~Alistair~

I woke up in the hospital in a chair next to Amorelli's bed. I remember that when we got back last night I passed out. My pregnant mate. The most wonderful woman is carrying my pup or pups. I couldn't be more ecstatic. I felt many intrusions from the pack link and sighed.

'One question at a time.' I grew irritated and everyone became quiet.

'How long has she been pregnant?' I heard my mother ask.

'I do not know. But from the looks of it, not long.'

'What do you want the gender or genders to be?' I heard Mac ask.

'From what Amorelli has shown me, there is only one egg, but I don't care about the gender of the baby.′

'Maybe mermaids only have one offspring at a time?' I heard someone comment.

'No, she has brothers who are triplets." I heard noises of realization and people mumbling about how she mentioned she has triplet brothers.

'When will she wake up?' Emily has asked and I sighed.

'I don't know. We can't risk bringing her out of the coma ourselves so we have to let her ride through it.'

'Anything else? What happened while I was gone?'

'Alana tried to sneak into yours and Luna's quarters. She's in the dungeon, again. All yours, Alpha.' I heard Diesel tell me and I growled in anger.

'I will deal with her later. We need to figure out who the hell keeps letting her out or if she's escaping. Reinforce the silver and wolfsbane on the bars on every cell we have. Mother,' I waited for my mother to respond.

'Yes, darling?' I sighed. It felt nice to hear her calling me that.

'I need you to get the ceremony ready to make Amorelli my Queen.' I heard a few awe's in the link.

'Of course, Alistair. I'll start on them right away sweetheart.' I felt her leave the link and felt my heart soar. I didn't think that an inner wolf like me would be appreciated by my creator.

'Diesel, have there been any updates on the rulers and their training?'

'No Alpha. They did just leave a day ago, so they must have gotten started by now, however. Zinniah's family in continuing to stay, but has relayed the message to their people to start training. Serge has done the same thing.' I nodded and sighed.

'We need to start training our fighters. Gather everyone in the training field. Get them started on laps. Then have them spar for a bit before having them work on weight training. Strictly make it human form only. After the weights and sparring, pair them based on their level of ability to fight and win. If you feel they aren't strong enough to be trained, train a group of them yourself and I will take over that group soon enough. Got it?'

'As you wish, Alpha. I'll get started right away.' I felt him leave the link and knew he would immediately go and gather the fighters. I left the link and sighed. I rubbed my face from stress.

'Alistair. Darling. It'll all be okay.' I heard Amorelli from our link and sighed.

′Your father tried to kill you. We're about to go to war in a few months with these people we know nothing about, and you're pregnant. That's the only good part of this. However, this makes you more at risk. If you get hurt and the baby dies, I would never forgive myself.′ I heard her sigh and she made another scenario. There were little kids running around everywhere. Some were swimming and had mermaid tails, and the others were growling like how I would. Amorelli was laying down in a hammock, while I was rubbing her sore feet. She smiled softly at me and I smiled softly back.

"I love you, Alistair." I felt my heart soar. In the scene, I had started to smile wide.

"I love you too, Amorelli." She smiled and saw that one of our children was pulling one of our daughter's hair.

"Darren! Let go of your sister's hair right now!" Amorelli had yelled and he looked scared and ran off to his toys. She sighed and laid her head back down. I thought for a moment.

'Wait, Darren? Why that name?' It sounded familiar.

'It's your father's inner wolf's name.' She answered bluntly and I nodded. But it got me to thinking. Did she not like my name?

'Baby, your name is sexy as all hell. Especially when I'm screaming it.' I growled lowly and she giggled and continued to watch. I sat behind her and held her stomach. We watched as our children played in my mother's garden. We had looked out towards the door and saw Samara come out with my parents. Mother and Father were holding hands and laughing. I realized that this is what a perfect world would look like. This is what Amorelli wants our future to look like. Happy parents, my sister back, and lots of children.

"Amorelli?"

"Mhm?" She laid her head back on my shoulder.

"How many kids did you want?" I asked her and she sighed.

"I've always wanted a rather large family. So a lot. Maybe as many as you see there." My eyes went wide.

"You want... Seven kids?" I asked her as I looked back at the scene.

"No silly, eight. You missed the one I'm pregnant with." I sighed and laid down on my back and she laughed at me.

"Eight." I just kept saying the word 'eight'.

"That's ridiculous Amorelli." She sighed but laid down next to me anyway.

"I know." She sighed and looked at me.

"But if that's what you really want, then we'll do it. We'll have eight kids." She smiled and climbed on top of me and hugged me. I held her but soon became aroused.

"Damn it, Amorelli." She laughed and nipped my jaw. I groaned as she decided to tease me. I growled loudly and flipped us over so that I was on top.

"Do you want your king to punish you?" All she did was bite her lip. I growled and kissed her. She smiled into the kiss and sighed as she wrapped her arms around my neck. I felt my heart soar for the millionth time and held her even closer to me. I smiled as we kissed and started to tickle her.

"Alistair! Stop!" She screamed and laughed and then we heard a bunch of children's giggles. I looked at her and sighed and turned around.

"Mommy and Daddy are playing!" A little girl with pigtails screamed and they all ran towards us. I laughed out loud as they made a dogpile on us. I smiled at Amorelli and felt more love for her than ever.

"Yeah, Mommy and Daddy are playing." I laid on my side with my arm propping me up as the children had gathered around us. I sighed and looked at them all. They mostly had my looks, but Amorelli's personality. A little girl had poked my shoulder and when I looked at her she smiled at me.

"I love you, Daddy!" She giggled and fell on top of me, all the while still laughing. I chuckled and stroked her hair.

"Daddy loves you, pumpkin." She smiles and snuggles into my chest. I smirked-obviously she was a daddy's girl.

I laid my head down in the grass and sighed.

Maybe eight kids wouldn't be too bad.

~Serge~

Since the incident, I've been getting to know Zinniah. She's more perfect than ever. Currently, we were laying down in a hammock in the garden. I sighed as we watched the clouds go by.

"Zinniah?"

"Mhm?" She was cuddled into my side currently.

"Would you want to live with me in France? After this is all over? Don't take that as a "You're going to be my hostage mate" kind of thing. I mean, you'd be able to visit your family whenever you wanted and they could visit whenever they wanted, I was just curious and I really -" She kissed me softly. I sighed and smiled.

"You babble when you're nervous Serge." She giggled and I chuckled.

"I do, don't I?" I rubbed her back softly and heard her soft moan of approval. She closed her eyes and sighed once again. I smiled and kissed her hair. We sat in silence before I spoke up again.

"So would you?" She opened her eyes are stared at me before laughing. I chuckled nervously and rubbed my neck.

"Flower?" I asked again and she was just calming down from laughing.

"Yes, King Serge, I will come with you to France and live in our house." She smiled and was laying on top of me at this point. I smiled and wrapped my arms around her waist.

"You have no idea how happy you make me my love." I kissed her head as she closed her eyes and took a nap. I sighed and closed my eyes as well. I was rubbing her back when her father had come out to sit with us.

"Your majesty." I nodded my head and he sighed. He smiled as he looked at his daughter and stroked her hair.

"I remember when it happened. When they had grabbed her from her bedroom." He sounded upset. I instinctively held onto her tighter.

No one was going to take her from me.

"What happened, if you don't mind me asking, sir." I sounded gruff. I wanted to hear, but I also didn't at the same time.

"It was while she was sleeping. It was a little after everyone else was being taken. They had started fighting us and almost killed everyone just to get to her. They wouldn't stop. They had broken into our village and started threatening the elders if they didn't get her. I failed as a father because I couldn't protect her." I frowned.

"You didn't know how to stop them. It's not your fault. No one knew this would happen, your majesty. You can't blame yourself as Mordikai's father did, and he ruined himself and his son over it." He gave a sad smile and continued to rub his daughter's hair. She nuzzled me and smiled. I smiled slightly and sighed. I proceeded to lay my head down and stare at the sky. It was smart of Queen York to enchant her garden so that it stays warm year-round. We heard a door open and saw Queen Waters come over to us. She smiled at me and her daughter and stood behind her husband.

"Serge, how are you feeling?" Everyone had heard about the wooden bullet in the gun by now. They still have no idea how someone got a wooden bullet or who even had the gun. Maybe it was another warlock or something.

"I'm better, thank you."

"That's good." We sat around in silence until Zinniah stirred. We all watched to see what she would do next. Her face scrunched and her breathing became ragged. She started to sweat terribly and move around more. She started whining and crying in her sleep.

"What's happening with her?" Her mother grew worried and was in front of her in a split second.

"I think she's having a nightmare." I grew worried and sat up and rearranged her so that I was holding her bridal style. She started screaming, but she hadn't woken up yet. I grew worried and started shaking her.

"Zinniah!" Guards had started to make their way outside, also most of the pack who was around to hear her screams.

"NO!" She was full-on kicking at this point and she ended up punching me in the nose on accident.

"Fuck!" I had gotten up entirely and placed her on the hammock and started to shake her more.

"Zinniah! Damn it, wake up!" She awoke with another ear-piercing scream and her eyes were red.

"Serge!" She screamed my name and I was holding her not even before she finished the scream.

"Sh, I'm here. Sh Zinniah. You're alright. You're okay." I was rocking her and her mother was crying and her father was terrified. A nurse had run out to see what had happened. She took one look at her and gasped.

"Her eyes! They're blood red!" The nurse screamed and when I looked, they were indeed red.

"Zinniah? What the hell, I haven't marked you yet!" Her mother then quietly stated something.

"She has the power to turn into anything she wants, just as long that it can breathe. Plants, animals, and other magical beings. Meaning vampires." Zinniah looked at me, then ran into the forest.

She definitely chose a vampire right now.

"Zinniah!" I chased after her, and she was nothing compared to my speed. I caught up to her easily and I trampled her. She started to scream again but I covered her mouth.

"Baby, cherry blossom, it's me. You're okay. You're okay." I rocked her back and forth and she started crying again.

"I had to change to get away from them. I couldn't let them get me. Serge, they were after me!" She cried harder and I started to kiss her all over her face.

"Zinniah, baby, look at me." She looked up at me and sniffled. I wiped away her tears and kissed her on the lips.

"I would die before I let anything happen to you." I stared her in the eyes as I said this, and she wrapped her arms around my neck.

"Please don't let them get me. Please." She kept pleading that over and over again for a few more minutes. I just kept rocking her back and forth. She eventually calmed down to only sniffling and wiping her face. We looked up and noticed it was getting darker.

"Zinniah? Can I ask you something really quick?"

"What is it?"

"Can you show me?" I gulped and she stiffened.

"Show you what?"

"The dream. I want to know what had happened." She let out a shaky breath but nodded. She then turned to me and placed her hands on my face. I kissed her hand before she showed me the dream.

Zinniah and I were laying down in a field. We were kissing and cuddling and we looked very much at peace. She was laying on top of me and sighed. I noticed that on her neck was my mark. We were marked and mated. I smiled and went in to kiss her before we were interrupted. Hundreds of people had emerged from the trees. There were a lot of people dressed in suits and had guns.

"Serge?" We stood up and held one another. I hissed at them and I felt my eyes turn red.

"Zinniah, promise me you'll run if I tell you to." I looked worried. I could tell that something bad was gonna happen.

"What? No! I'm not leaving you!"

"Damn it, Zinniah if I tell you to run you run. I can't lose you! Do you understand?"She started to cry and nodded.

"Say it." She started to cry.

"I promise."The people in the suits had us surrounded and they pointed their guns at me.

"Step away from her, and no one gets hurt." A guy had walked through the circle that had formed around us. When he stepped through Zinniah gasped.

"You... Stay away from me!" I wrapped myself around Zinniah in a way to protect her. The guy who had come out was the boss. I hissed at him and he ticked his tongue.

"Now now, play nicely. We don't want anyone getting hurt now, do we?" I huffed in anger as he lashed at us with a whip and a clearly tainted wooden stake. I held Zinniah closer to me and she was getting more scared by the minute.

"Just hand Zinniah over, and we might let you live." He chuckled as his men moved forward. They had created such a small circle around us, it was physically almost impossible.

"Zinniah, hold on okay? We'll get through this." I emphasized the 'hold on' part and she understood what I meant and hugged me tightly. The Boss chuckled and I jumped high and landed on a branch of a tree, still carrying Zinniah.

"Don't let go!" She nodded and squeezed her eyes shut as I jumped from tree to tree, running away from the guards that were about to steal my mate.

"Kill him!" The Boss screamed and I heard guns going off. I felt some fly by me at an alarming rate and I quickened my pace even more. I couldn't let either of us get hurt. As I was running into the forest, they had a sniper I didn't see, and I got hit in the chest.

"NO!" Zinniah screamed as we tumbled down a hill that led into the forest. Once we were at the bottom, she groaned and got up, screaming out my name when I wasn't moving or breathing much.

"Serge!" She rushed over to me and dug out the wooden bullet. But it was too late. I was dying and I didn't have much time left.

"Zinniah, promise me you'll go on in life. Do not join me my water lily." I was coughing up blood and we could hear everyone coming closer by their yells.

"No! I love you! I won't let you leave me!" She cried into my chest, but she couldn't do anything to save me.

"My cherry blossom. I hope you can forgive me." She looked up at me with her bloodshot eyes.

"Forgive you for what?" I grabbed her and pulled her closer to me and bit her neck. But this wasn't as a mark.

I was turning her into a vampire.

"Ah!" She screamed as I let my venom flow through her. Since we were mated, she wouldn't die from the poison.

"I love you, my beautiful Zinniah." With that, I had died after turning her. Her eyes were turning red and her mark from when we mated was fading. Once the Boss and his guards had arrived, they started to grab her and drag her away.

"No! Serge! No, I can't go back! Stop!" She was flailing as she screamed, and then it went black.

I looked at her and she was crying. I held her close and kissed her head.

"I am never leaving you. I promise." She cried harder as I rocked her back and forth in my arms. It started to snow while we were in the forest, so I picked her up and brought her back to the garden. Thankfully, everyone was gone and we laid down in the hammock once again. I saw her mother start to come out, looking beyond worried. She slowly walked up to us and rubbed Zinniah's back. Zinniah only cried harder and squeezed me more.

"Please don't leave me, Serge... Please!" She was full-on sobbing into my shirt and I kept shushing her, telling her she was alright. That nothing was going to happen. That I wasn't going anywhere. After ten minutes, Zinniah had cried herself to sleep. I sighed and made sure I had a good grip on her before taking her inside to my bedroom. I laid her on my king-sized bed and rubbed my face. I laid down next to her and pulled her closer to me.

"Sleep well, my beautiful blossom." I kissed her lips lightly and I heard her sigh a little and smile. I smiled in return and fell asleep with her.