The Rightful Alpha

18 years ago.

Sprinting through the corridor, Saoirse dove into a hidden doorway as Cassius rushed past in the passage up ahead. Golden curls towering above the hunters following on his heels, stopping only to bark orders. Each door they reached; they broke off into pairs. The entire camp searching for her.

Not clear how long she'd be able to keep this up. At this point, unsure whether she would escape this castle alive. Along with her children, Marius wants her dead. Which would only delay things. The twins must survive. Need to be part of their family's purpose. Claim their place and figure out what she uncovered.

Hunters searched for and destroyed all non-human entities for centuries. Everyone used to coexist peacefully. Fear, jealousy, and a select few humans' belief in their superior existence turned everything into a war. The Collective recently became a new discovery, previously hidden from the supernatural world. Always disagreed on how to rid the world of magical beings. Apparently, they created their own council. How no longer being an argument; long as they were seeing results.

Each member of The Collective represented hunters specializing in hunting specific creatures; Marius' focus is vampires. Saoirse is a witch, but her husband is the vampire king.

Out of the doorway, she hurried down the hall in the direction information suggested the exit would be. Quickly turning back at the sight of Raven; another one of Marius's followers. Vampires always endured enemies. An impressive rise of them in the past few hundred years

Every hunter joining the cause is trained for years before being given a target.

Marius and his faithful four are the most lethal. Once capturing a witch, enslaved to grant eternal youth to whomever they needed. So, although they might appear young, they were well over two centuries old. Must find a way out of the castle if she wanted to survive.

If she failed to escape, her death is imminent.

Knowing what her family has been doing since the early 1700s, he decided to take matters into his own hands. The Constellation's Alliance only discovered him about fifty years. The alliance formed between the monarchies of each magical species and the Sacred One; the origin of all magic. Royals gathered to create a bond of protection over all nonhuman kind.

Concealed a little secret of his own he does not want the Sacred One to uncover. Why he wants Saoirse and her children destroyed. Powerless in the castle, Saoirse stood no chance if she came up against any of The Four or Marius.

Continued her way down the hallway as Raven's beanie-covered head disappeared from the path ahead. Down the long corridor, slowing at the corner to make sure the coast was clear. Safe, she raced to the stairs. Paused to listen, hearing nothing, and began to ascend to the main floor. Once reaching the top, she darted behind one of the giant columns off to the right as she spotted Ambrose rushing in the opposite direction. Soon as he disappeared, she hurried to the end of them all, keeping close to the walls at all ties.

The front gate of the castle, and as expected, was swarming with Followers, but she was not heading towards it.

The army weakened since the last time they kidnapped her. Saoirse's husband, Gavril, was indomitable. That was why he was the Vampire King. Unstoppable when he learned of the man who stole the woman he loved. Wanting Marius, Gavril destroyed everything in his path, wiping out most of Marius's army. Failed to capture the fiend.

The army, now since been replenished, and they were all new recruits. However, Marius's head adviser, Max, most likely trained them well.

Turning down a small hall, she rushed to the door at the end. Unlocked; perfect. Inside she ran to the tapestry on the far wall hiding a small door to the stables. Relieved to have an insider, someone to help her. Behind the door, lay something unplanned. Rounded the corner, there at the end of the tunnel, stood Marius.

No longer knowing where to go, she raced through the complicated system of tunnels as Marius began to reduce the distance between the two of them. Closing in on Saoirse, he grabbed her by her long, beautiful, auburn hair, and pulled her crashing down to her knees.

"Why, Marius?" Saoirse demanded as she stared into the face of the man continuously chasing her for three years. The man who hunted down anyone she spoke to.

"You would never understand why." His face displayed no emotion. No happiness. No anger. No relief. Nothing.

"Explain it to me" she demanded.