Royal shuffle: Vampire's mate

ANDREA

"Thank you so much for coming." "It's a pleasure."

I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly as yet another dignitary had come to me to make their presence known. How had I gotten myself into this mess? His majesty had insisted that his grandson must have a befitting naming ceremony, and had proceeded to throw the most extravagant party in the history of parties. He wanted the same thing done for my marking ceremony but I had managed to convince him to let I and Leo do that for ourselves. After all, I was already marked.

Leovanni was in the able arms of one of his nannies. At this point, it was as if his majesty was more excited to be a grandfather than I and Leo were to be parents. If his nanny wasn't carry him, he was. And he wouldn't let anyone touch him. Thankfully. He was already fiercely protective of the boy. My sisters were off to the side flirting heavily with the guests, and having the time of their lives. I wanted to scold them about their behavior and decided against it. It was a one time thing, let them enjoy themselves.

This must seem like a dream to them. After all, there was a time when they were kept under wraps in a penthouse, and had to be homeschooled because we feared the reaction of vampires to our presence on our territory. With the arrival of Leovanni, I see that a lot of things have changed. Feeling suffocated in the hall, I sneakily took my exit, weaving my way through the giant halls of the palace until I found a terrace.

I sighed in relief as the cool evening air hit my face. I walked to the edge, and tested my hands on the stone railings, enjoying the view of the garden below. I heard the terrace door open, and close and I didn't need to look back to know that it was Leo. I smiled and leaned back against him when he wrapped his arms around me from behind.

"Hey..."

He nuzzled his face in my neck.

"Hi..."

"Are you enjoying the party?" Leo asked.

I nodded. "Yes. But it's somewhat overwhelming."

Leo nodded, and sighed. "It is. You look tired."

I nodded. "I am. Where is Leovanni?"

"Protected and cradled in the arms of his grandfather."

We both laughed.

"I'm sure he's more happy about being a grandparent than we are about being parents," I said.

Leo nodded. "That cannot be denied."

We stayed on the terrace until the party was over, we talked about everything. And then we just resorted to silence. Nothing needed to be said, we understood each other perfectly in the silence.

My eyes closed, and I was chased to dreamland as soon as my head hit the pillow, and when I opened them again, I was lying in a large field. An endless stretch of green land. I got up to my feet, and looked around, confused as to why and how I got here. I turned around severally, trying to figure out a way out of this place.

"Andrea..."

I turned and saw my mother coming towards me. My confusion grew. Where did she come from? Wasn't she dead?

"Mother..."

She shook her head, and smiled at me. "I'm not your mother."

My brows furrowed in confusion. Was she angry at me?

"She is..." She continued, and pointed behind me.

I turned around and saw a woman with waist length, long, black, wavy hair. As she got closer, I saw that we shared so many similar features. It felt like I was staring at an older version of myself. I turned back to my mother. "Mother, what's going on?"

My mother simply smiled at me, and extended her hand to me.

"You are the next Queen of the wolves." She said smiling.

I threw back my head and laughed. I couldn't help it. But she looked dead intent on what she had said.

"No, mother. I am not. William is next in line to the throne...and then there's Esmeralda. I'm not even a royal...how did you come to that conclusion?"

"Because you are a royal," The other woman chimed in. "I gave birth to you. I am your mother."

I rolled my eyes. "And who exactly are you?"

The woman smiled, and stretched her hand out to me. I looked down and saw that she was holding a necklace.

"What is that?" I asked.

The lady shrugged. "A piece of me for you to hold on to."

I gently took it, and examined the antique beauty. It was a large gold jewelry with a simple gold chain. It had a sapphire pendant that was surrounded by gold, and had four Diamond stones as cardinal points. "I don't understand what's going on..."

"Go to the palace..." she said.

"The werewolf palace?"

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She nodded. "Go down to the dungeons. Under the dungeons, there's a basement, and in there you will find everything that you're looking for. All the answers you need. It's time, my child. Time for you to claim your birthright." "Wait...what?"

They both began to fade away. I opened my eyes to see that it was just a dream. I could feel beads of sweat rolling down my face, and my breaths were coming in short, hard pants. I felt Leo store beside me, and then he rolled over, and was looking at me.

"Bad dream?" He askedZ

I raised my hand to wipe my forehead, and realized that I was holding something in my hand. I looked and it was the same necklace that my 'mother' had given me.

"What the hell..." I sat up abruptly, and Leo followed suit.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

I showed him the necklace in my hand, and he looked even more confused.

"You slept with your jewelry?"

"No. It was given to me just now..."

"What?"

Leo looked around the room, but everywhere was sealed tight. I took a deep breath and proceeded to tell him in detail everything that happened in my dream. By the time I was done, he was just as dumbfounded as I was. "What?!"

"Yes. That's what I thought too."

I sighed, and leaned back against the headboard.

"So, what do you want to do?" Leo asked.

I shrugged. "I'm going to find the documents my mothers were talking about." Leo looked at me like I had just grown another head.

"What do you mean by going to find them?"

"I'm going to have to go on werewolf territory, and find them," I replied.

"These documents are in the palace, yes?"

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"Yes."

"And you want to go back on werewolf territory, and get them. Go to the werewolf palace and get them. Have you forgotten that you almost died the last time?!"

Leo's voice raised, and our baby stirred in his crib, and began to cry. I looked at Leo accusingly, and he muttered an apology, went to carry Leovanni, and brought him back to the bed, handing him over to me to feed.

"I know what happened. But I need to do this."

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do," I countered.

"No. You. Don't. Why do you need to?"

"This could stop wars forever?"

"There is no more war."

"I'm sure your grandfather thought the same thing when the last one ended."

"That's not the point."

"It is. If this were to be true, and I am the true heiress, the werewolf and vampire thrones would be combined in our son. Not only are we going to stop the wars between our territories, it will set the pace for more werewolf-vampire relations. Positive relations."

"There's no need for that."

"No? You understand that if there were better relations, we wouldn't have gone through half of what we went through, right?" I asked.

He sighed, and shook his head vehemently. Heavily opposed to the idea.

"You're not going. That's it."

I scoffed. "I wasn't asking for your permission."

"Andrea..."

"I am going. With or without you."

I handed Leovanni back to him, and lay back on the bed. Laying on my side and away from him, closing my eyes, and praying sleep takes me. She seems to have deserted me at this point where I needed her the most.