The Alpha's Mate and the Vampire King
The Alpha’s Mate and the Vampire King Chapter 1

Eastland, Kingdom of Prajna

Westland, Kingdom of Gwydion

Five years later …

Eden couldn’t sleep. Her thoughts were a tangled mess and she was wasting energy attempting to sort through them. Logic was not working this night.

Tomorrow, the Wolf King would come for Nora. Eden wasn’t sure her baby sister was ready. She wasn’t sure her family was ready, either.

It would not be easy for any of them to watch Nora marry and move away, all in the same day. Eden accepted this was a normal part of life, for a female to leave her childhood home once old enough for marriage. It would still hurt to let her go.

Added to the disquiet over the wedding was the fact Nora was uprooting her life to go live among the wolves. The Burghards were formidable creatures who lived life as if it was a game of dominance. Only the strongest could ascend to and maintain hold on the throne.

Nora was not a formidable creature, yet she was about to be placed upon the highest seat of power, second only to the King. The tiny nugget of guilt Eden had long ago buried over the relief at not being the Burghard Queen reemerged.

Eden could handle herself far better than Nora in a difficult environment. In terms of magic, so could any child of Gwydion. Nora simply had no ability to call upon the elements. The only hint of magic she possessed was the occasional vision, too scrambled to be of any use. It was a useless power.

The night Kellan departed, Edward sat with his daughters to have a long and frank conversation about what would need to be done to ensure Nora’s safety.

Their father had never allowed them to feel vulnerable. He’d taught Eden and Evelyn how to use their magics in the most efficient ways, to preserve energy, but strike fiercely.

They’d learned not only defensive strategies, but how and when to go on the offense. Thankfully, there had never been an occasion where such skills had been necessary.

As for Nora, because she had no magic to call, she’d learned to fight hand-to-hand. Since the day she’d met Kellan, Nora’s training had increased tenfold. She was now more than proficient with a sword and a bow.

Lying there, Eden’s worried mind continuously ticked through the possibilities, sorting and cataloguing what she knew of Kellan and of wolves in general.

The wolf would not tolerate anyone harming his mate. It did not mean he could ensure Nora’s wellbeing. It was possible no wolf would dare cross Kellan by physically challenging Nora, but if she was perceived as weak, she would not be respected.

There could be dire consequences if the wolves found out Nora’s lifeforce was in a state of constant drain and no one had warned the king. Lies of omission were, after all, still lies.

Edward had ordered his children to keep Nora’s condition quiet, fearing blowback from the Burghards. Eden did not agree, but she kept her opinion to herself. She never went against her father in front of her sisters. She adored the man, and he was often very open to her ideas.

However, at the time, Nora was only fourteen and her state of deterioration could be exacerbated by family discord—or so they believed. Emotional upheaval could be physically taxing, especially to an elemental.

Eden and Evelyn agreed long ago to never lay unnecessary burdens at Nora’s feet. Her uphill battle to live was burden enough.

Edward alleged if the wolves knew the truth, Nora could be challenged or, at the very least, undermined. She would be viewed as frail and wolves were not keen on following a queen who was sickly.

Eden also kept her mouth shut because she believed the point to be moot. Being Kellan’s true mate, Nora’s lifeforce would be tied to his. Theoretically, this would solve the problem of her constant drain of energy. Kellan was going to unknowingly save Nora.

Eden had been confident in her assertion. For over five years Eden did not doubt; she knew Kellan was the answer to Nora’s problem.

Except, as the wedding date neared, so did the reality that there was no way to know for certain. Only after Nora and Kellan were mated would they get their answer.

Eden debated approaching her father again and asking if he would change his mind. He may have ordered them to keep their mouths shut, but Nora was now twenty and would be a married woman tomorrow. She may not find following her father’s orders quite so easy as when she was young. It was certainly the case for Eden.

More and more Eden found herself questioning everything, especially her father. He would often laugh when she pushed back on something, telling her she was acting like her mother.

Eden didn’t know what to make of his comments, to know if he was being complementary or not. She barely remembered her mother; Elora had died when Eden was only four.

It was while she was trying to picture her mother’s face that Eden heard Nora cry out from her room next door.

Nora often had vivid dreams and would talk in her sleep. This sound was different. Nora’s cry was one of distress.

Though she hid it, Eden could tell her sister’s anxiety over the coming nuptials had gradually increased over the past year. It would all come to a head in the morning.

Eden jumped out of bed, forgoing her robe in her haste. She was in her nightgown but there were no guards near their rooms, so it wasn’t likely she would be seen.

She ran to the small door separating their quarters. As she reached for the handle, she felt a sharp pain in her palm. She turned her hand over, checking for injury.

The crescent on her palm was giving off an odd silver glow, flickering like a flame from a lit candle. Eden closed her fist, not trusting her eyes. Before she opened her hand to look once more, Nora whimpered.

Ignoring her birthmark, Eden flung open the door and dashed into the room, coming to an abrupt stop when she saw Nora sitting up in the bed. She must have woken.

Nora? Eden whispered, moving slowly towards her sister, not wanting to startle her.

Nora’s eyes opened, and Eden gasped. They were shining with silver. Nora did not have silver eyes.

Eden’s palm throbbed. She looked down and the silver glow was still there. She was about to shout for her father when Nora spoke in a voice so deep and low Eden could have sworn a demon was in the room.

“No Gwydion, no demon, no Northland beast. When you search your truth, look to the East.”

Eden balked, nearly not believing what she’d just witnessed. She stayed still, waiting for Nora to say or do something more. Instead, Nora closed her eyes and fell back onto her pillow.

Nora?

Nora did not respond. Her breathing was slow and even. She was asleep. Eden debated waking her, but decided Nora needed to rest before tomorrow’s travels to the Northland.

Eden couldn’t reason Nora was dreaming, not with the silver light emanating from Nora’s eyes, her altered voice, and the odd glow of the crescent on Eden’s palm. She didn’t understand the connection to the mark on her hand, but she knew exactly what her sister had just done.

Nora had given Eden a portent.

Her father told each of his daughters how their mother had done the same, time and again. He taught them to trust the magics as they manifested, to accept and have faith in them. They were their mother’s daughters, and powers they could not fathom ran in their b***d.

Had he not prepared her for magic’s possibilities, Eden would be scared out of her mind. Nora had never prophesied, had never spoken in a riddle as their mother had done.

She pushed her sense of logic front and center, fixating on reason. A portent was a gift, one given only when needed.

Eden knew better than to question or be surprised by Nora’s revelation, not that she knew what it meant. The question now, was what to do with it.

Presages rarely came in any form other than a riddle. Their mother had predicted many things in her short life, but none of the messages were clearly interpreted.

Edward told Eden it was the counterbalance of being blessed with sight. Eden wasn’t convinced such power was a blessing. It was usually only after an event took place that the words were truly understood. How very useless.

Eden tucked the blanket back around Nora’s body and kissed her cheek before returning to her own room. The pain in her palm had diminished, but it was not entirely gone.

She tossed and turned most of the night, unable to stop the ideas running rampant through her head. She debated the merits of telling her family what occurred in Nora’s room.

Eden decided to keep it to herself. Tomorrow was Nora’s wedding day. Her father and younger sister had enough to deal with as it was. They could discuss it after life went back to normal. Besides, years could pass before she ever knew what Nora’s words meant.

She had no way of knowing Fate would reveal the meaning in a matter of days.

Eastland, Kingdom of Prajna

Viktor stood on the stone balcony outside his chambers, staring out at the ocean below. He loved the reflection of the waves as they undulated in the moonlight. They were his one constant companion in this lonely existence.

He often stood in this spot when he wanted to be alone with the ocean. He gave much consideration to his people while listening to the water crash against the rocks.

Tonight, however, it wasn’t only his subjects on his mind. Tonight, The King of Prajna was in need of counsel—something he would never admit aloud.

Viktor was rarely indecisive. In fact, he typically made decisions swiftly, without a hint of emotion. His apparent aloofness in front of his fellow Prajna had earned him his nickname.

The Heartless King, they called him. To other factions within Imperium, this would be an insult. To vampires? It held a hint of admiration, though it was rarely spoken in his presence.

It wasn’t that vampires were unfeeling. They, in fact, could feel deeply. It just wasn’t a trait they wanted in their leader.

Most were old enough to remember the unrest in the Eastland before Viktor’s rule, and could describe in detail King Nikolai’s inability to control his impulses.

Viktor’s rise to power was a bloody one. Taking the throne from his father had been difficult. Killing him, nearly impossible. But the son refused to allow the sins of the father to further taint the kingdom.

Unfortunately, the darkness had already taken root. There hadn’t been a true-mating since the day Viktor removed his father’s head over a century ago, and not one live birth in the last twenty.

The vampires were similar to the wolves in that they were able to mate with another who was not a sieva—a true mate. Fortunately, though, Prajna did not need to imprint in order to produce young.

Bonding to one’s destined other half was, of course, the preference, but not everyone was fortunate in their search.

It only took a b***d exchange to mate. It was a blessing to those unlucky souls who never found their sievas.

Vampires had extremely long lives, so they often waited many centuries in hopes of finding their fated mates. It was simply a matter of waiting for the mate to be born. Without any live births, however, the odds of finding one’s mate were virtually obliterated.

No one had been able to figure out the reason behind the vampires’ misfortune. Luka, Viktor’s younger brother, suspected their father had cursed them all with his deeds.

Viktor did not dispute Luka’s inference, though he couldn’t discount himself as a contributor to cursing the Prajna. Taking a life when not in self-defense went against their strict laws. Taking the life of

one’s father, the king, no less, surely warranted nature’s rebuke.

Viktor raised the tumbler in his hand to his mouth, the spirits within a sore substitute for the b***d he craved. Perhaps he should call for Bianca again. Her b***d would never satisfy his growing hunger, but her body could provide a distraction. She was most agreeable when tied down.

The mark on his left hand flared at the mental image of Bianca chained to the wall in his feeding room. It had been making itself known for the past five years, acting out, much like a youngling throwing a tantrum, each time he touched any female who was not his mate.

It was only getting worse.

Viktor had gone half a millennium without so much as a twitch from his cicatrice. Why now, when he was finally ready to come to terms with his obligations, did it come to life?

It was a complication he did not need. Unfortunately, it was also one he could not ignore. Once a cicatrice had awoken, only the b***d of his true-mate would quell the desire to feed.

As he swallowed the last of the liquor, he decided a visit to the temple was in order.