The Vampire’s Servant
Chapter 93

Echo looked nervously out the window of the truck as we drove through the pack lands. She had made a ton of cookies because she felt badly about not bringing anything with her for the dinner.

I offered to bring some blood food, but she said she didn't need something else pointing out that she was part vampire. I understood. It was scary going into a place where she knew people might hate her just because of what she was.

We pulled up in front of the house. There were cars filling the driveway and street. I rolled my eyes. My parents must have invited my aunts, uncles, and cousins too.

After I finally found a parking spot, I ran around the truck to help Echo out and help carry cookies. She looked around as I led her to my parent's house. I opened the front door and took her to the kitchen. We set out the cookies before I took her out the French doors to the backyard.

There were a ton of people, three grills going, and kids running everywhere. It was like a director had yelled cut from behind us. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to where we were standing.

My mom bounced up. Her short brown hair framed her face. She rushed over to us, followed by my grandmas and great-grandmas. My sister-in-law followed carrying my new nephew. This wasn't Trent's mate, but William's mate.

"Oh! Gray! We were wondering when you would get here." Mom grinned.

"Hey, mom. Echo, this is my mom, Elise Padua. My grandmothers, Trina Padua and Tillie Miller. And my great-grandmothers, Betty Padua, Daisy Miller, Greta Turner, and Gillian Duvall. That's my older brother William's mate, Farrah Padua. And my new nephew Isiah." I said. "Everyone, this is my mate, Echo Nightshade."

"Nice to meet you all." Echo said shyly.

"She's so cute!" Mom said and reached out for Echo.

Echo put her hand out and was pulled into a hug, that led to her being passed around and hugged by all of the women in my family. More started coming over. Lily was the last one.

"I'm the Luna of the pack, Trent's mate, Lily Padua. You let me know if you need anything. Don't let Alpha Martin get you down. He's an a*s. If he bothers you too much, you come to me. I'll get all the ex-Lunas to get on him." Lily told Echo while she hugged her. "Thank you, Luna." Echo smiled.

"Call me Lily. You're family now. You don't have to call me Luna unless we're doing something official."

"I appreciate it."

One of my nieces, Lina, came up and hid behind Lily. I was nearby, watching to make sure everything went okay. She peeked around her mother.

"Mama, she smells weird." Lina whispered.

Echo knelt down to where Lina was. She smiled and waved at her a little. Lina watched her carefully.

"It's because I'm not a werewolf or a human." Echo told her.

"What are you?"

"I'm a dhampyr. There aren't a lot of us around, so you've probably never smelled anything like me." She winked at my niece.

"What's a dhampyr?"

"Just another special type of person, like you, but different." Echo said.

I knew she was avoiding the word vampire so she wouldn't scare Lina. Echo was doing so well; I was glad for it. I looked around, my grandfather was glaring over at her.

Turning my attention back to Echo, she had managed to get Lina to come out and was shaking her hand. Echo asked all the right questions of the little girl and I saw the adults in the area relax and go back to what they were doing.

Echo's cookies were a huge hit with the little kids. My little sister sat on Echo's lap and said she was going to help her learn how to be a werewolf instead of a dhampyr. I eventually left her side to go see my dad at one of the grills. Trent and William each gave me a hug when I made it over. I was pushed over to my dad. He grinned at me.

"Looks like she's good with kids. That's good. I expect a ton of grandkids from you boys." Dad chuckled.

"I hope you'll accept some little dhampyrs along with hybrids." I said.

"Of course. Family is family. Next time we have you over, we'll do it at night so we can meet Victor." Dad grinned.

"I can't believe you actually want to spend time with vampires. What's this family coming to that you're willing to accept a bloodsucker as co-mate? Who ever heard of such a thing? No one has two mates! It's just wrong." Grandpa Martin growled. "Grandpa, you're entitled to your opinion, but if you say something like that to my mate, we're gonna have a problem." I replied. "What are you gonna do, pup? I'm an Alpha. You're just a kid." He laughed.

"I've been training with Queen Bellamy and Alpha Lucien. I've been learning bear fighting moves. It's only been a week. I may not win, but I'm pretty sure I can make you regret the fight." I told him.

"There will be no fighting. This is a family event. There are children here." Grampy growled.

"I disagreed with Trent making the alliance with the vampires. I disagree with you mating with one. This is going to kill our pack." Grandpa snarled.

"How?" Echo said from behind me.

I turned. I didn't know how long she'd been there or how much she'd heard. She didn't look angry or upset, just curious. I reached out for her hand and she grasped my hand. She wouldn't let me pull her away. I was surprised at her strength. "I don't need to explain my reasoning to a bloodsucker." He replied.

"I'd certainly like to know." Trent said. "I am the Alpha of this pack. Any concerns you have about the pack should go through me. How else am I going to determine what's best for the pack?"

"I told you not to form an alliance with them and you didn't listen. You insisted you knew better than I did. Now your brother is mated to one." Grandpa said with a sneer.

I growled and gripped Echo's hand. She stroked my hand with her other one, trying to soothe me. I was angry, though, he had no right to disparage her.

"What's wrong with me?" She asked. "I love Gray. I feed him. I take care of him. He loves me and takes care of me. I may not have a wolf, but I'm strong and I'm learning how to fight."

"And you feed on him, right? You sink your little fangs in him and drink his blood like he's a f*****g juice box." He responded.

"That's none of your business." I growled.

"It is my business. The blood of powerful werewolves is like a treat for them. How long before she uses her hypnosis on you and makes you bring her your future Alpha for a snack?" Grandpa asked.

"I would never do that. My hypnosis doesn't work like that. I don't like drinking blood. I just have to have a little and I have it in foods. I use bagged blood and I haven't fed on Gray since I got better." Echo insisted.

"So you admit you fed on him. And how often does your other lover feed on him?" He pressed.

"Victor has never fed on me and it wouldn't be your business if he did. It's my blood and my body. I'll do what I want with it." I told him.

He snarled and advanced. I moved in front of Echo. I didn't think he'd try anything, but I wasn't going to test it.

"There is no place in this pack for a vampire or a vampire lover." Grandpa stated firmly.

"Then there's no place for me." Trent said. "Because I like Echo and Victor. I think our pack is made stronger for having our alliance. We have the protection of the vampires which means fewer fights with them and less risk to our young when they go out for some fun in the city."

"And there's no place for me, dad. Because Echo has been sweet and kind. Her sister is one of the best female fighters I've seen and her brother is holding his own against werewolves. That's almost impossible for a human. They both have vampire blood." My dad said.

"That's different. They're hybrids. Even with predominately witch and vampire blood, the boy takes after his werewolf father. You can tell he's one of us, just without a wolf." Grandpa told them. "She isn't. She's one of them!"

Rex didn't like the way he was talking and started trying to take over. If I shifted, it would be bad. It would mean I lost control and Grandpa would take that as his win. He couldn't win this one.

Echo stepped in front of me and started rubbing my stomach through my shirt. I looked down at her and got lost in the hazel/green of her eyes. I could feel Rex still struggling to get free, though.

"Shh, Rex. I'm okay. Not everyone is going to like me. That's fine. I'm learning to deal with it. As long as I have you with me, I don't care if he doesn't like me. Don't come out. Stay there and let us take care of it." She murmured. 'You better deal with the old man.' Rex growled in my head.

'Just chill. We'll win this by being calmer than him. We don't need his approval. Everyone else loves Echo. Listen to her, she's fine.' I replied.

"What the hell did you just do?" Grandpa asked.

"What do you mean?" Echo said softly, still looking at me.

"It felt like.... No. That's not possible." He huffed and turned to go in the house.

"What did it feel like?" I questioned.

"It felt like when a Luna soothes an angry wolf." Lily answered from behind me. "She has wolf blood. Mates of alpha blood wolves can gain some abilities a Luna has just because of the volatile nature of dominant wolves. He's grumpy because you took the fight out of Gray and out of him. It's something Lunas can do, Echo. That must be how your wolf blood comes in, you can soothe wolves."

I caressed Echo's cheek. She looked excited and grinned.

"What does this mean?" I asked.

"It means your mate is officially manifesting her werewolf blood. This has only been seen in werewolves mated to alpha blood wolves. Never to humans or any other species mated to them." Lily explained.

The rest of the dinner went fairly well. Grandpa Martin pouted while everyone seemed to really warm up to Echo. The kids all loved her.

After we ate, Echo was playing with baby Isiah. She looked so good with a baby in her arms. I loved watching how she tickled him and talked sweetly to him.

"You're a natural with children, Echo." My mom gushed. "I can't wait to see you with your own babies."

Echo blushed and thanked her. I couldn't wait to see her with our pups and Victor's babies. I could imagine her reading to them and playing with them. She really was good with kids, even the really shy ones came up to see her.

I talked with Gammy and Grampy about the journals. On Wednesday the juniors at school would be testing and the other grades would have the day off. They did that for us seniors in the Fall.

We decided that Echo and I would come over first thing in the morning and help find the journals. We would probably spend the whole day with them. Echo was excited about the chance of finding another good lead on what caused the curse. She was hoping we could find enough that Lila could figure out the way to break it.

Lila had told Victor that she needed to know exactly what the curse was in order to be able to break it. There were several curses that seemed to cover the bulk of the issues we'd been having. They would all be tied to a primary curse, which hadn't been on Grigori, or he would have broken it when he killed himself.

We had hope. It was pretty much all we had, but it was enough to keep pushing us. We'd keep going until the curse was broken, no matter what happened along the way.

At the end of the night, Echo had gotten phone numbers from half my cousins and all of the adult females in my family. She had recipes and tentative future plans to meet up for lunch or shopping. In all, it seemed like it had gone as well as could be expected. I helped her up into my truck and we headed for home. Suddenly, my nervousness came back. I remembered that we'd be having sex tonight. Echo was rambling about everyone she'd met and how much she liked my family. It was nice to see that she wasn't as worried as I was.

"Gray. You're being quiet. Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah. Just tired." I replied.

"Oh." Echo sounded a little sad. "Too tired?"

I licked my lips and smiled. "I don't think so. Are you sure you want me to do it? Maybe Victor would be the better choice."

"You don't want to?"

"I do.... It's just.... I've never done it before. I'm nervous and I didn't think you'd want that." I explained softly.

"I do want that. Not you nervous." She giggled. "I want to share this with you. We can be each other's first. It'll be special."

"Yeah. It will be. I'll do my best. I'm sorry I'm nervous. You don't seem to be at all." I chuckled.

"Because I love you and I trust you, Gray. Victor already told me it will hurt, but I'm sure it won't be too bad." Echo said with a smile.

"You can tell me to stop at any point and I will. I promise." I told her.

"I believe you. I hope we get home quickly. I want to go to bed soon." She purred and stroked my arm.

I glanced over at her. She was nibbling her lips and squeezing her knees together. I could smell her arousal and nearly groaned. I wanted to go to bed soon, too.