‘It’s a dream,’ Kai told my wolf.

‘I know.’

I tried to move my paw. Nothing happened. The witch was walking the little girl over to her altar. She hadn’t noticed me yet.

‘Aurora, do you know why I love you so much?’

‘Because you’re my mate, you have to,’ I joked.

‘No, because you don’t let anyone tell you what to do. I have never shared this with you, but I fear that you too may be an Alpha. You may be more dominant than me. I sense that. I knew from that first day that you may actually have the power and strength to lead this pack, to be stronger than me. It terrifies me and excites me all at once. No one can make you do anything you don’t want to do. You’re a free spirit.’

His confession knocked into me like a ton of bricks. I felt his Alpha power merge with mine and a growl ripped from my throat. Prudence turned to look at me and stumbled backward. I leapt from where I had been cemented with fear and landed on her chest, knocking her into her altar. A candle fell onto her hair and lit it on fire. She began to scream. The little girl fell over, broken free from her spell.

“Wake up! Wake up! Go back to your body! Tell your mother what happened here and run away,” I screamed at the girl. The little girl ran for the front door. The second she crossed the threshold outside, she disappeared. Prudence was chanting now as her body lit on fire. I ran for the door but a blast hit me from the back and I fell forward shifting back into my human form. The door slammed shut and smoke began building in the house.

I stood up and faced her. “One day I’m going to learn to fully use my magic. I’m going to find you and I’m going to incinerate you out of existence.”

I leapt to the right and slammed my body through the living room window. I felt Kai’s power pushing me through the glass. I was about to reach the ground when I slammed back into my body and out of my dream.

***

I opened my eyes. Max, Emma, Sylvia, Nahuel, and Kai all stared at me.

“Well, I might have a hard time sleeping from now on,” I told them.

Kai let out a sigh and grabbed me, holding me close.

After promising Sylvia I would attend weekly witch circles and spell castings, she left. After promising Nahuel I would wear a special protection amulet he made me, he left as well. I glanced at Kai.

Kai had been patient. He had given me time to think things through. I owed him an explanation. I slowly pulled the paper I had taken from his father. I unfolded it and handed it to him. I watched his features change as he read the paper.

“Okay, what the hell is this?”

“RAIDOS has figured out that I can’t impregnate vampires so long as I stay unmated. I’m infertile. I love you, Kai, but we can’t marry. If we do, I become fertile and so does my blood.”

I told him everything. About the device the vampires had to drain and sell my blood, about my fear and desire to have children. When I was done, he took my face in his hands.

“This doesn’t mean we can’t marry.”

Hope sprang up inside my chest. “It doesn’t?”

“It only means we have to take out the vampires that want to hurt you.” The tone of his voice gave me chills.

Sometimes I wondered just how dangerous the man I shared my bed with could be. I swallowed hard. “You have that look in your eye. The crazy creepy look that says you want to go on a killing spree.” I tried to make a joke. His face remained sinister.

“Vampires are like bees,” he told me, as I saw a plan hatching in his mind.

“Bees?”

“Bees. They spend their whole life obsessed with their hive and honey. Money and blood for vampires.”

“Okay.” I could kind of see where he was going. Sure vampires and bees had some similarities. “And this helps us how?”

“They are also obsessed with their queen. Their pathetic little lives revolve around one bitch. Take out the queen, take out the hive.”

Oh, shit. Kai was going to go after Layla.

“What are you going to do?” My heart was pounding.

Kai smiled. “Don’t worry. You just plan our wedding. We will be mated, Aurora. No one is taking that from me.”

And in that moment I didn’t care. About any of it. I was loved. I smiled and folded myself into his arms as he kissed me long and deep. After everything that had happened in my life, with my broken childhood, to my car accident and my newfound abilities. It was all a part of a greater outcome. This was where I was meant to wind up. I belonged in Kai’s arms. I was some crazy witch werewolf hybrid who was hunted by vampires and had the ability to give them evil bloodsucking children, but it didn’t matter. Kai and I were made for each other and no one was taking from us what we deserved. We deserved it all. We would have everything we wanted in life and God have mercy on whoever got in our way. A growl left my throat and Kai nodded.

“Yes, Meri Pyari. We will fight for what we want in life. Let no creature stand in our way.”

Mist began to rise off of my skin and I felt patches of fur break out on my arms. If the vampires wanted a war, then that’s what they would get.