Chapter 1: Untamed: Forbidden Mates

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The moon, round and bright, shone brightly giving light to the creatures that dwell in the dark. But under this same moonlight, a girl of the age of eighteen with hair as white as snow and eyes and a pair of embers knew nothing but anger and irritation.

"Give her back to me," Auriana nearly growled as she stared at the vampires who stood in her way. These vampires had the guts to take her best friend away just because she was a human.

In the realm of Yinia, three races exist, the vampire race, the werewolf race and the last of the races being the human race.

More than a hundred years ago, the vampires ruled the realm. They ruled over tall creatures until the werewolves rebelled, the humans taking advantage of the opportunity to ally with the werewolves to gain freedom as well. As much as they didn’t like other creatures, the werewolves didn’t treat them as their food.

The realm was then divided into three sectors, the vampire kingdom, the werewolf kingdom and the human kingdom with the humans being the most numerous and the werewolves right behind them.

The humans were the weakest among the three races so they were easily killed or taken as slaves and oftentimes, they still became food for the vampires. Their only salvation was that sometime later after the division, werewolves found their mates among the humans and because of that, the humans went under the protection of the werewolves which made it difficult for the vampires to take them at will.

"Do not bridge the treaty between our races, pup, now return," one of the vampire guards uttered with irritation in his tone. The young girl’s defiance irritated him and all wanted to do was to toss her out but then, if words went out that a vampire harmed a werewolf when she never attacked him first, there would be severe punishments awaiting him.

"I am not leaving without her, hand her over this instant," she commanded using the Alpha’s command that came with her position as a princess.

Feeling the aura change and the power in her stance, the vampires readied themselves for an attack.

Her eyes turned a bright ember and fit sprouted up her body and claws emerged from her nails. She was half-shifted and lunged at them, knocking the first one out cold and proceeding to the next. She made sure not to kill anyone so as not to further worsen the situation. There will certainly be a summon from her father and the council once she returns but she did not care about that now. Her best friend was taken to be a slave and blood bank for a vampire. Something that she would never allow to happen.

Auriana clicked her tongue when she saw a vampire running away. "They are weaker than I thought," she commented, she looked at her fists and shrugged, then stepped over one of the unconscious bodies. She sniffed the air caught the scent of the person she was looking for and followed its trail which led her to the Palace. This brought a frown to her face as it would pose a new problem later on.

Meanwhile, inside the castle, the guards that ran away knelt before their king, his crimson eyes stared at them with a murderous intent that could be felt even without him moving an inch.

"Repeat yourself?" he said, his cold, yet distant at the same time. "Have my soldiers become so weak that a little pup can defeat them alone?"

"Forgive us, Your Majesty, she appears to be an Alpha, Majesty and she is heading for the castle," one of them said and the other gave him a side, inwardly calling him a fool for not reading the room.

"A pup with the blood of an alpha shouldn’t be able to break her way through the defence," he yelled at them as they quickly walked back.

"We will make sure she does not come any further, Your Majesty," The other one said but got rejected outrightly.

"Let her come, I want to see the child you all failed to keep away," the king said dismissively.

"Yes, Your Majesty," they uttered in unison.

It was not long after that they heard a loud bang on the door, it was shortly followed by another and the door came crashing to the ground. There stood Auriana, unlike before, she looked disoriented. The scent of her friend was in the opposite direction but somehow, she ended up in the throne room.

Her eyes locked with the man who was twice her size. His eyes squinted at her and disbelief flashed across his eyes. The colour of his eyes changed from red to a pair of fine greys. He stood up and walked in her direction but the two servants got the way.

"Please allow us to get rid of her, Your Majesty," they said, seeing this as an opportunity to redeem themselves. Killing the little shifter now wouldn’t pose any trouble, agree all she was the one to barge into the kingdom and now, looking to harm the king.

"Step aside," the king ordered but they insisted which provoked him. "LEAVE," he stressed.

They raised their heads, taken aback by the sudden command. Without uttering a word in protest, they bowed one last time before walking away. They bared their fangs when they walked past Auriana who paid no heed to them.

All of her attention was on the man standing in the middle of the large room.

"This can not be," she uttered under her breath and took a step back. She shook her head as if my doing so, what was before her would be proven false.

"So it is true then," He said but she shook her head.

Auriana turned around ready to run but before she could do that, she was pinned against the wall beside her. She growled and struggled in anger at herself. He was faster than her, had she been faster he wouldn’t have had the chance.

"You feel it too, don’t you?" he asked. His tone was gentle and his hold on her wrists, although firm, but not hard enough to cause her pain.

"Let go of me, this can not be true," she said, still in disbelief. There was no way it could ever be real. But even with the doubts she forced upon herself, she couldn’t look away nor could she stop herself from taking note of every detail about his features.

Ink-black hair as long as her own if not more, falling over his shoulders to his lower back, at least from the angle that she could see. His eyes were silvery grey, a sharp jawline, a pointed nose and a thin pair of lips that had her swallowing subconsciously. He was tall and big, this she noted immediately as she cast her eyes on him.

"I will let go if you promise not to run," he said, but she glared at him. The truth is that he could not blame her for acting the way she did. Had he not waited for the day he would meet the other half of his soul, he would have been the way she was right now. Ready to run away and deny the truth.

It also came as a surprise that she was a shifter, one of an alpha bloodline. Well, that was a good thing in a way, at least bi other half was not some omega. One without status and power.

"I can not deny what you feel," he said and slowly released his hold when she stopped struggling. He had to admit, she was quite the strong one. He could tell that despite her right and struggle, she didn’t use her strength to push him away, probably because of the bind acting on them.

"I can, and I am," Aurora replied. She stepped away from the wall and looked around. "I am here for my friend, you took her, give her back," she demanded and he nodded his head, surprising her that he agreed so readily.

"There are quite a few, could you give me a name?" he asked. He would give her friend to her if that was all that she wanted. He would even thank that little human for allowing herself to be taken because it was because of her that she was able to meet his lifelong partner.

"Astrid, Princess Astrid," Auriana said and he nodded.

"She will be with you in a few minutes. Care for a seat?" He offered but she did not reply.

"Why are you calm about all of this?" she asked, finding it odd that he didn’t have an issue with their bond. He couldn’t have expected it because he would come for her even before she turned eighteen or even last night when the clock struck midnight, marking her eighteenth birthday.

"Because you are mine. I can not reject you, that is a pain I do not want to go through," he replied very casually and she pursed her lips. "You deny the possibility of this being true even when you know it is."

"Where are you going with this?" She frowned, having a bad feeling about what he would say next.

"Do you reject me as your mate? Or can you?" He asked.