The King Of All Vampire Kings (Book 1) ✔️

|The Calm After The Storm |

Nicklaus POV.

The next day.

I watch the love of my life play underneath the blazing sun with our family.

Yes! Our family, even Cyrus adopted pup, Jenkin's has somehow, someway found his way into my frozen heart. In all honesty, they all have I think to myself as I look over my brothers, Claire's chosen girls, and all of our other extended family members.

"Say cheese," says the weird little gypsy by the name of Jadis. My beloved best friend.

And then here comes the flash and the sound of the camera flickering.

"And the photobomb," says Claire as she jumps into my picture.

"Stay out of my head firecracker!" I say to her while pulling her closer into my body so Jadis can take a few more pictures.

"Never," she says to me before placing her deliciously sweet pretty, pink, and plumped lips down onto my lips. I'm in love. Claire is really the brightest star under starlight. She is breathtakingly beautiful, bold, brave, and a blessing to us all. My biggest blessing of all time. She's everything.

"Ahh, get a room!" complains Marcellus as I hold Claire into place, downright refusing to let her go. Ever.

"Somebodies, jello," teases Jadis before turning around to snap as many pictures of Marcellus as she can just to ignore him.

That's probably the only thing that Marcellus and I have in common. He too hates pictures, surprisingly enough. All of us vampire Kings do.

"Please, be careful Jenkins," calls out Embry from my left as the little squirt catches some waves with Cyrus right by his side cheering him on. The collective group of us have been on the beach all morning, teaching the little devil how to surf and Embry almost had a heart attack several times.

"Ahh, he's fine," Celine laughs at Embry. "He's doing much better than you, Kaya, or I ever could have done and you know it," she continues.

"He can still get hurt," Embry pouts. "Do you remember the time I almost drowned,"

"Of, course I do! It was epic," Celine says with a laugh before the two of them start another one of their reminiscing sessions.

Typical, pack wolves!

"Are we having a family dinner?" my cousin Elijah, questions from the side of me? He's sitting down on cool sand, rubbing sun tanning lotion onto his beloved, Anastasia's back.

"Yup," Claire answers for me, popping the P. She's so extra, cute but extra. My queen. "Nannie insisted that we all have one big family meal before we depart tomorrow and the look on her face told me that she meant business. I can't wait to spend time with your niece," she says to me and I don't miss the delightful wicked spark inside her eyes astonishing big and bold green eyes.

She's up to something.

"What are you up to?" I just have to ask. My little menace of a beloved is always up to no good. That's exactly why I told Xander that he should have never flown Nannie out here but he insisted that she was to get as far away as possible from his Kingdom. Apparently, Nannie has been placing her nose where it doesn't belong if you ask Xander, which doesn't make any sense because what business could he possibly have done there. No one lives there. Literally.

Since, the new declaration of independence all of the bleeders has been released and shipped to a continent of their choosing, which brings me to my overall point. What is Xander hiding?

"Who me?" Claire fakes innocence. Her bright smile and glistening teeth bring me back to reality as she wraps her tiny arms around my lower body, pulling me closer towards her. My nostril flares widely as I take in her intoxicating milk and honey scent.