Rose's POV
I don't know why, but I'm nervous as heck.
You know, like that feeling you get when you've spent years believing you lost something, something you deeply, desperately wanted- but now, suddenly, you're told you can have it again?
But it's been so long since it slipped away, you're not even sure how you're supposed to feel about it anymore. That sort of heavy, fluttering nervousness.
My pacing had worn a half-moon pattern into the silk rug by now, each step echoing louder in the silence of my chambers. My heart was a wild drumbeat in my throat, pounding like today would be the final chapter of my existence. The tension in my body felt like a string pulled taut, ready to snap with the faintest touch.
And that's precisely the state my best friend and now newly-appointed bodyguard- Selena found me in.
She leaned on the doorframe with that usual amused look dancing in her mismatcheyes. There was always something about her that screamed different, something uniquely otherworldly. Not just in the way all Roosevolt vampires had that ageless aura, no… hers was something even more opposite. As if she were carved from a star in a different sky.
At first glance, you'd never guess she was a "she." She always wore breeches and fitted tunics that looked like they'd been tailored for a man, not a prim and proper lady. She dresses herself as a man, But whenever she cuts her hair, she would have these gloomy black clouds hovering over her head.
But if we're talking about courage, loyalty, and raw, untamed strength? Selena put every man in this kingdom to shame.
And between us, if she were a man… well, I probably would've married her. No second thoughts.
The hottest tomboy in the Liliac Kingdom. Hands down.
She never saw herself the way others did. She had this bizarre belief that she was unattractive, unnoticeable even. But oh, if she only knew the way men, and more than a few women watched her when she thought no one was looking. She'd be insufferable if she knew.
Since the news broke that I was to marry the Dark Lord of the Roosevolt Kingdom, Selena had been appointed my personal bodyguard. A Royal decree signed and sealed. She was to accompany me to Roosevolt and protect me from any possible threats. Honestly, she volunteered even before they asked.
Sara, my lifelong personal maid, would also be coming along. Other than the two of them, no one from Liliac was permitted to follow.
"Are you done with your evening walk, Lady Rose?" Selena teased, folding her arms as she walked further into the room.
"Probably, I'm," I muttered, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear.
"I know what you're nervous about," she said gently, a rare softness in her voice. "But don't worry. I'll always protect you."
There was something comforting about her presence, like the first cold sip of water on a summer day. Warm, reliable, silently protective.
"Now be good and go to bed. I'll wake you in the morning."
I nodded, although she didn't quite understand why I was nervous. Still, her voice felt like a blanket on a frayed nerve.
She closed the door softly behind her, and I was alone once more in the dim, flickering shadows of my chamber. The silence was almost too loud. The walls felt as if they were slowly closing in.
And then-
Knock knock.
I froze.
A knocking. Not at the door… at the window.
My heart leapt, almost crashing through my ribcage. Who in the Liliac Kingdom would knock on my window at this hour?
I tiptoed across the floor, grabbing the nearest lamp from my bedside table. Its soft glow barely lit the space beyond my trembling fingers.
Another knock. This time slower, deliberate.
I approached the window, pressed my back to the wall, and waited in the corner, just beside the curtain. I reached out and gently unlatched it without making a sound, breath held hostage in my lungs.
Then a voice. Smooth. Deep. Amused.
"Are you going to let me wait here all night, Princess? Let me tell you-this little lamp won't do me any harm."
My heart dropped to my knees.
No. That voice. That husky, maddeningly perfect voice- I hadn't imagined it.
I yanked the curtains aside and pulled the window open, and there he was.
The Dark Lord.
Perched on the window ledge like a hawk, effortlessly suspending his body with arms that didn't even tremble under the weight. He had that glint in his eye again- the kind that said he knew too much and planned to tell you none of it.
With a smirk, he swung inside, landing with silent grace on my embroidered magenta carpet. No sound. Not even a shift in the air.
Towering. Regal. Inhumanly beautiful.
He smirked again, this time with something undeniably feral tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"Is this how brides welcome their future husbands here in Liliac, Princess?"
I opened my mouth- but nothing came out.
And somewhere in the distance, I forgot how to breathe.
Palace Grounds
Drew's POV
Something is very wrong.
The recent murders in Roosevolt are not normal. Vampires don't die easily. That's a known fact across every kingdom.
To kill one of us- properly kill one of us you need to stab the heart with silver, and then remove the spine entirely. It's gruesome. Brutal. And nearly impossible.
Yet someone did it. Twice.
One vampire and his mate were found slaughtered, their spines torn from their bodies. Silver embedded deep into the chest cavity. And worse- the remains were found charred beyond recognition.
Fire. Not ordinary fire, but a heat so intense that it burned through bone and magic both. A fire that no hands could create.
Lazarus had sent two of our elite trackers to gather intel from the crime scenes, but they were found dead before they returned. The reports said their internal organs were melted.
The entire palace was buzzing with fear. Whispers of ancient magic. Forbidden spells. Something darker than we've seen in centuries.
I had gone to the Lord's chambers to deliver the latest updates- but he wasn't there.
His scent, though, was strong.
A vampire's scent can only be followed by two kinds of people: their destined mates or those with a blood pact. And I had the latter.
Lazarus and I made a blood oath when we were children. I vowed to protect him with my life. His magic runs in my veins just as mine in his.
Tracking him was easy. His scent was unmistakable- cold metal, burnt sage, and that unexplainable crispness of midnight rain.
I followed it through the corridors, past the grand hall, and eventually, out into the garden.
That's when I noticed it- his scent rising sharply from one of the royal chambers. But the scent wasn't on the ground.
It was above me.
Seventeen feet above the ground, to be exact. Hovering near a window with soft golden light glowing behind the curtains.
What the hell was he doing in a lady's chamber at this hour?
Just as I reached out to knock on the chamber door from below, a firm grip clamped around my wrist- like iron. I spun around instinctively, my fangs half-bared.
"No one can disturb my Miss at this hour," came the voice low, female, and threatening.
The moment I turned, time stopped.
My breath caught.
And I stared directly into the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen- one gray, one a burning gold.
The world blurred. Sound vanished. Only her eyes remained.
And then-
"Mate," we both breathed, almost in disbelief.
In an instant, the air shifted. Like fate had snapped its fingers and the strings of destiny re knotted themselves.
She was a werewolf. And she was my mate.