~Content Warning
•Strong power dynamics
•Themes involving coercion and forced bonding
•Human experimentation and child endangerment
•Psychological manipulation and memory alteration
•Violence and physical trauma (referenced)
Noxton Dillard
I had been gone for one and a half weeks. On record, I was on a retrieval mission for the Sentinels. I captured and stored that runaway bastard in a secure location three days after touching down in the last known location my target had been spotted.
The remaining time I used for personal matters. Due to the Dillard Matriarch having no intention of letting me close to any of the Dillard Enclave businesses or internal operations, I had to find other connections to help my parents get out of the toxic mating circle they were coerced into forming. Carefully and strategically. I used my engagement to Minette and new status as an adopted core branch son to get access to power players I would not be able to otherwise reach as an extended family member.
I researched my options and decided to attend the Xi Collegium for two years to expand my social network. It was there that I developed the beginning of a professional relationship with the Xi Clan and gained a personal connection with Jasper Reign and Lux Ajei.
After a series of trials, I gained a dual role as an intelligence operative under Skye and as a negotiator under River. The personal benefits with Skye and River were a bonus. Because I had established myself as an anomaly within the Xi organization due to my professional and personal relationship with the Xi brothers, I was treated as a half-member, so I ended up involved in their internal affairs more than I probably should be. I met every challenge, and the Xi elders liked what they saw.
They promised that if the Dillard Enclave didn't value me, the Xi Organization would. Pretty lies from silver tongues, but I made myself valuable enough to help, and that is what counted once I noticed the rot within. While working for the Xi clan, an unusual pattern of events that I could not ignore became routine. Intelligence I provided to help secure better deals, alliances or simply increase the clan's prestige, wasn't used to achieve these goals. When my subtle inquiries got me nowhere, I began to follow the trail of what was done with the information.
I stumbled upon a darker web of operations that connected people, places, and supply chains that should not be related. Proof of negotiations for research materials that even the majority of the underworld wouldn't touch being handled by Xi Kin-Branches on behalf of the Patriarch was the first solid piece of evidence I found to take to the three men I considered family.
When I brought my suspicions to Raine, River, and Skye, they admitted they had been looking into matters from their end, and what they discovered was unsettling. The Xi Clan was fracturing. Not visibly. Not yet. But beneath the surface, the fault lines were widening. The Patriarch and his chosen circle of Kin-Branch Crowns wanted to take the clan in a new, enlightened, dangerous direction, while there were neutral and opposing Kin-Branches that were trying to keep the clan traditional.
Ambition without excess. Restraint seen as a strength instead of a weakness. The Xi had never been a clan of light, but neither had it been a clan of unchecked darkness either. Now? Like a heart demon's alluring, corrupted call, the main branch had begun pushing the traditional boundary further with each passing year.
Without the Matriarch…everything has fallen into the hands of the Patriarch—a parasite wearing an undeserved crown. I set that thought aside. There were more immediate priorities. Building support for my Kaelin mates for one, Skye and River. We hadn't declared it, but we also didn't feel we needed to. The bond existed whether we named it or not—something deeper than friendship, steadier than desire. Not Velari. We didn't love each other that way, but what we felt certainly wasn't less.
I slid a stone disk into the projector. Before our collective gazes, a screen appeared showing the updated data of our alliances, secured territories, and what our projected next steps should be. I leaned back in my chair, preparing to present the information to my companions, when suddenly a vampire was half draped across me.
Since I could still see Skye on my other side, I looked down to see River pressed into my side like he hadn't just come down from a spiral. Like he wasn't nearly my exact size. His weight settled without hesitation, his head tilting as he inhaled deeply against my shoulder. Then he proceeded to scoot lower until he reached my armpit. Some moments I wonder why I find this man remotely attractive. He is weird in a way I don't even try to understand deeply.
I looked at Skye, confused, but he only shrugged and took a bite of his sandwich. I decided to leave River be without further comment. I adjusted myself slightly into a reclining position to give him better access. He purred. Actually purred in contentment. I didn't know how comfortable he actually was in this position, but I let him settle, one hand resting loosely along his back before shifting my attention back to giving my report.
"Two additional Kin-Branches agreed to align with us during this visit," I began evenly. "They've been formally sworn in. So they are ride-or-die with us now." Skye's attention sharpened immediately. He had pulled out a laptop at some point and was making notes as I talked. "The remaining three showed signs of having been in communication with the Patriarch and Second Crown Consort. So I've erased any knowledge or evidence of us contacting them just to be safe. It was wise of Raine to create memory erasure talismans. Before they are sworn in, with one drop of blood, we can wipe all memory of our attempts to bring them to our side."
Skye nodded faintly in agreement. River was suspiciously still and gave no response, so I continued. "This brings us to ten aligned Kin-Branches. Twenty remain loyal to the main branch. Another twenty are neutral." I shifted slightly, careful not to disturb the vampire currently using me as a pillow. "I contacted Raine as usual before returning to make sure he didn't have any further instructions for me. He said he would identify which Kin-Branch to approach next."
Skye looked at the data, then at me. "From what I see here, you are currently negotiating with new potential external allies—two influential witch families, three psychic enclaves, and one shifter clan. That is good work. Once we review their conditions in depth, we can move forward with the next stage." While Skye talked, went over the data, and made notes, I reached for the sandwich he had placed in front of me earlier. I forced myself to eat.
I was exhausted and starving. Both were inconvenient states of being, but here I was running on fumes now that I wasn't horny or in emergency caregiver mode. "Raine or I will contact you within three days to update you on our negotiations. Since you mentioned the Sentinels will be reorganizing squads soon due to retirements and new initiates entering your sacred doors next fall, you will be put on standby status. We want you to assess if there are any potentials—retired, current, or initiates—we can recruit for any of our divisions—public or underworld."
I nodded my head numbly. I felt River shift slightly against me as I bit into the sandwich. I adjusted instinctively to keep from waking him fully. He rarely slept peacefully, so when he did, we let him sleep. It also kept us from having to contain a sleep-deprived knife-wielding mad man. My senses soon registered that Skye had gone very quiet. When I looked up, my amethyst eyes found his staring, light Caribbean blue gaze on his sleeping brother.
Skye appeared deep in thought. His glasses did not hide his gaze—they sharpened it. Focused it. Made it impossible to miss the calculation behind those blue-lit eyes. All three Xi brothers were… difficult to ignore. River, an alpha, who enjoyed making a glamoured spectacle of his appeal. The crazed psycho act was both real and a mask.
Skye, a beta, weaponized his attributes subtly. He had to because as far as 98% of the clan and the world knew, he was mute. The womb experiments had made him mute for most of his childhood, but with help from anonymous benefactors, we got his mutism cured. He will never be able to speak loudly or yell, but he can speak verbally.
This helped us position him as someone both on the inside and outside of the inner circle of the main branch. He never regretted our plan even when the Patriarch declared him ineligible to become the Scion despite his value as the only known psychic-vampire hybrid in the world. Envy makes men blind and that is exactly how we want it.
And then there was Raine, the unexpected alpha, and Skye's twin. The youngest of the Xi brothers but there was something about him that was… different. Mínghǎi theorized that those experiments changed Raine into something closer to the origin of their vampiric kind. Raine has an Alpha presence that made people defer to him without realizing they were doing it.
Skye and Raine's uniqueness—both were and weren't the success the Xi clan wanted from the experiments. They wanted to be able to decide what designation and race a baby would be before birth. In this case, two alpha psychic vampires. In previous eras, Omega demons had been able to discern what race and designation a child would be while in the womb, so there was a basis for this research. However, Omega demons could not change the race or designation. From what the records said, even if they could have manipulated those aspects, they wouldn't have done it. They were supporters of every race and designation. They only found out these biological facts when scanning if the baby was healthy or would need intervention.
Without Omega demons, there is no way to truly know if the Xi experiments changed anything. So the experiment's success was uncertain. With no other live births, the experiments were ended. Too many deaths for even the most loyal of the Patriarch's supporters to stomach. Especially when it was their kids and grandkids dying.
With only two partial success subjects, the clan tried to shape Skye and Raine into loyal vessels of their will. However, they quickly found out Skye and Raine were not easy to control. Skye could from an early age use his psychic abilities, and then his vampire abilities kicked in. He quickly became a pariah. Raine, on the other hand, isn't controllable because no one can make him do anything he doesn't want to. Mental, blood, glamour—nothing the clan tried could affect Raine if he chose not to be affected.
But unlike his elder brother, River and twin, Skye; he proved himself to be someone the Patriarch trusted. To this day, I don't know what he did to gain that trust. That is one secret the three have kept only between them. Not even the Second Crown Consort or Mínghǎi know what happened. Just that Raine proved his dominance over his brothers in a way that left Skye and River having to be hospitalized in intensive care for two months.
This pleased the Patriarch to the point that despite River still holding the title of Scion, it is Raine that is treated like the Scion. The Patriarch enjoys using Raine as a sharpening stone and threat against River. Little does the Patriarch know that River could care less about being Patriarch. In fact, it is the son he keeps by his side that is the true threat to his throne and legacy.