After summoning a family meeting, a group of only male family members convened in Mr. Collin's luxurious and spacious office. At the back-rear center of the room, two couches face each other with a coffee table between them, extending towards the balcony.
Henry, Evan's eldest brother, occupied one couch alongside Chester's left, with the balcony behind them, while Mr. Collins sat on the opposite couch with Isabel. Kai perched on the arm of the couch near Chester's right shoulder, and Troy stood adjacent to his uncle. Towards the front-rear, across from the door, Evan and Quin settled atop Mr. Collin's desk, sharing a bag of popcorn, while everybody else stood scattered around the office.
Everyone got briefly updated with the fact that Grant Somerset was Isabel's destined mate and that she carried his royal offspring. The Somerset Coven had been longstanding enemies with the Collin Coven since the beginning. To this day, their rivalry is inveterate.
Before the wars took place, Matt's Coven, named the Lopez, along with the Somerset Coven, the Silverdawn Coven, and thousands of other Covens throughout the dimensional worlds, were the ones responsible for starting the First Worldwide War by claiming everyone's territories.
At age thirty, the Headmasters delegated Mr. Collin and the
other young Alphas from their home planet to work out a peace treaty to prevent war throughout the dimensional worlds while putting their wise leadership as clan leaders to the test. To the young alphas' downfall, they failed their test as peace was never fully established, and Mr. Collin failed to ensure their enemies didn't follow him home, making him responsible for the attack against Emily Mill. Unfortunately, any peace they managed to sustain for five years ultimately failed when the war spiraled out of control three days after Kai was born, coinciding with the day they lost their home planet.
With an already tense history with the Somerset Coven, the situation with Isabel has now become very difficult to tackle peacefully because Grant's grandpa and his grandpa's clan were part of the group that also harmed Emily.
Once everyone was updated, Troy and Isabel picked up right where they left off in their conversation.
"Why did you lie to me about not being able to have offspring?" Troy grumbled as he bitterly pursed his lips, unraveling a grimace on his face.
Countless times, they tried to have offspring, but she never conceived, so this irked him the most that she allowed him to believe she couldn't ever get pregnant. Naturally, it was an eternal instinct for a Royal to desire offspring. Preferably, most Royal vampires longed for a son so he could take reign in the Coven. Hence, for his wife to deny him his seed made him feel cheated, mainly because she carried Grant's royal offspring and not his.
"Because you were cheating!" Isabel retorted. "It's not fair to bring offspring into our lives when we're in an unfaithful relationship. So I used an herbal extract to prevent pregnancy."
For cheating on her dozens of times, she inwardly felt that Troy didn't deserve offspring, so she took extra precautions to avoid conception with him. It was known that not all vampiresses could conceive, so she played it smart and tricked him into thinking she couldn't bear him offspring.
"That wasn't your call to make!" Troy growled as his uncle Kai snatched his forearm and prevented him from reaching her.
As delicate as the situation was, Kai needed to be sure Troy didn't harm her offspring. Instinctively, Troy could efficiently detain Grant's heir and replace Isabel's grief with his own seed since she was rightfully his wife. But with Grant being her destined mate, he would destroy all life to keep Isabel and his offspring safe.
"Try to keep things peaceful," Kai suggested.
Isabel insisted as her nose snubbed upward. "That isn't going to be the case with Troy. Therefore, I want a divorce!"
Troy possessively growled, feeling his vexation fueling along his bloodstream. "You can't get a divorce! You're a Royal! We have an alliance with your Coven. I don't care that you have a destined mate! You're my wife first!"
"You have Becky! Marry her since she bears you your first offspring. Many of your family members have married non-royals, so I know Vlad won't care," Isabel reasoned, trying to get through his thick-headed skull.
Refusing to give in, Troy clamored, "I won't marry her when I have you!"
"Then my Coven could go to war with you if you don't!" Isabel warned, gritting her teeth.
"Honey, you don't wanna go to war with us. Your Coven isn't Superior like ours. We'd wipe out your Headmaster and his Coven with ease," Quin told her from the desk.
Given that Isabel's great-grandfather arose around the period of the sixth Brightest Blue Moon, any Collin Alpha could swiftly eradicate her great-grandfather and his Coven without Vlad's assistance.
Any Alpha vampires stemming from their blood relationship to a Superior Headmaster could always defeat non-superior Headmasters. It was like sipping tea from a teacup for them. For this reason, during the wartime ages, a large number of non-superior Covens formed alliances with Superiors for security and guidance. Otherwise, if they hadn't, they wouldn't have survived the wars that the Superiors began way before the timing of the second Blue Moon.
"My mate's Coven is Superior!" Isabel growled. "Grant's Coven is ready to go to war with you, and my Coven will join them!"
It was a known fact that the Somerset Coven weren't threatened by the Collins. If they were easy to defeat, the Collin Coven would have conquered them as they did with the Silverdawn Coven and the Mercer Coven, who were Darlene's family and Coven.
"We're aware," Mr. Collin sighed, patting her hand to calm her. "The Somerset Coven are allies with the Lopez, the Mercer, the Silverdawn, and many more. They have been our enemies for far too long. They're responsible for harming Emily Mill because of me. My father lost Morbius for what they did."
"Everyone is familiar with the story about you and the Mill Coven, and I understand the Somerset Coven has destroyed your home planet and done you great harm, but they never once harmed my family's Coven. My mate's dad is reasonable," Isabel justified as she noticed a lot of them were rolling their eyes.
Dylan, Grant's father, is roughly Kai's age, and sure, he can be pragmatic, but that didn't change the fact that they shared equal enmity for each other, especially since Dylan's father was responsible for harming Emily.
"Why don't you enjoy the party while we chat?" Mr. Collin sweetly suggested.