~1 RED ANGEL

     

DORIAN GRIMALDI

     From the second I laid my eyes on her, I knew she was mine. The crimson red dress clung generously around her delicious curves, complimenting the fiery red of her hair cascading in loose curls down her back. That breathtaking smile lighting up her gorgeous face was really what had my pensive eyes glued to her form all night long. Beyond words of comprehension, she looked heavenly - like an angel crafted specifically to lure a bastard like me. Not only did I need to know who she was, I needed to make her mine.

My wolf stirred in excitement.

Lifting my glass of wine up, I nursed the drink lazily from my spot leaned over the railings of the indoor balcony. It gave me a perfect view of the lavish banquet going on below. The buzz of humans down there danced, cheered and drank merrily in their expensive suits and dresses, all perfectly oblivious to the truth of this dinner being hosted by my family - the Grimaldis. To them, the Grimaldis were the wealthiest and by far, the most influential family in North Creekville and while that was true, it was only one side of the dark story. Wickedly, I wondered how these cowardly humans would react if they knew that they were playing around right in the palms of the beasts and monsters they feared so much? Now, that would be an interesting sight to behold.

Once again, my eyes zeroed in on my angel in red. She was standing by the banquet table, laughing and talking animatedly with another girl. The innocence to her gestures were appealing. I’d never seen her around before but from the aura she radiated, it was easy to tell that she was human. An inkling of a frown graced my features. My mate was human? Certainly, that was an interesting choice for an Alpha but on the flip side, it would make it almost impossible to claim her - to have my mark embedded onto her skin. Humans were fragile and weak creatures, their bodies would barely be able to stand the markings of a wolf. What if I ruptured her apart? Or bruised her porcelain skin? Maybe even killed her in the process. Instantly, the hairs on my back stood and a physical pang shot through my chest. That was one thought that could easily ruin me; losing her.

I sensed her daunting presence before she even tapped my shoulders. Giving off a small eye roll, I turned around to face Lady Maurie Grimaldi - my mother. She was dressed elegantly in a black cape gown and as expected from the Luna Queen, she didn’t have a single hair out of place. Her ageless face held a well-practiced smile, the type she wore when it was time to play charades.

She was accompanied by two others and from the looks of their striking dark eyes and pale skin, I knew exactly who they were. The older man who barely looked a day over 40 was, infact, over 200 years old. For centuries, my kind had been taught to despise the very being that stood before me. Every thing about their race rivaled ours; a feud that ran so deep into our bloods that most who carried on the hate of this enmity were clueless on how it even began. But things were about to change…at my detriment.

“I’ve been searching all over for you, honey.” Mum frowned lightly but her deep brown eyes held a deliberate warning. She knew that I was avoiding her, as any sane person would.

“Well, here I am.”

She directed a playful eye roll at the older man. “This one, he gets his attitude from his father. Dorian, I’d officially like you to meet Sir Vincent Mendalv, the-”

“King of vampires and one of the originals, I know. It’s a pleasure meeting the man who’d once plagued North Creekville into their darkest time yet and sent most of my kind to their early death.” With a tight lipped smile, I stretched out my hand towards the blood sucking leach.

Sir Vincent Mendalv was a thing of nightmares. The Mendalv vampire clan came from a bloodline of the originals - the first of those cold blooded devils that crawled the earth. For a good number of unpleasant reasons, it was safe to say that I wasn’t a fan.

The older man with sleeked back golden brown hair and relatively black eyes grinned in a vaguely threatening way, then took my hand into his cold firm grip.

“Believe me, the delight is all mine. But that’s no way to be speaking to your father-in-law, is it? I guess I can’t expect less from the son of Garret Grimaldi,” he said.

I held his hand tighter. “Don’t compare me to him. He was a far more patient man than I am.”

We remained that way for awhile, subtle glares locked on each other and tension slowly stirring in the air. However, in a blink, Sir Vincent pulled his hand away and went into deep laughter, shaking his head. I arched a brow at the maniacal man.

“I think I like him. He’s got guts. Can’t have my daughter getting married to a coward,” he told my mother and her face broke into an ecstatic smile.

Anyone could easily tell how much she wanted this to work or rather, needed this to work. Everyone on the counsel seemed to believe this was the only way to remedy the issue of hunters. Those hellish humans had been giving the supernatural world a whole lot of trouble lately, especially with my kind. We were being hunted down in large numbers which I found cynically ironic since we were supposed to be the hunters. However, the predators have turned prey.

Words on streets was that the hunters were executing a purge, to rid every supernatural in North Creekville. At first, I found their audacity foolishly amusing but that amusement had quickly died off the day a bloody raid was carried out on the Faehood pack occupying the outskirts of North Creekville. They were all cut down in one night without mercy, including their fierce alpha. That was our awakening. It would be stupid to underestimate the hunters again.

For the sake of a common predator, our centuries long feud had to be placed on hold. We needed to work together with the vampires. It wasn’t an easy decision for the counsel to finalize, given that the vampires in North Creekville had terrorized and preyed repeatedly on a few of our smaller packs residing in the outskirts. These stone-cold creatures were known for their craftiness and trusting them was a deadly game of wits but it was a risk we were willing to take. Sustaining our race was of utmost importance to my kind. Unlike the vampires, we weren’t solo creatures. Our strength came in numbers and having that taken away from us could be disastrous. The hunters knew this.

“Cowardice doesn’t run in our bloodline, Vincent. You of all people should know that.” Mum smirked. She was referring to the time ages ago when my father, the previous Alpha King, had waged a battle against the vampires in North Creekville. This city used to be a bloody zone where only the fittest survived and sadly, the humans were always at the bottom of that food chain. But over the recent couple of years, the whole place had quietened for good.

Sir Vincent chuckled. “Oh, how can I forget? He killed my wife.”

“And you tried killing me for years.” Mum’s eyes seemed to harden.

“My apologies, Lady Maurie but unforgiveness has always been my one flaw. But today is a new day, isn’t it?” He grinned and gestured to the lady standing quietly beside him. “Lenora, meet Grimaldi’s only heir, Alpha Dorian Grimaldi.”

For the first time, my attention fully shifted to the female standing by his side. Just like her father, Lenora Mendalv was quite infamous in the worst ways possible. Her sharp cat eyes met mine firmly and the ethereal beauty she carried effortlessly was enough to make any mere mortal worship the grounds she walked on. With eyes darker than her heart and straight black hair to go with, she was tarted in a white mini ball gown that did well to accentuate her slender curves and blemish free skin. In many ways, her charms were lethal, which had easily earned her the reputation as the succubus of North Creekville.

Her red clad lips inched up into a devious little smile. “Hello, Alpha Dorian. The rumors never mentioned that you’d be this handsome.”

“You should know better than trusting rumors, Princess Lenora. It’s a pleasure meeting the ice queen, your reputation precedes you.” I returned, our eyes still locked.

She gave off a short laugh - light and controlled. “Oh, please. Call me Nora, and humour me on this reputation of mine.”

“For one, that you feed on your suitors.”

Her dark eyes gleamed and she smirked.“Only the boring ones.”

“Hmm, I do like my girls a little deranged.”

Once again, she laughed and pinned her gaze on me. “Then I guess today’s your lucky day, Alpha ‘cause I’m all shades of crazy.”

Her eyes held a certain glint to them as she said those words and I’d have you know that she wasn’t joking and neither was I about Lenora preying on her suitors. She has had a good number of male consorts, both of the human and vampire variety which she always turned into blood bags at some point. It was sickening but the craziness was part of her supposed appeal. The counsel of both races had decided that to seal the alliance between ourselves and the vampires, I would be getting married to the vampire princess. Against my wishes. It had been made clear, especially by my mother, that I had no choice in this matter; the fate of the supernaturals depended on this mutuality between us.

And no, that wasn’t the worst part. To have this bond with my new bride, I was supposed to give up my mate for life. For the nth time, a surge of anger filled my veins, quickly turning my mood sour. How was I expected to reject the one person my entire being longed excruciatingly for? Before this mutual banquet for both races, I’d believed rejecting my mate would be another walk in the park, afterall I was Alpha Dorian and I could do the impossible. But after setting my eyes on her breathtaking form, the bare thoughts of never being able to claim her for myself triggered an agonizing train of negative emotions through me. My wolf stirred in rage and pain. She was mine - mine to love, mine to protect, mine to hold, mine to touch, mine to fuck. All mine.

After awhile of displaying faux interest in the vampire princess just to please my mother and Sir Vincent, they all eventually left with my mother to have some kind of private conversation. I didn’t care enough to follow them, I’d had my fill of charades for the day. With a much delayed eye roll, I took another glass of wine from a waiter carrying a tray around. The burn was all I needed.

Still from my spot on the railings, I looked over with the intention of finding just one person. But she wasn’t by the banquet anymore. A frown clouded my features as my eyes searched painstakingly through the crowd of oblivious humans, vampires and werewolves alike. Until I found her sitting alone by a dinner table, devouring a plate of food all by herself. Amused, I couldn’t help the small smile that crawled up my face and decidedly, kept my eyes on her rather attractive form for awhile.

That was until my eyes traced another man watching her from his own dinner table. His gaze radiated desire and a rise of irritation pulsed through me. When he got up from his seat with eyes still trained on her, I knew I couldn’t stand and do nothing anymore. It was time to stake my claim.