Chapter 4
***10 years later***
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**VLADIMIR**
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I'm sitting down with Guinevere on her porch for our weekly luncheon, watching Damien and their son Henry play ball trying to hide my chuckle as I watch a heavily pregnant Guinevere try to take her seat in the wicker rocker, facing the yard. She's having twin girls and is due within the month.
"Vladimir, it's been ten years since the war. Don't you think it's time you left and found Myra?"
Guinevere asks me breathlessly once she's finally managed to sit down.
Guinevere's been asking me this question for the last five years at least once a week, and I can tell she's getting sick of my excuses, and to be honest, I'm running out of excuses to tell her.
It's been ten years, and Myra still hasn't returned home, and I doubt she ever will; she has nothing to come home to. In the past decade, not a single person has come forth inquiring about her, and from the information I've managed to gather from Damien, she was a pack loner, a young teenager who'd stumbled on the former full moon pack after her family was slaughtered. The only person she had waiting for her here was me, and let's be honest; she wasn't exactly thrilled about being mated to a blood-sucker, as she called me.
"What if she doesn't want to be found?" I ask, finally expressing my inner fear. Guinevere might be my soul mate, but she's never been as insightful as I have about how the other half of the bond truly feels. She could sense my feelings right after the war, but as the months and years progressed, I learned how to shut her out almost completely.
Guinevere face morphs into the look I expect it to do. She looks sad and as if she feels sorry, the very reason I didn't want to tell her. "You'll never know unless you look." She replies, schooling her expression, instead choosing to glare at me. I guess she decided tough love would be my only motivator to actually leave.
I'm quiet for a moment as I watch Guinevere caress her stomach lovingly, and then I'm hit with a ready-made excuse on why I can't leave, "If I leave now, I'll miss the births of Sabrina and Sierra. I can't leave my soul mate in her time of need, and I can't miss the births of the two girls who were named after war heroes."
Guinevere had chosen to name her daughters after her two spirit animals she'd lost during the war against Jupiter; Sabrina, her wolf spirit, and Sierra, her succubi spirit, who was also my soul mate.
"Vladimir!" Guinevere growls, her eyes flashing the brilliant purple and gold of her former spirits as her temper rises, a distant memory of the power she once held, "Even if Myra doesn't want to be found, it is your duty as King to find her and to try and make your mate bond work. You've already said that she was the key to ending the curse placed on your people so long ago. For the past ten years, I've been forced to watch as the vampires, and those mated to them struggle with not being able to have a child of their own. You have a chance at ending this curse, and you won't even put in the effort. You're failing your people, Vladimir."
Have I ever said how much having a soul mate sucks. Guinevere knows exactly where to sucker punch me. Our people they're everything to me. I'd do anything and sacrifice everything for them as long as it meant they were healthy, safe, and happy. But Guinevere doesn't understand; this curse isn't something I can lift. It won't break just by me mating Myra. There's so much more to it than that.
"Gwynn," I try again, begging my best friend to understand where I'm coming from, "You don't understand. Myra hates me. She can't stand the fact that I am her mate. She cursed the moon goddess for mating us. She was ready to reject me."
"Vladimir, just stop. Stop making excuses for yourself. You managed to stop Myra from rejecting you once before. You and I both know you can manage it again. Besides, she owes you at least one date." Guinevere states her decision that I should leave, not wavering. "Go get your girl and make her fall in love with you, Vlad; show her the real you, not just the vampire king, but the man who managed to win over his enemy and his enemy's mate."
I let out a heavy sigh, knowing that Guinevere won't ever drop the subject if I don't try and that I won't forgive myself if I keep ignoring the chance to lift the curse the fae put on my people.
"Okay, Gwynn. You win. I'll go find her. I'll do it for our pack."
"Not just the pack Vlad," Guinevere whispered, cradling my large hand in her little one, "Do it for yourself. And you might see me winning right now, but when you have your girl, you'll know that you were the real winner today."
"Of course Mi Amor." I reply, standing from my seat, and leaning down to kiss her atop her head, a low growl sounding from in front of us as I do, "You're right. I do deserve this."
I turn toward the growling sound coming from Damien, and I can't help but chuckle, all this time has passed, and he's still jealous of my relationship with his mate, "Down wolf-boy." I jest to my old nemesis, "It was just a goodbye kiss."
"Goodbye?" Damien asks confusion and worry marring his face.
While we used to be enemies, Damien is now one of my closest friends, as well as the co-leader of our pack.
"Yes, it's time I went and found my mate," I reply, clasping my hand on my friend's forearm and silently saying goodbye to
"About time." Damien hollers as I walk through the forest, leaving my friends and their home behind, "Maybe now I can finally start enjoying myself."
His jest makes me chuckle quietly as I mind-link my second-in-command, asking him to meet me in the office so I can go over my departure and swear him in as King until I return.
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"So you're finally leaving?" Nikolai inquires as I finish booking my ticket to Chicago. A quick internet search had shown that Myra had fled to the human world and now resided in the Windy City.
"Yes. It's time I went to my mate." I reply, standing up from my desk.
"Do you really think you can break this curse?" Nikolai asks, his eyes full of hope. He'd been mated for a few years now, and having a child of their own, a werewolf-vampire hybrid, was something he and his mate had dreamed of since their mating.
"I'm going to try, old friend," I reply, not wanting to give him false hope.
Nikolai smiles up at me, the hope not fading from his eyes; if anything, it continues to grow, "If you try, Vladimir, you will succeed. You're the strongest royal vampire; you'll be able to overcome the bloodlust, journey to the faerie realm, and break the curse."
"I'm glad at least one of us has faith in me," I mutter as I sign the contract with my blood, dictating that Nikolai will lead the Vampire Kingdom until my return.
"Faith is all we have," Nikolai replies, taking the parchment from me and signing beneath my signature with his blood, completing the transfer of power.
"Until we meet again, my friend," Nikolai states, clasping my arm as I walk toward the door, ready to catch my flight.
"Until then," I reply, knowing I'm leaving my Kingdom in good hands.