SOFIA

The king who chose me to marry his son is here to collect what he was promised. I have seen the king on my phone and on TV, but I have never seen him face to face, and honestly, I wish I hadn't because this man is scary as fuck.

At fifty-three years old, King Ilya possesses a commanding and intimidating presence. His long blond hair falls past his shoulders, framing his cold silver eyes and sharply defined diamond-shaped face. His regal features give him the appearance of a powerful monarch, but his aura carries more menace than nobility.

How the fuck did they even find me?

"Sofia, my future daughter-in-law," he says as he walks toward me with arms spread, acting like we're family already. I stand there surrounded by not just the king and my parents, but many, many guards.

I try my very best not to shake. I shall not shake. I have trained myself not to be scared of anyone ever since I started getting bullied for not being able to shift. That fear will not appear for no one, not the king, not the guards, no one!

I stand my ground, head held high, and my gaze sharp.

"But why do you want to run away? We're about to be a one big happy family, don't you want that?"

"NO!" I snap, and I can feel everyone jump in shock. The king definitely looks shocked.

"No?" he says with his eyebrows furrowed. "Why not? Is it because of this fellow right here?" he points at Simon, who doesn't shake or look scared; he looks fierce right now. I can see him falter a little bit, but he's still standing his ground, looking him straight in the eye.

I realise that there's no need for cockiness right now and that maybe if I try to reason with the king civilly, then he'd let us go.

"Your majesty, I can't marry your son because I'm in love with someone else." I walk over to Simon, and I hold his hand, and he holds mine tight. "I'm so sorry, your majesty, but he's the one I want to be with. I'm on board with you wanting to unite the kingdoms, and I think it's a great idea, but why choose me? I can't even shift."

I can already see my mother's face; she looks like she's about to kill me. I don't bother looking at her, though. I look straight at the king, and if I want to pass my message, that's what I'm going to do.

"You love him?" the king asks, with a smile on his face. I feel like I'm getting to him.

"Yes, your majesty."

"And I love her, your majesty." Simon holds me tighter, our fingers link so well. We hold each other like we've already won, we've won this battle.

We've succeeded.

The king sighs happily. "How delightful, young love," he smiles, and we smile at him too, then Simon and I smile at each other because we know we're going to be free.

That's until Simon starts screaming viciously, holding his head as he falls to the ground, and the screaming continues. He's in serious pain.

I look at him, confused.

"Simon, what-"

I look up to see that the king is the one doing this. I've heard about the king's gift; every vampire has a gift, and the king's gift is very powerful. Of course, he is the king. He fries people's brains, turns their brains into chips, and if he continues to do this to Simon, Simon will die.

"Wait, stop. Please stop, you're hurting him!"

"It's your choice, dearie; it's either you come with me to Drakorya or your boyfriend here dies."

"What? No, please no, please don't do this." I cry.

"I'm sure your love is precious and sweet. But the humans are rising against us as we speak. There's no time for true love; all we need now is an alliance. And if one person has to die for that alliance to happen, then so be it."

"No, no, no, please, please don't do this. Mom, Dad!" I yell their names with tears in my eyes, but they don't care. They never cared about me. If they did, they would have defended me from the bullies, they would have told me there was nothing wrong with me, but they didn't, they view me like everyone else does, a mistake.

"Your choice."

"Okay, fine, fine! I'll go with you! I'll go with you!" I shout at the top of my lungs, and Simon falls to the ground, coughing profusely. I weep. I'm about to touch him.

"Leave him, and come with us." The king commands.

"But- I want to-I want to see if he's okay."

"Leave him!"

"I'm so sorry Si."

"Sofia no, don't go with them." he grabs my hand, and I let go, which makes me cry even more.

"I'm sorry."

"Come on, Sofia." My mother takes me by the hand.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" I shout, which makes her flinch, then I wipe a tear off my eye with so much anger, and I walk forward.

Marching into the car.

I'm back in my room getting ready to go to this vampire kingdom. It's cold in Drakorya, for me but not for the vampires; they're cold-blooded creatures who drink blood, disgusting. I have to sit there and watch them drink blood.

Back in school, the vampires never sat with the witches and werewolves in the cafeteria. Well, they did, but they didn't sit to eat with us, just to hang out. There was always a room for them to drink blood from blood bags or humans who gladly offered themselves.

So I never got to see such things, but unfortunately, now I have to see that shit.

The maids have put all my clothes in the box, and I stand in front of the mirror, my eyes red as hell. I've been crying nonstop, but I have stopped. My parents have taken my phone, I can't contact Simon to know how he's doing, and I can't contact Marissa either. This is all too much for me.

My mother walks into the room, and she stands behind me.

"Oh, honey, you'll realise soon enough that this was for the best, okay." She tries to touch my hair, but I smack her hand.

"Let's do this, let's go."

"Sofia!"

"You're the one who wants this right. Come on, we're wasting time, let's do it for the kingdoms, let's go." I walk out of the room, and I head downstairs. My dad stands near the stairs waiting for me with a smile on his face.

"There's my beautiful daughter."

I ignore him, and I move outside. I know that's disrespectful, but I don't care at this point. They want me to get married to this prince. Then so be it.

I get straight into the limo provided for us by the king, and my parents get in, sitting in front of me. We zoom off in silence. Leaving Monteluna. I will miss this place, but I will not miss the people, the people be damned.

All they ever did was treat me like trash.

And so our drive to vampire land was nothing but quiet, very quiet, and I like it that way; I don't want anyone talking to me.

"It would help if you smiled a little, dear," my father says, and I don't look at him, I don't protest, I smile. Like the way he wants me to smile, I fucking smile.

"The smile looks fake," Mom says.

"Maybe if I actually liked what was going on then you'd get a real smile from me."

"Sofia! Please do not talk to your mother that way!"

I roll my eyes, and I look out the window.

"I know you think we hate you for doing this, but you have to understand, we're doing this for you, for our family, mi amor."

Yes, I'm sure we are. I'm still not going to say anything. The sooner we get there, the better. I don't want to see their faces.

"Sofia, will you at least look at me?" Mom asks, and I do look at her, but now I'm sure she's wishing I hadn't. When I see how uncomfortable they both are, I turn my face away.

I still cannot believe they both watched as the king tried to kill Simon. They just stood there, and what if I had said no, would they have allowed him to kill Simon?

I knew they didn't like me, but I didn't know they hated both Simon and me.

I shall not talk to them, in fact, I would rather be in a land full of vampires than be with them.

We're in Drakorya now. I know this because it has gotten really cold. Monteluna is warm and airy, but this land is striking, cold, and wet. I hear it rains every day. It rains in Monteluna, but not every day. I don't see people with pointy ears yet, but I do know we're here. We've just not reached the city yet.

I can't believe this is going to be my new home. I'm going to be getting married to a vampire.

This whole thing is still so suspicious. I refused to believe that all the king wants is an alliance. No way, something fishy is going on here.

The car stops, and suddenly, there's screaming.

"What the hell is going on?" Dad asks, and we hear a heavy thud on the car; it feels like something or someone, has jumped on top of the car.

"What is happening?" Mom cries.

I look around me, trying to keep my composure and look for whatever is causing all this commotion. Whatever is causing all this forcefully opens the door to the driver's seat and yanks the driver away. He screams in terror.

Yep, I knew it.

We are under attack.

Just great.

At least it's better to die than to get married.

SOFIA

My mother lets out a scream when she sees a scary-looking man with razor-sharp teeth and bright red eyes slam their hands on the window. He tries to break the window and get their hands on us all. He looks so monstrous.

I look at the man with fear and interest at the same time because it's obvious these are vampires, but what kind of vampires are they? Vampires usually have silver eyes, and they don't look like lunatics, well, sometimes they do, but not in this manner.

"For fuck sakes I'm going out."

"No!" Mom and I say in unison. My dad, the hero, always wanting to protect his loved ones, well, mostly his beloved wife. I know I'm angry at him, but I do not want him dead right now. He's still my dad.

"We don't know what these things are. I mean, they are vampires," Mom says, looking at the vampire trying to break through the window. It cracks

"We definitely know what they are, they're rogues, they're humans turned vampires. It's forbidden in this kingdom to do such a thing, but apparently, some vampires still do it." Dad explains, and I look back at the vampire who was once a human.

The vampires look pretty strong because they're beating up the royal guards and killing them. And at this rate, we're definitely going to be next.

Great, just great. I could have been at home shopping, or going on dates with Simon or just chilling in my room, but my parents had to force me to get married, now we're all going to die. Should have just stayed at home, where it was safe.

Fuck!

My mom whimpers in fear. I don't know what she's whimpering about. We're fucking cooked, and it's all her fault. Well, I would rather die than get married to someone I don't love.

"Wait a minute." I turn around to the vampire that was banging on the window. "Where's that vampire?" I ask because the vampire is nowhere to be found. That driver really should not have left his door unlocked. Now, the poor guy is dead.

 Next thing I know, I see someone crashing into a tree. It's the vampire that tried to kill us; there's a wooden stake in his stomach. Someone saved us, or someone is saving us, because I can see him killing these vampires one by one with so much ease.

Could he be a guard? I hope he is, because if that's all the royal guard can offer, then I'm dead in that palace.

When I see it's safe to look, I roll the window down, and I put my head out.

"Sofia, what are you doing? Put your head back in right this instant." I ignore my mom, and I keep my head outside.

Yes, this strong, valiant man is killing the vampires, not just protecting us but also the king.  Who, I'm sure, did not see this coming. Or he set me up to kill me for not being a werewolf who can fully shift.

But I'm just assuming because I've been bullied for not being able to shift my whole life.

It's obvious this man right here is skilled at what he does, and he's a fighter. Because he hasn't let any of these vampires touch him since he arrived. The way he punches, he kicks, the way he lets these vampires know who's the boss.

I think it's badass.

Which is crazy because I was never a violent person. I'm more feminine than I am violent, but I had to be to survive.

I can still wear makeup and kick some ass. Maybe this guy can teach me a couple of moves. Whoever he is.

And there goes the last vampire, the knight completely removes his head from his body. I flinch at the sight because I have never seen a decapitation before. He also kills the guards who have been bitten by the vampires.

Why? Because they could get infected?

"Clear!" he says through his mask, his voice so deep.

Some of the guards are still alive, but they're injured. The guards who weren't bitten by vampires stand tall, and they open the door for the king. The king, who looks more annoyed than distressed, storms out of the limo.

"I should have whoever was responsible for that beheaded," he spits out. "My in-laws, are you okay?"

I open the door to step out because I also need to stretch my legs.

"Yes, yes, that was quite the scary display," Mom says.

"I could have helped," my dad says, and I roll my eyes, but they land on the masked assailant, whom I catch staring at me, but he looks away.

Hmmm, something about him looks familiar. Even with his mask on, it seems like I know him from somewhere.

"We heard the rumour of some vampires turning humans into vampires to start a war, but we didn't think it was true," Dad says.

"Why do you think I want us to unite the kingdoms?" The king says, and that may be a valid reason, but I'm still not convinced because... WHY ME? WHY FUCKING ME? OF ALL THE BEAUTFUL WERELADIES OUT THERE WHO CAN ACTUALLYN TURN INTO FULL WOLVES WHY FUCKING ME!?

"Ah, we need the alliance more than ever then," says Dad.

"Of course, even your king thinks so."

Gods, I wish that king bore daughters. My life would be so much easier.

The king of the vampires looks straight at the masked man, and he sighs in disappointment, and I don't know why, because he literally just saved us, and I think he's badass. This man is such an arrogant prick that he not only threatens to kill people's boyfriends, but he also doesn't even know how to say thank you.

"Even though I keep telling him to stop doing things like this, we should all be grateful for his help," says the king. "My in-laws. Sofia, meet my son. Prince Victor Dragomire."

Holy-what?

The man removes his mask, and yes, it is him, the man I am going to marry, the man who saved us, is my arch nemesis. Victor.

"Good day, Mr and Mrs Santos," he bows with a smirk on his face, and I don't know why he's acting polite; there's nothing polite about him. He's nothing but an egotistical maniac out for blood. I see no difference between him and those rogue vampires.

He grabs my mother's hand and kisses the back of it. She blushes.

"Oh, such a gentleman, and he's handsome too. Sofia, your future husband is really handsome." Victor looks at me with that mischievous smile of his.

My mom is falling for this lie because, of course, she is. What a load of bullshit.

He rises up and walks away from my parents and heads toward me.

"Hello, Sofia."

I fold my arms, and I give him a look. I cannot believe I called him a badass, and I loved his fighting skills. I take it all back.

"Victor," I say, looking into those silver eyes of his that most vampires have. I will not look down or look elsewhere because that will mean I accepted defeat.

But he does look handsome, though. I'll give the fucker that. He looks more handsome than he was when he was a teenager, and hotter, I guess.

Victor stands at six feet three with a muscular, powerful build typical of the royal vampire bloodline. He has light blond hair done in a neat buzzcut with a slight fade, light silver eyes, pointy ears and a round, symmetrical face. His lips are full, his jaw sharply defined.

Damn, he has gotten hotter over the years.

 But I don't give a fuck! This man made my life a living hell back in high school, and I'm getting married to my bully, but of course, if I tell my parents that, they won't care. They didn't care then, they don't care now.

"Long time no see."

"And I honestly hoped to never see your face again."

"You mean this handsome face?" he waggles his brows.

I scoff at his buffoonery.

"Oh, please don't get ahead of yourself now."

"Relax, I'm just as angry as you are on this." he brings out his finger, and he spins it around. "I don't like this arrangement either."

"And you think I like it?

"I'm sure you hate it just as I do."

"So if you hate it that much, why don't you just tell your father to cancel this whole thing?"

"Don't you think I tried that?" He says defensively, and I do not know why, but I think he's lying. I really don't know why I think he's lying, since he hates me more than I hate him.

"Look at them, already fighting like married couples. Come along now. We're going home, my in-laws, please join me in my limo since your driver is..." he looks at the dead driver, and then he smiles. What a diabolical man, what is there to be smiling about? One of his people just died.

"Anyway, come along, we have so much to prepare for before the wedding tomorrow."

I stop in my tracks because I don't believe I heard him correctly.

Tomorrow!?