The King Of All Vampire Kings (Book 1) ✔️

|64|~Friend or Foe~

Claire's Pov
Unedited.

My monster is on edge the moment I step foot in the packhouse. My nerves are shot, and it's strange. I remember the last time I was here, feeling like this place was a highly desirable home—a utopia. This home felt like heaven, shielding and protecting us all from the hell of a world outside these walls. Now, it's different. I feel like I'm walking straight into a lion's den. My monster feels like I'm offering myself up to spend eternity in a dystopian state. She's acting paranoid, constantly making her presence known just in case she needs to save us both. In an attempt to calm her, I decide to walk in the opposite direction instead of taking the route Beta Rendell has shown me. Hopefully, I can find a quicker exit.

The deeper I walk through the hall, the louder the pounding of my barely beating heart becomes. I immediately realize that coming this way is a huge mistake. I know the entire wing is dedicated to Mecca, but this area is more detailed—more private, I suppose. Her pictures are covering every inch of the walls. In some photos, she is with Alpha Maddox, but in most of them, she is alone. She looks carefree and full of life, nothing like the wild and crazy ole Mecca that I've grown used to.

She was so much more. From day one, I had always felt like she was one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen. But I was wrong. The version of Mecca—the one in the photos—is much more beautiful, prepossessing in every pose. There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness, and that's the energy she gives off in those pictures; it's her beauty. Now I truly understand why Alpha Maddox did not try to find a second-chance mate. With these photos alone, anyone can tell Mecca was everything to him.

Every item in the area reminds me of her, even the walls are painted the shade she told me was her favorite color, midnight blue. There are vases with roses, which is exactly how she smells like.

In between some of the pictures are oak brown wooden shelves with words carved into them in a language I'm unable to understand or process. They are filled with many different small knickknacks. My eyes scan each item, and one, in particular, grabs my attention. It's an oak brown wolf miniature howling at a bright yellow moon that reminds me of Mecca's eyes when her wolf is present. The miniature itself resembles Mecca's real wolf. Right beside it is a wooden maple brown leaf, of which natural and refreshing look is akin to Mecca's flawless milk chocolate skin tone.

As I walk further down the hallway, the more my monster becomes on edge. To her, Mecca is not our friend, and this pains me. I just don't know how to feel about that. I understand why my monster feels the way she does. Mecca did try to kill me after I'd saved her life multiple times. Her attempt to kill me was a little overboard, but it would be one-sided if I refused to admit that she had the right to.

I do understand the reasons behind her behavior. She had a happy life with a man who holds love for her that is as big as the sky, and this hallway is proof of that. However, vampires took everything from her. Nicklaus took what she had; he ruined her. She risked her happiness once again to come to my rescue, only to find that I have become one of them, or like Nicklaus.

My inner battle goes on and on.

My eyes settle on a photo, stopping me in my tracks and washing away my thoughts. In it is Mecca sitting in the passenger seat of a beat-up red car. Although the vehicle is oddly old, there is some weird sex appeal about it. Seriously, the car is hot.

Sitting in the driver's seat is another woman. She has chestnut-brown hair, coffee-colored eyes, and slightly tan skin. That's when I realize that the car is not the hot one but the woman behind the wheel that makes the car look like cherry gold. She is breathtakingly beautiful. She looks soft and extremely delicate, yet there's something untamed and wild hidden in the depths of her coffee-colored eyes.