Chapter 100: The Cost of Alliance
Aiden POV
The vampire lord’s fangs missed my throat by inches as I rolled sideways across the bargaining table. Papers spread everywhere while supernatural leaders dove for cover.
"Enough!" I yelled, using my Alpha voice to fill the entire tent. "We’re here to save our world, not destroy each other!"
Dmitri wiped blood from his mouth where the stone giant had hit him. "Tell that to the rock-brain who called my clan ’blood-sucking parasites.’"
"You are parasites," rumbled Granite, the stone giant boss. "You feed on others to live. That’s exactly what bugs do."
I pressed my hands against my temples, feeling a headache coming on. We’d been trying to form a union for three hours, and every species kept finding new reasons to hate each other. Meanwhile, reality tears were opening faster than we could close them.
"Look," I said, standing on the damaged table so everyone could see me. "I know we all have problems with each other. But right now, the Void Walkers are winning because we’re fighting instead of working together."
A witch named Sage raised her hand. "The monster boy is right. While we fight, those things are feeding on our anger and getting stronger."
"Don’t call me ’boy,’" I snapped, then caught myself. Getting mad was exactly what the Void Walkers wanted. "Sorry. This is just... harder than I expected."
Prince Ash of the Fae nodded. "Leading always is. But we didn’t come here to make it easy for you."
That’s when the real talks started. Each group wanted something before they’d help fight the Shadow Council.