Notes:
This is a very different take on vampires and werewolves from my story Vampires, Werewolves and Pitch Perfect.
There are illusions to things like war, some noncon and things of that nature but they are pretty vague and spread out, but fair warning to you.
Thanks again to G for her assist on this.
This is 4 chapters and all four are written already. :)
The snow was knee deep as the three cloaked figures walked up the hill that led to a large home with a few lights on in the large windows that overlooked a dense forest.
The taller of the figures led the others closer and closer to the manor as the snow fell over the cloaks that offered limited protections from the elements. The bitter cold nipped at any of the exposed skin they showed, each too weak to be able to transform to their beastly forms to make their way faster in the inclement conditions.
When they reached the gate the tallest paused and lifted her hand to the gate. When it refused to open for them she pulled a dagger out, cutting her palm before offering her hand to the gate which creaked open as the crimson blood dripped down from where the palm touched.
The shortest offered her a strip of dirty cloth to wrap her hand in, which she accepted wordlessly before pushing her way into the courtyard towards the massive wooden door that separated them from the shelter of the manor.
The large wooden door opened under protest but it did open as the lead figure brought them into the safety - whatever this place offered anyway - of the manor.
"What is this place?" One asked, her hood dropping to let out her red hair.
"It was my home once." The tallest whispered.
A man appeared in the doorway, older with a thick white beard. He bowed to the tallest of the three, a tremble in his actions.
"Take these two to the guest room near your master's chambers and get them a meal. Lots of meat." She commanded him before hanging her cloak and walking through the doorway towards a study at the rear of the manor.
The path was one she walked so many times years ago. Her wrist started to burn as two fang marks heated as they got closer and closer to the beast that put them there in the first place.
The door to the study was not one opened by any of the servants that staffed this manor. They were forbidden, even on their masters' best days, from entering the space. When this was her home she never hesitated to open the door. Yet as she stood outside the door she couldn't help the hesitation that came to her as she waged war with herself over if she should know or not.
Finally she pushed the door open and stepped inside the study. Bookshelves filled each of the walls, a store fireplace with a roaring fire was the only source of light in the room for the figure sitting at the desk writing and paying the new figure in the room no mind.
"I need shelter. I have two with me and we need shelter."
The figure at the desk didn't pause in her writing. She didn't flinch at the voice that felt hotter on her skin than the fire in the grand stone fireplace. Her hand kept scrawling across the page until she had finished what she was doing. She blew on the ink to dry it before setting her pen down and folding the letter into a small package. She used a wax seal to close it before walking to the window where a raven appeared and took it in its beak, flying off quickly.
"You left me."
"I know."
"You left me after you vowed to never leave."
"It was more complicated than you wanted it to be."
The figure by the window bared her fangs as she turned around, fair hair swinging around her face as she showed her anger. She had been happy to spend her time - she had nothing but time - alone before this creature showed herself again.
The figure by the door unwrapped her palm, the scent of the blood filling the room. She knew it was unfair to use the blood that she had denied to the vampire for years against her now but she was running out of options. She held her hand out as she watched the pupils of the vampire's eyes enlarge until her eyes looked as though they were pure block.
"I am weak but feed from me. I will trade my blood for shelter."
The vampire hissed. "Your blood already belongs to me. I made you my mate and in that moment your blood became mine. How dare you offer me what is already mine to take."
"You won't take it without my consent." The figure by the door had to believe that even if she could tell her absence from the vampire's side had changed her from the woman she knew.
The vampire stepped around the desk and in a heartbeat had the figure pinning to the door. She used her enhanced strength to keep her where she wanted, left hand pinned by her right while her left hand was around the figure's throat.
"You have always been bold for a werewolf and I see our time apart has not changed you." The vampire snarled as she let her fangs extend to their full size. Her eyes flicked to faded bite marks on the neck of the werewolf that still stood inches taller than she was.
"It's changed me." The werewolf whispered, not fighting against the vampire's hold on her wrist or neck. "Please let us stay."
The vampire bent her head to let her fangs scrap against the werewolf's neck. She could smell the sweet scent of blood that was meant for her, marked by her, blood that she had been craving every moment since she first tasted it. She felt a tremor run through her as she pressed her lips to the mark.
"Promise me that no one else has tasted your blood and you and your lovers - and yes I smell them on you as plain as day - may make shelter in this place."
"No one else has had my blood." The werewolf brought the hand that wasn't pinned up to press to the back of the vampire's head the way she used to do when her mate fed from her years ago. "Take what you want but remember I am weakened."
The vampire bit down, gulping at the blood to both confirm the truth in the werewolves oath and to have what she desired most. She felt hot tears running down her own cheeks at the unearthly pleasure she took in this blood. She gulped down only a few mouthfuls, mindful of the werewolves words and weakened state. She licked the two fang marks before pulling back and sealing them with two flicks of her tongue.
"Welcome home, Anastasia."
"Thank you, Aubrey."
—
The room that Beca and Chloe were taken to was the nicest room either had been in before. There was a large four poster bed in the room, a large fireplace that was lit, warming the room with stone walls quickly. There was a bathroom attached with a tub large enough for four fully grown men that was filled as if by magic.
On a table by the window the same man that greeted them downstairs brought large plates of perfectly cooked meats - by werewolf standards - as well as all the fixings.
The pair looked at each other for a moment before both moved from the center of the room to gorge themselves on the food. The only thing either had in the last week were a few rabbits they managed to catch, the last three days ago.
"What is this place?" Beca asked Chloe between bites.
"I don't know." Chloe looked up at Beca, bits of food on her dirty face. "But Stacie seems to know it well. She wouldn't lead us to our doom, right?"
"No. I don't think so." Beca shook her head.
They finished off the food - saving a bit more than a third of it for Stacie should she return to them - before heading to the bathroom to clean themselves up.
"The water is going to feel nice." Chloe looked at the perfumed water that looked so inviting after not having access for far longer than she would have liked.
"I feel like I haven't really been clean in weeks." Beca started to strip the tattered clothes from her too thin frame.
"Me either." Chloe stepped into the water after she finished undressing. Her battered body was soothed by the perfume of the water and the heat of it, hot without scalding her.
Beca soon joined her as each grabbed a wash cloth to start scrubbing their bodies clean of the dirt from their travels. Each watched the door to see if Stacie would be in to join them. It had been a long time since they had been separated in any way from each other.
It wasn't until the pair were cleaned and dressed in clothes that had been laid out that Stacie entered the room. All three were now dressed in clothes that were the perfect size for their frames - as if again magic was somehow involved. Warm hoodies and well fitting pants that allowed for movement.
Stacie walked over to the pair, pulling both of them close to her. She nuzzled their necks one after the other. Breathing easier now that the two were back in her sight again.
"Did they bring you enough food?" Stacie asked the pair.
"We had our fill but we saved you your share." Chloe gestured to the food that was still sitting out for her.
"Eat more if you both want. I was given my own share of food when I went to clean up." Stacie kept a hand on each of their waists as the three stood close together.
"You said this was your home once." Beca couldn't leave that alone. She had known Stacie for three years and there was no hint she came from anything like this.
"I owe both of you an explanation." Stacie breathed out as she moved to stand by the fire. There was little chance it would really warm her though. The chill seemed to be bone deep since being back in this place.
Beca and Chloe sat on the end of the large bed, hand in hand, as they looked to Stacie to explain.
"I was born into the Byrne pack. My mother was a Byrne and my father doesn't matter to this story. But you know that much." Stacie started without looking at the other two. "When I was nine my grandfather was removed from power. My mother and I ran and ran and ran because they would have killed us if we stayed. We found ourselves in this place and my mother begged the vampire that was the master here for shelter. She convinced him to take us in, found mercy in him."
The vampire - Henri Posen - who allowed them to stay was the strangest she had known before. But he gave them protections when they were nothing to him and for that she would always be grateful for him.
"When I was nineteen his daughter came back from France. He was given bad blood by a servant on the orders of another clan and died in agony." She shivered as she remembered his screams bouncing off the walls. "We fell in love - I swear I fell for her the moment I saw her and she fell for me soon after she took over his clan. I became her mate and the mistress of this place at her side." The head of a vampire clan was titled as master regardless of gender and Aubrey never let hers be used against her.
"And then my uncle took the pack back and demanded Aubrey free me from what he saw as an unholy union. She refused. He promised war. She prepared for it. I couldn't let vampires die protecting me and I refused to let werewolves die trying to get me back. So I left. For three years I left this place and for three years I left her. And now I am the only Byrne left with the civil war our pack just underwent. And this place is the only place I know we'll be safe."
Beca and Chloe's grip on each other's hand tightened. They looked at each other and then back to Stacie.
"Did you love us?" Beca asked, her voice a bare whisper to the person who had shared their bed, their food, their lives for the last eighteen months. "You said you did."
"I do love both of you" Stacie whispered. "The two of you were my salvation while I was gone. It wasn't done to warm me at night. It was done because the two of you brought me happiness and I hope I brought you some."
Chloe - a Beta loved by two Alpha's who somehow managed to share her - looked at Stacie with worry written all over her face.
"And now that we're here?"
Stacie licked her dry lips. "She wants to speak with all of us tonight. I don't know what her terms will be for us to be here long term."
Beca leaned against Chloe as they both tried to understand what was going on. "Any chance she'll kill us on sight?"
"She won't." Stacie promised. "She isn't wicked. She's hurt I betrayed her and I don't blame her for it."
Beca stood, Chloe standing up next to her, their hands holding tight to each other to try to find the strength to face Stacie's mate.
"Come on." Stacie opened the door to lead them down to the sitting room Aubrey told Stacie to bring Beca and Chloe to.
The room that Stacie brought Beca and Chloe down to had plush couches and large windows that gave a beautiful view of the forests around the manor. There was a large fireplace that heated the room to combat the howling wild outside the windows.
Aubrey stood by the fire looking out one of the windows with a glass of crimson liquid in a crystal glass in her hand with her back to the others.
"Was the food up to your standards?"
"Thank you, it was and it was very kind of you to give us so much." Beca spoke when she looked at Stacie who nodded.
Aubrey chuckled dryly. "Kind may not be the most fitting term for it but thank you all the same for using it." She turned to face the two werewolves that Stacie brought to her home.
They were both thinner than she thought they might be normally. She could see why Stacie would be attracted to them even if they looked like they could use more than a handful of good meals to gather their strength. The one with red hair looked more timid than the smaller one, Aubrey thought as she studied them.
"Anastasia asks for shelter, do you two request the same?" She asked.
"We do." Beca whispered.
"Then you will pay the same price as she will. You will pay in blood."
Stacie stepped from behind the others to stand between them and Aubrey. She balled both of her hands into fists as she was prepared to defend Beca and Chloe from any threat against them.
"Don't Aubrey. You have my blood and I know the effect it has on you because I am your mate. You don't need their blood." Stacie's voice was tight.
"Don't I?" Aubrey tilted her head and gave a rueful smile. "Did you not promise me when you became my mate what was yours was now mine and did I not promise me what was mine was now yours? Are they not yours? Should they not be mine in kind?"
"You never cared about me sharing my body with who I wanted and I gave you the same freedom." Stacie threw back at her.
"I don't care that you shared your body with them." Aubrey shook her head. "This isn't even about you vowing a vampire's lifetime and then walking out the front door after sliding out of my bed on the one night of the fortnight I needed rest. This is about pure, simple vampire law."
Stacie growled low in her chest. "You can't be serious."
"I am." Aubrey swirled the liquid in the glass before taking a sip from it.
"What is going on?" Beca asked, the hair on the back of her neck standing up.
"I've put my mark as an Alpha on you both so because Aubrey and I are mates, she has a claim to both of you under vampire law." Stacie explained, her voice a low growl.
"I ask for their blood, you may keep their bodies for yourself if you wish." Aubrey said simply.
"Don't you lay a fang on them. They have nothing to do with what I did to you Aubrey. It was terrible what I did but I saved your clan and my pack from ripping through each other. I stopped a war." Stacie turned back to her mate, her teeth bared.
"They will pay for your sins in their blood or they will go back in the cold."
Chloe reached her hand out to rest it on Stacie's arm. "I accept."
Aubrey's eyes moved to the Beta with the cobalt eyes. She couldn't help but smile at her willingness to stop the argument by offering herself off like an olive branch.
Both Beca and Stacie looked at her with dropped jaws. They hadn't expected Chloe to accept in the middle of the back and forth between Aubrey and Stacie.
"What will happen when you bite me?" Chloe let go of Beca's hand and stepped around Stacie. She walked halfway between the other wolves and the vampire.
Aubrey set her glass down to make her way towards Chloe as both Alpha's were frozen to the spot. It was though the vampire was forcing them to stand and watch as Chloe sealed their fate.
When Aubrey reached Chloe she wrapped her arms around the Beta's waist, bringing her in close. "You will become mine as much as you are theirs. You will stop aging, living as long as I do before the process starts again, you will start healing even faster than your own powers allow and become stronger because of my effect on you. There are other effects but those are the ones that are the most important."
The Beta felt at ease in the vampire's arms a lot more than she ever would have anticipated. "Are you using a charm on me? Vampires can do that, can't they, to creatures who breathe in?"
Aubrey chuckled as she gathered Chloe's hair to sweep over one shoulder. "You have a good nose, Roux." She felt her fangs drop as she tilted her head to press a kiss over Chloe's pulse point. "I do not smell fear on you, do you have none?"
Chloe brought her hands up to rest over Aubrey's ribcage. "Stacie trusts you and I trust her. I love her and she loves you. I have no reason to fear you and every reason to pay the price you ask for your protection."
Aubrey grinned as she bit down on Chloe's neck, biting through her skin and gulping down her blood. She tightened her grip on the Beta's waist as she took nearly half of the blood in her body. When she was sure she had enough she brought her wrist to Chloe's pale lips, smirking against her neck when she got the hint and bit down, Aubrey's blood filling her mouth. The vampire licked Chloe's neck and her own wrist closed before turning them around and helping Chloe into a chair by the fire to allow her to rest for the moment.
Beca growled when she came out of whatever trace that Aubrey had her under. "She is kind and good and if you hurt her I will find a way to kill you." She snapped at Aubrey as she walked over, fangs still down.
"You are delightful in your anger. I bet you were a top warrior for your pack, weren't you?" Aubrey smirked.
"I have fought better than you." Beca barked out.
"I am sure of it." Aubrey pulled Beca roughly to her and bit down without any of the tenderness that she showed Chloe. When Beca bit at the newly healed wrist she did so without any of the care that Chloe showed. Aubrey took more blood from the smaller body before lifting her up and laying her down on the couch, sealing Beca's neck and then her own wrist.
Stacie stood and watched as Aubrey moved to pick up her glass again. When Aubrey stepped close to her, Stacie's eyes glowed the same golden color they were when she was transformed as a wolf.
"Welcome home, Anastasia. See they make it to their chambers before you come to bed. I wouldn't want them to go mad from the loss of blood and end up in the forest. It can be dangerous out there." Aubrey lifted her hand to stroke Stacie's cheek with the back of it for just a moment before walking away.
Stacie stood there for a long moment before checking on Beca and making sure Aubrey didn't harm her for her anger. She moved to her knees next to the couch, stroking her cheek tenderly.
"She is strong, Stacie. God, she is so strong." Beca whispered with her eyes closed. "I can feel her blood in my system making me strong too."
Stacie bent her head to kiss Beca's lips, tasing Aubrey's blood on them. She shifted to nuzzle the side of Beca's neck Aubrey didn't bite, kissing the tender skin. "Do you think you can walk? I want to get you and Chloe to bed."
"She took a lot of blood." Beca whispered.
Stacie stood and bent down to lift Beca in her arms, feeling the smaller wolf curl into her as she lifted her up in her arms.
By the time she turned to Chloe, the Beta was on her feet - as shaky as they were - and making her way to lean against Stacie.
It was slow going to get back up to the rooms they Beca and Chloe would share for now. Chloe wasn't very steady but Stacie couldn't carry both and she didn't want to leave either behind as she took the other up to the room. Finally she used her foot to nudge open the door and walk Beca over to the bed.
"Here you go, Becs." Stacie laid Beca in bed when Chloe pulled the blankets back.
"Do you really have to leave us tonight?" Chloe asked with her arm back around Stacie's waist.
"I should stay with her tonight if she asked me to." Stacie bent her head to kiss Chloe. Tasting Aubrey's blood again only made the ache in her chest grow. She shouldn't have brought them here but she had no options and at least Aubrey was allowing them to stay. "I'll come back in the morning and go down to breakfast with you, alright?"
"Alright." Chloe moved around Stacie to get into bed next to Beca. The two cuddled while Stacie covered them up before she left them for the night.
The master suite was only halfway down the hall but Stacie took her time reaching it. The last three years weighed on her mind as she thought about the anger that she felt through her bond to both Aubrey and the conflicting feelings she felt through her bonds with Beca and Chloe. She felt unsure of what to do next, a feeling of being trapped was never a comfortable one for an Alpha.
Stacie opened the door to the master bedroom, stepping into the room and pulling the door shut behind her. The room, large with a full sitting room, a master bath that could have it's own map to get around and the third largest fireplace - after the one in the kitchen and the sitting room - in the manor.
Aubrey was sitting in a chair by the window, glass still in hand from downstairs.
"I missed you. For all the sins I have on my soul, Aubrey, not missing you isn't one." Stacie kept herself by the door as she looked at her mate sitting there as still as if she were a painting. "I left to try to protect the clan and the pack both. I vowed to both and until the war in the pack broke out I managed it."
"And the two lovers you took and laid your mark on? They were just there to keep you civilized so you wouldn't turn into a beast, is that it?" Aubrey whispered.
"We both took lovers, Aubrey. Even in the time after we became mates." Stacie defended.
Aubrey lifted the glass to her lips and drained it. A half second after she set it down Stacie found herself again pinned to a door by the wrist and the neck.
"I didn't mark them. I took lovers because desire isn't a sin for either of us but I never laid my mark on anyone but you before tonight. But you left me and found them and then you dare come back because your wolves decided to go to war anyway. And what, I am to accept your…" She couldn't bring herself to call them Stacie's mates. "You brought them to me knowing that by vampire law I could claim them as mine too. So I did because I trusted you and you left and you deserve to hurt for that. They are your weakness. I'm not, but they are."
Stacie could barely breathe with the tightness of Aubrey's hand around her throat but she didn't fight her. She felt the waves of pain gnawing at her insides through their shared bond.
Aubrey stepped away from Stacie. She shook her head as she watched Stacie gulp for air now that she was able to.
"I had to mark them." Stacie rubbed her throat after a few moments of deep breathing. "I took them as mine to save Chloe from being given as a gift to an Alpha that would have tore her to bits and Beca defied my uncle's direct order and if I hadn't laid my mark on her, she would have been killed. I didn't plan to mark them but I had been with both for a while before I did. Loving them was easy once I was around them more often."
"How noble of you." Aubrey whispered.
Stacie stepped forward into Aubrey's space. She knew she was risking more than a bit of discomfort at a half on her throat but she was willing to risk it.
"I missed you." Stacie lifted her hand to cup Aubrey's cheek. "I missed being yours and you being mine. I missed you." She bent her head down to press her lips to Aubrey's.
"You left." Aubrey whispered after the simple kiss broke.
"I came back." Stacie reminded her. She looked at the bed before looking back to Aubrey with a raised eyebrow.
"Taking me to bed fixes nothing." Aubrey instinctively wrapped her arms around Stacie's neck as Stacie wrapped her arms around her waist.
"No, it doesn't." Stacie agreed.
"You marked them." Aubrey whispered.
"I did." Stacie held her a bit tighter. "And I would do it again because they matter to me very much. They were the reason I was able to make it back to you."
Aubrey hissed as her fangs dropped down.
Stacie growled as she bared her canines.
When Aubrey pulled Stacie back towards their bed Stacie wasn't sure she would be allowed to sleep tonight but she was sure she wouldn't mind.