Page 90 of Royal Bite
“But it’s Lord Apostu. He said you need to take his call now,” the brave warrior said.
Hegna ignored him. Corbin could wait one more minute. She was in the middle of a war zone. Her friend didn’t understand that what she was dealing with was top priority at the moment.
“King Niall,” Azura called out. She grinned, brandishing her fangs for the entire world to see. Her eyes narrowed on the camera. “You will relinquish your throne. It’s time a lycan ruled. How you will give it up? Why, death, of course.”
“Over my dead body,” Hegna growled. This lycan was making too many threats against her father. This was going to end with that lycan’s head hanging from a spike. Hegna would have one specially built just for the occasion.
“And as for the princess. Your heir,” Azura continued.
Hegna growled again, moving closer to the television screen. She didn’t want to miss one word that would come out of her mouth.
“Princess Hegna Riskel, the future queen of the vampires. I hear congratulations are in order.”
A sudden chill slithered down Hegna’s spine. She didn’t like the glint in Azura’s eyes. The lycan was certainly up to something, and Hegna hated it.
Corbin’s voice was shouting through the phone, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the screen. Azura went out of sight for a moment before pushing forward the one person Hegna would burn the entire world down for.
Her mate.
Stormey’s eyes were wide with fear. She didn’t look harmed, but her human was straight terrified. Azura grinned again while yanking Stormey close to her.
“It’s time that we start treating the vampires the way they did my people. In two days’ time, this woman, the mate of Princess Hegna Riskel, will be executed right here on national television.”
The screen went blank.
Hegna’s heart had leaped into her throat. The room around her was dead silent. Anger boiled inside her. Why hadn’t anyone notified her that her mate had been kidnapped?
Hegna yanked the phone from the warrior and put it up to her ear. Corbin was yelling her name.
“How long has that fucking lycan had my mate?” Hegna’s voice was surprisingly calm. A coolness radiated through her as she thought of all the ways she was going to kill not only Azura, but her sister as well. She was going to make them wish they had never crawled out of whatever hole they’d come from.
“It’s been maybe an hour or two,” Corbin gasped. Her friend sounded frantic which was not like him. He usually was cool, collected, and holding all the knowledge she would need to possess. “There was an ambush when she was leaving the orphanage. They took her then.”
“I don’t care what you have to do, who you have to have killed, I want to know where they are,” Hegna ordered. She glanced over at Bijou who was shouting orders to prepare the helicopter. “I’m on my way.”
It had been one day since Hegna had watched Azura drag her mate before a television camera. Hegna strode down the hallway toward the war planning room. Her vampires had been working ever since the broadcast had ended. Sleep had evaded Hegna. There was no way she would be able to sleep when her mate was in the hands of their enemy. She had gone to her private quarters, and the scent of her mate was everywhere.
Hegna’s hands balled into tight fists. They were going to find her mate and that wretched alpha. She would not rest until Stormey was back in her arms.
Hegna made a promise that she would end that lycan’s life. The moment she’d taken Stormey, Azura had signed her death warrant.
The guards in front of the double doors took notice of her walking toward them. They rushed to open the doors for her. They bowed and thumped their chests. She nodded and continued on. The room was buzzing with vampires scurrying around trying to find some clue as to where Stormey could be.
The round table that held the electronic map of the country was in the center of the room. Rows of tables with computers lined the back wall with men and women hunched over the keyboards. Bijou and Corbin stood at the table, conversing.
“Let’s review everything we know,” Hegna demanded. She arrived at the table and leaned her hands on it. She tapped on the screen of the map and shifted it to their town. She marked the street where Stormey had been taken. It wasn’t far from the orphanage. Stormey had fallen quickly in love with the orphanage the moment she had first stepped foot in it. Hegna wanted to give her mate whatever she wanted, and for Stormey, that was to ensure the forgotten children were taken care of.
Hegna would move the heavens and earth to ensure she got her mate back. She didn’t like this feeling of helplessness. Never in all of her years had she experienced emotions like this. Stormey held more of her heart than she had known. As much as she’d tried to push the woman away, she had taken possession of it. Her mate was the calmness to her rage. The light to her darkness. Stormey was a vital part of her life, and she needed her.
Hegna never thought she would be in a place such as this. She had always figured that when she did have a mate, she would keep that person safe. She was one of the deadliest vampires in the world, and while fighting the lycans, she had failed her mate.
She vowed that when Stormey returned, she would make this up to her. She would never fail her again.
For now, she had to focus. Hegna’s gaze traced the route Stormey had taken leaving the orphanage and rested her hand on the virtual representation of the building.
Stormey had gone to the orphanage to meet with the head mistress, Emily, and the architect, Zach Singleton. Who else had known her mate was going there? The lycans apparently knew exactly where they were and had drawn them away from the orphanage.
“Who all knew my mate’s whereabouts that day?” Hegna asked.
