Chương 290: THE SECRET OF THE SIRE RING

2 FEBRUARY, TUESDAY, AFTER LUNCH I followed Henry out of the classroom. We walked up the nearest stairs a few floors, till we were at the top landing. The door to this roof was locked too. Henry looked around, then he looked at me and sighed again.

"Don't follow guys to deserted areas, Sam." I crossed my arms.

"But you told me to come with you!"

"Well, yes, but... Nevermind." Henry sounded annoyed.

"Look, I'll have info on the Ciara Coven sent to you in a thumb drive later today. But there is a better way to conquer a coven than flattening it to the ground. Theoretically, if you kill their Sire and wear his ring, you would become the next Sire." Henry was whispering this to me.

"Why would I want to be the Sire of a vampire coven? That's like becoming the king of rats," I hissed back.

"The king of very rich rats," Henry said. Now I was listening. Since it had something to do with money, I knew that Henry must have put some serious thought to it.

"Tell me what you know, Henry," I ordered. Henry scoffed a bit at my order, but was focused enough to ignore it and tell me, "What I know is an ancient and deadly family secret. If I tell you, you must swear that our packs would ally as long as we are both alive." Oh, great... I thought of Grandma Luna's ring. I seem to be collecting a number of melodramatic deadly items. What's one more?

"Okay, shoot," I told Henry. Henry groaned.

"Sam, I'm about to tell you a deep and horrible secret. You are about to swear a lifelong alliance between our packs. Can you be a little more serious about this?"

"Henry, I am being serious," I told him with a grin. I pointed at my face.

"This is my serious face."

"Your wolf is something crazy today," Henry muttered under his breath.

"You're the one going to spill your family's gut-wrenching secret. I'd say you're the crazy one," I pointed out.

"But if you did pull it off, and with your pack's alliance with mine, I believe you would make it worth my while." Henry smirked. I thought about it for a split second.

"Yes, yes, yes... Hurry up and tell me." Henry chuckled. And then he told me something so unbelievable it sounded like one of those legends from the Colored Mountain, except it happened here, right in our unmagical plains. A very long time ago, when the Gold Packlands was known as the Yellow Packlands, the Silver Moon Pack was the underbelly of the Lycan black market for information.

Their warriors were particularly skilled at lurking in the shadows, springing ambushes, assassinations, and various infiltration missions without ever showing their faces. Those who fled and ran away lived to fight another day and to complete information-gathering objectives. Yet, they were called yellow-bellied cowards. Whatever they were called, it was undeniable that they were good at their work. Their contracts with so many other packs were testament to their success.

But no matter how successful, they were always serving other packs, always the underdog, always risking their lives on dangerous missions for coin that, while it looked like large sums, barely covered their costs for transport, equipment (read weapons), and medication. Nobody starved, but it wasn't a business model that generated much profit (or respect). One day, the young Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack stumbled upon some old parchment in the black market.

In it was information about Vampire Covens, their hierarchy, and the Sire Ring. Also known as the Cursed Ring, it was the ring that the Lord of the coven would wear. With it, he controlled all the other vampires. He could summon them, control their minds remotely, as well as read them, for even the first thought of betrayal. Unlike humans and Lycans, the older the vampire gets, the more powerful they become, and since they could live forever, these rings were held by only the oldest and most powerful Lords.

These rings were transferable by death. If another vampire were to kill the Lord and wear his ring, he would become the new Lord. The entire coven and all its wealth and tithe would belong to him. So this young Alpha snuck into the coven. He was captured, but when brought before the Vampire Lord, he attacked and killed him and brought the whole coven under him. After that, he had all the Coven's tithe directed to his personal account, and very quickly amassed a huge amount of wealth.

Using the wealth, the Alpha built Silver Moon from the ground up to what it was today. The premiere pack of the Gold Packlands. Unfortunately, the ring was also known as the Cursed Ring. At the end of his life, it tormented him with unspeakable darkness. He refused to pass the curse to his son, planning to wear it to the end, but a vampire came in the darkness of the night and took the dying Alpha's last breath. This vampire was the current Vampire Lord of the Ciara Coven.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. While he was alive, this Alpha was a cruel Sire to the vampires. While under him, they were starved and strictly bound to their coven. He died a gruesome death. His body was dragged through the coven and his... Well, Henry decided then that he didn't want to elaborate.

"Wait, you want me to steal the ring and wear it and die a horrible death?" I gasped at him.

"No, Sam. Let me finish." Henry sighed.

"I have a plan." Henry's plan was to kill the Sire, wear his ring, and make a deal with the next-in-line vampire heir to the coven. They would pay a reasonable tribute every year and would be allowed freedom as long as it did not harm Lycan and continued living under the vampire heir's rule, only for one century. After that, the ring would be returned to the vampire heir and everyone could go on with their merry lives. It was a win-win.

Instead of waiting a whole eternity, the heir would be the Lord of the coven in only a century, and our pack would be richer for it. Plus, I would be safe from being captured.

"I mean, that's the reason why you are attacking the coven, right?" Henry said.

"How sure are you that this would work?" I asked.

"Sure enough to have wanted to try it myself," Henry said.

"But entering a coven is still stupid crazy, and I value my life more than the tribute amount."

"What if it's a lot of money?" I asked.

"Oh, it is. I've calculated it based on their annual GDP." Henry smirked.

"So why are you telling me to do it?" I asked.

"I figured that since you were bent on being stupid crazy and attacking their coven, might as well live vicariously through you," Henry said. I hated the smug look on his face.

"So I just need to get the ring and put it on?" I asked.

"And summon the heir and propose the deal," Henry added.

"You might want to include terms for your safe departure and the exit clauses after you return the ring."

"Oh boy." I sighed.

"Get it in writing and signed with blood," Henry continued. This was not simple at all.

"Vampires always keep their contracts," Henry said.

"Even their business ones." I crossed my arms. I wouldn't be surprise if the Gold Packlands did business with the vampires.

"I'll have the financial details delivered to you. Get whoever is drawing the Princess Town contracts to write something out. Those contracts were airtight," Henry informed me.

"Next time I need somewhere to keep my crisp, I'll fold it in a contract," I said.

"Ah, never mind." Henry growled.

"Sometimes I think you're frustrating to talk to on purpose." I laughed. Henry sighed.

"Let's go back. We're late for class." We headed back to our classroom. Oops, of all days, our history teacher was there. Henry stepped in without knocking.

"Good afternoon, sir." In such a situation, a student should say, "Sorry for being late." But there was one problem. Alphas did not say the word 'sorry', and both Henry and I were Alphas. Right now would be a good time for a beta to be with us. Betas said 'sorry' a whole lot. If we had a beta with us, he would have knocked the door for us, apologized, announced us, and seated us. If we were in a Lycan class, the teacher and students would be expected to stand and bow at our entrance.

But we had no beta, and our teacher and most of our classmates were human. So now what? I grinned. I wanted to see how Henry would deal with this.

"Why are the both of you late?" We were discussing how to take down a vampire coven.

"Sam was feeling faint. I was walking her to the infirmary, but she felt better and decided to return to class," Henry said.

"Sam, as in Samantha Kingsley?" The history teacher must have been briefed about my long-term anemic condition. I nodded.

"Take your seat." We would have gotten away with it except that Troy had to say too loudly, "He probably had to give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation." The class sniggered. Terrence slammed the desk and stood up.

"Rule number 4! Sam is out of bounds!"

"Some guys like to kiss girls that are out of bounds," Leia informed everyone. Sometimes I'm not sure what made that girl tick. Abigail was glaring daggers. I shrugged.

"We didn't. Henry and I are not like that." And then I went back to my seat.

"That's enough. Class, we have wasted enough time." The history teacher gave both of us a stern look.

"The both of you will report for detention for disrupting the class." I would miss archery training! Henry smirked.

"Yes, sir."

"And don't think that this would give you more time to hanky-panky!" Our history teacher said.

"I will personally supervise the session." My Wolfie took offense to being spoken to this way. Such disrespect, but I simply looked out of the window. Let it slide. It's just a human. I used to feel sorry for our history teacher. He was often sick and smelled like a thousand medicines whenever he did show up. Today, he smelled better. Maybe he was recovering and feeling better. So he had more energy to punish us. But our history teacher wasn't done with us. He stomped over and slammed his hand down on my desk.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you, girl!" I flipped my table on him. No... Of course I didn't. But I was very close to doing it. Oh, so very close.

"Sir, she's still not feeling well..." Marcus tried to intervene on my behalf. Sir slammed his hand on my table again. I looked at his palm, flat in the middle of my desk. Grrrr.... I stood up without a word and exerted alpha dominance specifically on him. I had never done this before. Usually, I bombed it like in the general vicinity. But today I directed it right at him.

"Take your hand off my desk, sir." I alpha commanded. My hair flared my irritation. Sir removed his hand. But his legs also gave way and he fell backwards onto the floor.

"Sam, calm down," Henry said then.

"Don't tell me what to do," I told Henry.

"Oh f***." Henry growled.

"Fine. Do whatever you want."

"Then I'm going for archery club, not detention," I decided.

"You..." Sir started to say. And then Madam Principal entered the classroom. I guess she sensed a wolf fight. She had Matt with her. Maybe she thought the Beta could've stopped the fight.

"What is going on here?"

"Sir offended Sam," Henry explained.

"I don't want to go for detention." I sulked. Now that Madam Principal was here, our history teacher got back on his feet.

"She pushed me!"

"You fell on your own," I said.

"Madam Principal, this girl disrupted my class, was rude to me, and when I confronted her, she pushed me," Sir accused. Grrr... I hated liars. If we were back home, I might just throw him out of the window. But I wasn't at home. I was at school, so I simply crossed my arms and waited for whatever to happen. I was the Alpha. I could take it. I could take a lot of things. Madam Principal smiled.

"Sam, would you like to take a break in my office for the rest of the lesson?" I shrugged.

"I could do with a break," Henry offered. I raised a brow at him.

"Then please, both of you, come with me." Madam Principal gestured for us to leave the classroom with her. Henry got up to follow.

"Come on, Sam."