300 Days With The Alpha Beta Triplets
ALL HAIL THE KING

Bella:

"Come on, cheer up," Lyra said to me as soon as the portal opened into the den's living room. "Did you see yourself out there? You were badass, and you are better than them. They know that." My mouth remained shut as she said this.

"Lyra, please stop!" Mabel called her out at once, and I glanced at Mabel before walking away. "Not everyone is like you, who has no emotions. Bella just lost her friends, and she had to fight with one of her mates. Do you know how tasking that is? You really need to stop." They came after me as we made our way down the hall to replace the rest of the crew.

Mabel's words did little to calm Lyra as she let out a scoff.

"Then she should turn it off. They are really holding her back from being great, and you saw what happened when she let her guard down. She wouldn't go full vampire on him, and he took advantage of that. But when she did, he couldn't even reach her! That is fucking amazing!" Her voice shot through the roof, doing nothing but grating my

nerves.

I was angry at her, but deep down, I wondered what or who had hurt her so badly that she wouldn't turn her emotions back on. It must have been terrible.

"Ugh! Maybe she should have just let you die!" Mabel groaned, and I glanced back momentarily to see Lyra shrug. "I don't really care. I was in so much pain, and I would have turned on my emotions, letting them drown away the pain because that pain would be much worse. But I would be gone in the twinkle of an eye."

"Keep longing for death, and you might get it one of these days," Mabel groaned, and Lyra gave out a cocky laugh. "I would gladly take it because what exactly is there to live for?" At that moment, Sue walked out of a door, and for the second time in my life, I was glad to see her.

Her eyebrows were drawn down, and she walked toward the three of us.

"Where the hell have you been, and where is what I asked for?" she yelled, causing the two bickering parrots behind me to shut their traps. I sighed inwardly in relief. "Hybrid?" she raised a brow at me, then I turned to Mabel, who had been holding up the four glass jars.

"Instead of bringing their bodies, we drained their blood to make it easier. Here it is," I said, and she walked up to Mabel, examining the jars. She grabbed one of them and opened it, dipping a finger into it and bringing it to her lips.

"Good," she commended, then shut it. "Follow me," she commanded, and our legs began to work at once. We followed her closely, and I was thankful for the silence between those two.

Mabel was trying to help, but Lyra's nonchalant behavior was making her help useless, so all I could hear was noise. Even though the last thing I wanted to do was see the vampire king being released, it was better than waiting and listening to the both of them.

Finally, we came to a halt in front of a gigantic door, and Sue pulled it open. At first, it was a narrow cave with gritty stone walls dimly lit by candles hoisted on the walls. This made me wonder how old it was. But then it all made sense. This was probably Enzo's lair, and this house was built on top of it. They had all worked in silence until it was the right time to let him out.

I couldn't tell whether vampires or werewolves were more united. The vampires were cunning, but they showed solidarity, especially when plotting to rule the world. The pathway stretched out further, and suddenly we came to a halt in an open space filled with vampires standing. All were cloaked in black. The room was properly lit, and in the middle stood a coffin on a raised platform.

Sue walked to a corner, grabbing three cloaks hanging there, then tossed them to the three of us. She then grabbed the jars from us, walking to the front of the room, where she emptied them into a small mound in the middle of a circle marked on the ground. As soon as she emptied it, the mound disappeared into the ground, and the circle lit up. The three of us quickly got in line, and soon everyone began to chant.

I glared at Lyra and Mabel, who joined in the chant. Fear crept into my chest as reality dawned on me. We were about to witness the release of the vampire king. A part of me wished that Hazel and the guys would warn the entire pack. Maybe I was just overreacting, and the werewolves were already plotting their takeover, but it seemed far from that. I was supposed to be the unifier, and I had no clue what I was doing. The chant intensified, and suddenly I felt bumps sprouting on my skin as the ground quaked. He was coming, and I could feel it in my bones. I began to mutter a silent prayer to the moon goddess.

This could be the last moment for me. What if they just needed me to release their king, and the moment he was out, they would slay me? Terrible thoughts continued to swirl around my head until I saw Sue standing in front of me.

"It is time," she said, causing my heart to flinch. She grabbed my hand before I could speak or protest. She dragged me to the front of the room, where a man was waiting with a dagger on top of the platform with Enzo's coffin.

At first, I felt scared, but I reasoned they wouldn't want to kill me with just a dagger. Sue led me until we climbed the raised platform, then she stopped, positioning me in front of the coffin, which had a star symbol embedded in it with double slashes meeting in the middle of the star.

"Spread your palms," Sue commanded, and I obeyed at once, opening my palms. The man with the dagger stepped forward.

I shut my eyes at once as I felt the sharp blade graze my palms. A groan escaped my mouth, and I gritted my teeth, trying to endure the burning pain. Lyra's voice echoed in my mind, telling me to turn off my emotions, as though she were speaking to me in reality. But when I glanced back, she was chanting with the others.

The man let go at once after making a straight cut from my left-to-right palm.

"Step forward and do not close your palms. Allow the blood to feed the star," Sue said, and I nodded, lifting my hands above the symbol, watching as my blood dripped onto the top of the coffin.

My heart thumped as I stood there. This was the last lap, and in a moment, I would come face to face with the great vampire king, who had been locked away for centuries. I tried to ground myself because I couldn't be scared of someone I was to conquer. Soon, my blood filled the lining of the shape.

A louder rumble came from underneath, like someone was running underground, and suddenly, the sound of bolts unlocking echoed. It was the coffin. My heart flinched, and I took a step backward.

"Return," Sue said, and I rushed back into the crowd, making it to my friends in time before the coffin could open.

At that moment, the coffin flipped open, and Enzo's hand stretched forward. It was dry and black, having been locked away for centuries. His head followed at once, and he looked around. I tried to look away, but it was too late as our eyes locked. He looked at me with his blackened eyes and cracked face.

He got to his feet, and the vampires began to chant as he approached the crowd.

"All hail the king of vampires!"

"All hail the king of vampires!"

I joined in fear, trying to take my eyes off him, but then he walked out of the coffin, taking a few steps toward where I was standing, before collapsing to the ground. My heart pounded in my chest as everyone gasped in shock. Before we could say a word, his hands stretched out, wrapping around Lyra's legs. He pulled her in, and she fell to the ground at once with a scream. In the twinkle of an eye, he was on her, sinking his teeth deep into her skin.