Page 76 of Rejected and Pregnant By the Alpha
“How much is she paying you guys?” I find myself asking, turning to look out at the sea.
“Half of the money her coven is getting from this expedition,” Hannah gloats.
Shaking my head, I grin at how ruthless my mate is when it comes to business. It’s no wonder Haven Trail rose to the ranks it did with her in charge.
“Well, with the hunters taken down here, we plan to take a day or two off to rest. I will call later tonight to talk to Saben,” I say, looking back to see Fabian waiting for me at the entrance to the dock, a pissed-off look on his face. “It seems something came up, and Fabian is not happy. I need to go see what they found inside.”
Hannah sighs but reluctantly agrees. After telling me to be safe and that she will talk to me soon, the call ends, and I make my way down to Fabian.
“What is it?” I ask him, handing Fabian his phone back.
We found a secret room. It has something in it that nearly brought Aileen to the edge of bloodlust in her anger, but I can’t say what it is as she doesn’t want Christa Zatia to know,Fabian answers through our private link, his voice shaking and deep with rage.
Shocked, I motion for him to lead the way, reminding him to play it cool. If Aileen found something she doesn’t want the vampires here to know, then it’s something that means a lot to her.
We walk down the many winding halls of the warehouse and toward the cells. Many of the vampires we found in the cells were happily sucking away at a hunter like a juice box, the stench of blood making my nose itch. They looked healthier, though, the starvation in their eyes gone.
“How many hunters have they bled dry?” I ask, looking at a vampire who appears no older than sixteen.
“Two each so far. Aileen is having her vampires bring animals to them now from the forest to help supplement their blood supply,” Fabian answers, his voice curt.
I nod, already used to the sight of vampires drinking the blood of hunters from taking out five other headquarters of the Hunters Association.
Slowly, the cells grow empty as we walk down what looks to be a decrepit hall, forgotten over the years. However, I scent recent activity from hunters and know these halls are just a façade. We quickly reach the end of the hallway, where I notice a door left open. Miella and Mikos are guarding it, their keen eyes scanning the hall. I know Aileen put them there, as Miella will be able to intercept any curious vampires not part of her coven.
“Aileen is waiting inside,” Miella says, her usual playful voice filled with dread and anger. “It’s… it’s not a pretty sight,” she adds, her teeth gritted in anger and fangs poking through.
Worried about what I might find, I take a deep breath and pause. I smell… pups.
Without thinking, I rush inside, using my nose to find my way to a wall of bookshelves, with one thrown to the side, a gaping hole in the back. The sight that greets me shocks me to my core as I find cribs in neat rows. Inside are pups as young as just a few weeks old to some that seem to be as old as two.
“Why?” I find myself asking as I see five of Aileen’s vampires zipping around and feeding each pup. They must have been at this for a while.
“They were looking for a special bloodline,” Aileen answers, her voice so cold that I feel like my blood has frozen over.
“What sort of bloodline?” I ask, turning to face my friend.
“One with a witch in it. And they found it.”
There, in her arms, is a little pup, her black hair and pale blue eyes looking at me with wonder. She must be no older than a month, and without thinking, I reach out and take her little hand in mine. She is so small.
“The books on the shelves behind us are records of all the pups that were born here, dating back one hundred years. They were looking for a witch from my sister’s bloodline, one who mated a wolf, and they found it.”
71
Julian
Holding the little pup in my arms, I carefully feed her a bottle of formula. She is so tiny that I worry I might squish her if I am not careful. An hour has passed since I arrived in this nursery. By now, all the pups inside have been checked, and their health and safety are the top priorities for these hunters. The pups who do not show any signs of magical powers are raised until they turn sixteen and then shipped off to the highest bidder to become slaves. Their wolves are beaten into submission by the hunters, and each record is meticulously documented.
“Hannah is on her way with some computer programs from her company that can help track down the buyers of the pups these bastards sold,” Fabian says from beside me, anger in his eyes.
“It seems we will need to end the royal tour early to deal with this new development,” I state, pulling the empty bottle from the pup’s lips and carefully lifting her to my shoulder to burp her theway Aileen showed me. This pup seems quite picky about who she trusts; other than Aileen and me, she has cried at the top of her lungs if anyone else tried to hold her.
“Yeah, it seems so,” Fabian agrees, looking down at the pup now cradled in my arms and dozing off. “I think Hannah is going to fall for this little one,” he muses, reaching out to caress her chubby cheek with his finger.
The pup stirs for a moment and opens her eyes to find the person touching her, only to see Fabian smiling down warmly. Scratch that; now she has three people she can trust as this little girl quickly falls asleep.
“Does she have a name yet?” he asks, and I shake my head no. Like all the pups here, each one wears a hospital bracelet on their wrist with a number. This little girl is number 151.
