CÉLESTINE

"May I have a look," I said lightly as the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach began to grow. Nikko gave my a nod and I want up to him. The moment I got a closer look I knew. My heart stopped dead. I knew this had to be Jasper's doing. I just hoped I was wrong. "Did you know the wolf that did this to you?"

"How did you know," Nikko squeeked out in a panic stricken voice.

"If anyone could recognize the work of a wolf it'll be him," My oh so fucking helpful brothered said as he walked over to stand behind me. I wanted to yell at him and tell him now was not  the fucking time for his GD obsessive fanboy worship of creature's of the night. 

"No," Nikko said with creepy distant voice that even I had to admitt was kind of sexy, in that wounded dog kind of way. "This pack of dogs was't from around here."

"You need to feed," My new-found brother hissed at his royal lover.

"Not now," Nikko shot back hottly in a brooding manner that I couldn't help but find oddly sexy. 

"No. You will feed. And right bloody now," Sty barked back. It was clear whom wore the pants in this relationship. "If your father sees you like this...." Sty let the sentance hang in the air, like an Damoclean sword.

"Ok," Nikko said in a voice that were it me it would have came out as "Yes, Mother". I must admitt that it was kind of hot watching Nikko Feed from Sty. I must be drunk off my ass if I think that that shit of sexy. I never understood how someone can find a cold, dead, bloodsucker hot in anyway. I perfered my men alive, warm, and of the cocksucking variety.

But, I'd be willing to admitt that Prince Nikko was sort of hot. He had the whole Abicrombie model thing going for him. And the whole wounded mongral dog gambit he had about him now didn't hurt in the least bit.

"I'm so sorry, My King," Sty said in a voice so quite that had Céleste and me not been so close we may not have even heard.

"King," Céleste said wistfully to himself. "But, that would mean..."

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED," I shout without realizing quite what I was saying. I was kind of glad that I didn't say what was really on my mind at the moment.

"You're from Boston, aren't you," Sty said to Céleste and me. I could tell that he was really addressing me and in a way that was saying he was holding court.

"Yeah. Why," I said even thought I knew where this convo was headed. I was just going to play it by ear.

"How well do you know the pack from there?"

"Well, enough. You think it was one of them, then?"

"It has to be. They're the only other pack on this continent and the wolves in this area wouldn't be as bold as to attack the royal family in their own home," Sty said cooly.

"Ugh," I said in exasperation. "That dumb mutt. I'll flay him for this."

"You're not saying that Jas did this, are you," Céleste asked me.

"Not now. Mommy and Daddy are talking," I shot back at him, before I turned back to Sty and his royal amour and add "And before you ask I have not clue where the fuck he'd be. I honestly didn't think, and I still don't think it, that Jasper and the boys could do something like that. If it he them they'd only be following the orders of Milan."

"I —" Sty started to say but was cut off by Nikko whom blutered out.

"I'm not the king."

"WHAT," Sty shouted. "Your father is dead and your his heir. That makes you king," He all but hissed at the boy.

"I'm not King because father dearest named your mother as his sucessor right before we were attacked by your brothers wayward lover," Nikko said aloofly as though he'd rehearsed what he was saying. "Appearently, he didn't think I was quite King material; that if I couldn't control one vampire, then how could control an entire population of them."

"But, my mother. Does he know what the hell he's done," Sty said hotly.

"I don't think it was all him. You know as well as I that it was your mother whom was really running things."

"But, you're acting as King," Sty stated in a matter of fact voice.

"Where is my mother," I mutter hotly. I suddenly had a burning need to give Mommy Dearest a few more than one pieces of my mind.

"That's just it. They took her," Nikko said.