Ch 2- A dead bloodsucker

Maya

The peace between the werewolves and the vampires was always tenuous, as the hatred between them and us ran deep and long. I had grown up hearing horror stories from my brothers and the servants. They loved to frighten me with tales of how young women were offered as sacrifices to the vampires to keep them from attacking the villages. And how vampires fed on those girls, slowly draining their blood while turning the unfortunate ones into dead monsters like them. 

But why would Lord Draken be interested in marrying a werewolf? Did he have a special taste for werewolf blood? Was he going to feed on me like some gigantic gnat? 

I felt panic tightening my ribs and I fought to draw even a shallow breath. 

“I will take my leave now,” Lord Draken said, “It’s been a pleasure gentlemen.” 

My father stood up as well. “I will escort you to your coach, Lord Draken.” He fell in step beside the vampire and the two of them headed to the door. 

The vampire stood almost a full head above my father. There was something almost attractive about Lord Draken, something about his long, lean body that appealed to the senses. But it's a dead body, I reminded myself with a shudder. Nothing was appealing about that. 

“You can now come out, Maya,” my brother said. He was still sitting at the table, his head bowed slightly over the chalice he was clutching with both hands. 

So he knew I was there all along!

I shoved the curtain aside and took a shaking step out of the dusty shadows. I felt numb as I stumbled to the table and fell into the chair that Lord Draken had been occupying. There was no warmth, no residual body heat. The chair was hard and cold. In desperation, I grabbed his untouched chalice of wine and took a big gulp. The taste was putrid on my tongue, and it burned the back of my throat as I swallowed. “Mateo…Mateo, what has father done?” I gasped. 

He sighed, “Don’t blame father,” he said, rubbing his forehead. “He had no choice. What do you think Lord Draken would do if we denied him?” 

I looked at my fingernails, some of which were now broken and bleeding. “Go and find him someone else” 

Mateo snorted. “You are so ignorant, Maya. He would have been insulted, and he would have retaliated against the pack. Who knows what he would have done to us. And you know we don’t have what it takes to fight back if he carried out a full-on attack.” 

We had lost many of our pack members over the last three years to a rogue attack and the long drought had severely depleted our financial resources. Mateo was right that we couldn't afford to offend a powerful vampire lord. “There must be some other way to appease him, apart from offering me up as a sacrificial bride,” I screamed.

“Who’s offering you as a sacrificial bride?” My other brother strolled into the room. Kai was my elder by less than a year, a fact that he never ceased to taunt me with. “Does someone actually want to marry my unappealing sister?” 

“Not someone!” I sobbed

I didn't mind that he called me unpretty. Kai was always teasing me, and in my family, I knew he was the only one who truly loved me. Mateo merely tolerated me out of an exaggerated sense of duty. And father.. Well, my father had hated me since the day I was born, because that was the day that our mother, his beloved mate, died. “They have married me off to a fucking vampire!” 

“Mind your words!” Mateo scolded, as though I was still a child. 

“A fucking what?” Kai laughed and took the wine from my hand, “You must be joking! Mateo, I didn’t know you had this sense of humor.” 

Mateo stared back at him glumly and said nothing. Kai lowered the goblet from his wine-stained lips. “You…you aren’t joking?” 

“Lord Draken came to ask for her, specifically,” Mateo informed him flatly. “He couldn't be persuaded to consider anyone else, even though father offered him his choice of eligible ranking daughters.” 

Should it comfort me to know that father had at least tried to redirect the vampire? 

“He insisted, it must be Maya.” 

Kai pulled out one of the heavy wooden chairs and dropped into it. “But why?” 

Mateo had no answer, he just shrugged one thin, bony shoulder. 

“We can’t marry her off to a fucking bloodsucker!” Kai yelled

“We can, and we will,” Mateo said sternly. “I know it’s hard, brother, but sometimes we have to make sacrifices for the good of the pack.” 

I balled my hands into small, ineffectual fists. It was hard, for whom exactly? Mateo wasn’t sacrificing anything. He was just getting rid of a sister that he had always seen as a burden. I was the one who would be sacrificing everything, my freedom, my future, maybe even my life. Not to mention that my hope of ever finding my fated mate had been squashed like a melon. 

“No! There has to be another way!” Kai insisted. 

“Well, if you can think of a better solution, I am listening brother,” Mateo said. He pushed back his chair and looked down at me. His eyes looked dull, like he was really uninterested in my plight, and he was tired of addressing it. “Just be obedient Maya, and do what’s required of you.”

I twisted in my seat as I watched Mateo walk out of the room. He was too tall and thin and seemed to be all arms and legs and sagging shoulders. He had always been a sullen, miserable man burdened with the responsibilities of the next Alpha to be.” 

Just be obedient Maya!

I had adapted to being obedient all my life. But where had it gotten me? 

Kai finished off the wine and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “Don’t worry, Maya. I will think of something. No way am I going to allow father to hand you over to that cold, dead, bloodsucker.”

I gave him a small smile, even though my face felt numb and unresponsive. I knew Kai meant well, but in the dynamics of the pack and our family, he was almost as powerless as I was. He was the second born unless Mateo met some untimely end, Kai would never have to be an Alpha. Father had tried to push him into military training but Kai was allergic to discipline and hard work. Kai was just the over-pampered second son of an Alpha. 

But at least he cared. 

I stood, overcome with emotion. I kissed the top of his head and ran from the room. I didn't want my brother to see me cry. I sprinted down the hallways and crashed into the door of my chamber. 

Valerie was there, pacing anxiously, rolling her hands up in her apron. “What is it?” She asked, shutting the door first and rushing to my side. “What you heard is it bad?” 

“It’s heart-wrenching!” I said, dropping down into the upholstered chair that was pulled close to the cold chimney corner. The weather was sunny, so Valerie had not lit a fire. 

“What? What is it? What happened?” She dropped to her knees in front of me and gripped my thighs in her strong hands. “Is the pack in any danger?” 

I covered my face with my hands as the hot tears streamed down my face. “Not the pack.”

“Then, what is it? Did someone die?” She pried my hands away so that she could look into my eyes. 

“About to!” I looked up at the ceiling and tried to blink away the tears that had blurred my vision. I took a deep breath. “Father has found a husband for me.”

“Husband!” Her eyes widened in horror. “Don’t tell me it's that man! No way! He is a—” She bit down on her lip as tears streamed down her eyes.

“Say it, Valerie.” I slouched in the chair. 

“He is a vampire. A dead bloodsucker. You can’t marry him.” She shook her violently. “He will kill you, Maya.” 

“Valerie, I have to. If I don't, the whole pack including you might be in danger.”