Page 62 of Nocturnal Desires

He shakes his head. “No. That was you.”

“But—” I begin, but he continues.

“By placing yourself in harm's way day after day, you kept us safe. Without your sacrifice, we would all be dead or worse.”

My sister, Cassia, agrees as she walks over to me.

“You are the alpha we need.”

Once again, Nik lowers himself to his knee, this time followed by everyone within my parliament. I search the crowd, looking for someone to agree with me, but find only bowed heads except the residents of the island who are not in my parliament.

My eyes lock with Pearl’s across the crowd. She has a big smile on her beautiful face, and I lift my hand, calling her over to me. She shakes her head, and I continue my waving until a woman with almost white hair zooms up next to her, picks her up, and deposits her at my side with superhuman strength.

“Breanne,” Pearl growls.

“Don’t you ‘Breanne’me. Your mate wanted you,” the woman—Breanne—says before turning to me. “You’re welcome by the way.”

“Thank you,” I tell her with a smile, sticking my hand out for her to shake.

She slaps it away. “You’re going to be an uncle to my kids—that makes you family, and family doesn’t shake hands,” she says, throwing her arms around my neck and pulling me in for a hug.

“What is the meaning of this?” A man calls and I push Breanne back, taking him in. He’s a large man with blonde hair and black-rimmed glasses.

“Matt,” Breanne warns, and he drops the angry facade letting out a soft chuckle.

“Sorry, I had to. I’m Matt.”

Rather than a hug like with Breanne, Matt stretches his hand out for me to shake. But surprises me when he pulls me in for a man hug and whispers in my ear.

“Hurt her and they’ll never find your body.” I hear the hiss in his voice and even if Pearl hadn’t told me about Breanne and Matt being vampires, I would still be afraid.

I gulp as he lets me go, looking first at Breanne who is grinning like the Cheshire cat, guessing that she heard that little comment and agrees one hundred percent. Pearl, on the other hand, is glaring at her friends.

“I won’t,” I declare, pulling Pearl to my side.

“So alpha, is there someone you want to delegate to handle housing for your parliament?” Alaric says walking over to our group.

“My sister, Cassia, and her mate have been the alpha pair for the past eleven years; they would know the needs better than me.”

He nods, and I turn, gesturing for Cassia and Nik to join us.

“Cassia, Nik, this is Alaric, the alpha of the Westwood pack. This is Matt, Breanne, and my mate.”

“Pearl,” Cassia nods her head with a welcoming smile at my mate.

“Yes. I was hoping that you could help figure out temporary housing for our parliament.”

“Of course,Alpha,” Cassia snarks, and I chuckle. “Where should we set up?”

“We have more than enough room on my pod’s land,” Pearl offers.

“What if you find more mermaids?” Breanne asks, a smirk on her face.

“If and when we find moresea nymphs,we will figure it out,” Pearl says.

“We would prefer to be in a forested area anyway,” I tell them, placing a soft kiss on the side of Pearl’s head.

“So around here?” Cassia asks, bringing the conversation back to the original topic.

---