowered his head in acknowledgement. “I understand.”

Aria gave a sharp nod. “I want to know if there have been humans at Embraced.”

“Aria, that goes against the rules. Who would be stupid enough to allow a human in there?” Chantal exclaimed, she stared at her folded hands on her lap. Chantal had been assigned to Aria since her birth. Though Chantal was at least one hundred years older than Aria, she treated her like a sister. As an only child, Aria had appreciated having someone who she could be close to, but that didn’t mean she would allow Chantal or anyone else to undermine her authority.

Before she got a chance to reply to Chantal’s words, Claude cleared his throat. “Perhaps we don’t know enough.”

Anton turned his head to glare at Claude. “Foolish boy, of course we know. I know. No one is allowing humans in the club. They know the rules.”

Aria glanced back out her window. The hairs on her arms raised and for a second she swore someone out there was watching her. Impossible. Everyone was gone for the night and the only people in the mansion were there with her. The guards were out front, so the idea was ludicrous. Still, a sliver of discomfort kept her staring into the woods.

“Do you have anything in mind about this human problem?” Anton asked. His tone was high with a sort of whininess she hated. He only used it when he thought she was being stupid or dramatic.

“Yeah,” she snapped. “Try finding out if anyone knows where the human girl is!”

Chantal rolled her eyes. “How did you even find out about the kid? If we didn’t know, how do you?”

Aria moved fast, picking Chantal up by the throat and shoving her up a wall filled with books. A collection of priceless first volumes fell to the ground as Chantal’s back slammed on the row of books.

“I don’t need to explain myself to you,” Aria muttered, her fangs descending. Unlike most humans believed, fangs didn’t just peek when a vampire was going to bite. They descended whenever a spike in emotions happened. Whether thirst, anger, or even s****l excitement.

“I’m sorry,” Chantal squeaked through the vice of Aria’s hand on her throat.

She let Chantal fall to the floor with a thump and turned to the others in the group. “I want information on the girl. Who took her and why. I don’t want our clan pulled into a shifter war. If they want to kill themselves, I’m fine with that. The minute it is said vampires are responsible for any human deaths, we’ll have our own war on our hands.”

The two men nodded quietly. She didn’t miss the flash of anger in Anton’s gaze, nor the frown on Claude’s. Good. Maybe now they’d start to realize she wasn’t a child any longer. She was their leader and if they wanted to stay in her family, they’d need to start paying attention to her orders.

A shifter war was fine with her. Her clan getting pulled into it? That was the last thing they needed. She’d find that child. Even if she had to do it on her own.

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