Kade

Get Ambrose now!" I yell at the guards when we appear at the castle gate; Nikolai is fading quickly in my arms.

I've heard of fated mates experiencing what their mates feel, but I never witnessed it, and I've never heard of the other mate dying when their mate passes, but from the way Nikolai looks, if Mary isn't saved, he'll die alongside her.

Pulling Nikolai up on my back, I walk through the castle gates, a nervous Anya falling close behind. As I enter through the palace doors, I catch sight of Ambrose flying down the stairs to greet us.

"Kade, what's happened?" Ambrose asks, a worried look on his face as he takes in the sight of Nikolai.

"It's Mary," I growl, "she's dying, and she's taking Nikolai with her, "We need to rescue her now before we lose our King."

"We haven't been able to locate her whereabouts yet. I've had our wolf spies scouting the pack lands, and there hasn't been any sign of her."

"Fuck!" I yell out in frustration, running my hands through my hair as I place Nikolai gently on the floor. His body is convulsing violently now, "I thought you were able to remove the poison from Mary's mark."

"I...I couldn't find her in the dreamlands." Ambrose replies, looking ashamed. "If I hadn't told Nikolai I'd found her; he would've recklessly rushed off and started attacking Pack Lands."

I snarl at Ambrose in response, my fangs extending out, showing how angry I was at his foolish decision. I hadn't wanted Nikolia to run toward danger blindly, but I would never have lied to him about his mate's safety.

"It was the right decision," Ambrose says firmly as his magic surrounds Nikolai's body as he tries to save him from his fate.

"LET ME IN!" A man yells loudly that his voice carries beyond the thick wooden palace doors and into the foyer. "I NEED TO SEE THE KING IMMEDIATELy."

I can hear the sounds of scuffling and clanking of armor, the guards preventing the stranger from accessing the palace. "I KNOW WHERE ASH IS KEEPING MARY!" He hollers loudly, causing both Ambrose and I to stare at each other.

Anya acts first, running to the palace doors and yanking them open, giving us a view of what's happening outside. The two guards stationed outside the palace have a young merman in their grasp; he has jet black hair and pale yellow skin, his green eyes shining vividly against the contrast of his hair and skin.

"Ma'am." One guard speaks up, looking at Anya, "You shouldn't be here. It isn't safe. Go back in and lock the doors behind you."

The merman starts to thrash in their grasps, trying to free himself. He's stronger than he appears, letting me know he's of royal blood.

"Release him," I command the guards. "Let him speak."

Anya starts to pace back and forth as the guards hesitantly release the stranger. I can tell she's anxious to learn about her sister's whereabouts. Hell, I am anxious to learn about them. The quicker we get to Mary, the more likely we'll save her and Nikolai.

The merman stands tall, his magic floating in the air as he tosses the guards off of him, showing that he was never in harm's way.

"Well?" I asked, growing impatient.

"I saw Queen Mary at Alpha Ash's home at the edge of pack lands. The witches ward his home; no one can get near it unless he's invited them in."

"If you saw her majesty, why didn't your aid in her escape?" I question the merman, suddenly feeling suspicious of his presence.

"I couldn't afford to get on the werewolf Alpha's bad side. He held some..." the man paused, "Something dear to me. If I'd aided her highness, I would've lost what I'd come to seek." He replied, carefully hiding whatever it was he sought.

"And did you get this item upon meeting with the Alpha?" I ask, letting my vampire smell the air to see if the merman reeked of deceit.

The man shifts from foot to foot, looking down at the ground, before raising his head to stare at me, his scales protruding from his face and his gills more prominent on his neck. "He would not give the item to me; I ended up having to steal it. Once she...the item was safe, I rushed straight here to inform the King that Ash has left his mark on the Queen."

"We know of the marking already. We must get to Mary immediately, will you..." I trail off, not knowing his name.

"Marques..." He pauses for a moment, taking me in before providing me with his surname, "Marques Sirenia."

Not only does he come from one of the founding mermaid families, but his family was also the first original shifter of his kind. Royal blood ran strongly through his veins, and I then knew that he was even stronger than his aura showed him to be.

"Will you lead us to Ash's home?" I ask Marques. "We have an army on standby ready to march; the entire kingdom will be doomed if we allow Queen Mary to die, especially if King Nikolai dies with her."

"I'll lead you there on one condition," Marques replies, once again sizing me up.

"And what would that be?" I ask, confused by how his eyes darken when he looks at me.

Marques's hand reaches up to touch mine before I can pull it back, causing a sizzling sensation to run throughout my body. I quickly tug my hand away, putting it back in my pocket, wondering why our supernatural auras were merging.

"I thought so," Marques states, "When this is all over, and you've given up hope, call me sometime." He states, handing me a card, his fingers brushing gently along my palm as I take the card, my nostrils flaring as the sizzling sensation takes over my body.

How could he be so strong that his magic could freely enter my body without him uttering a single? What type of magic ran through his vein. As I looked at Marques, these questions running through my brain, I could hear Nevaeh frantically calling for me and the click-clack of her heels as she raced down the stairs, pulling my attention from the weird man.

"Did you find her?" Nevaeh asks, descending the stairs, stopping midstep when she notices the scene playing out before her. Ambrose's magic surrounded Nikolai, tiny wisps of magic flowing in his body and back out again, removing the darkness that had made its way into our King's body, a nervous redhead who resembled Mary pacing back and forth, chewing her nails- causing the tips of her fingers to bleed, and the strange man with the jet black hair, skin that was more golden than yellow-now that I'd spent well over ten minutes looking him over- and slit green eyes, staring back at Nevaeh like she was an angel descended from Heaven. "What's going on here?" Nevaeh asks, concern in her voice.

"We haven't found Mary yet; Nikolai and I found her little sister, Anya," I paused, pointing at the redhead who stopped what she was doing and gave Nevaeh a quick once over, "living with the Sprites. Nikolai fell ill shortly after that; an effect we think was brought on by his mating link, and this is Marques- he's here to help us locate Mary."

Nevaeh quickly glanced at Nikolai; once she assured herself that he was getting the best care possible from Ambrose, she raced down the stairs, bypassing me and rushing to Marques, grabbing his hand and looking pleadingly into his eyes, "You know where Mary is?" She asks, her voice laced with desperation.

"How intriguing," Marques mutters under his breath, the sentence so quiet that only a non-human could hear what he was saying. Marques let go of Nevaeh's hand, taking a small step back away from her, his eyes darkening to a green so dark they almost looked black, "Yes." He finally replied, answering Nevaeh's question, "I know where your friend is."

"Then what are we still doing here?" Nevaeh asks, turning away from Marques, her attention on me now, "We should be rounding up the army and marching to Mary."

"We can't leave until Nikolai is a tiny bit recovered. We'll need him with us when we rescue Mary." Ambrose responds, taking a step back from Nikolai, who is no longer convulsing, his breathing more steady.

"Your aiding Nikolai, but who is protecting Mary if she's experiencing the same thing as him?" Nevaeh asks, her voice cracking, "If we don't leave now, Mary could die."

The words Mary combined with die seemed to be what was needed to pull Nikolai from his trance, his eyes shooting wide open.

"My mate." He croaks, "We need to get to her now. I can feel the darkness pulling her in." Ambrose leans down, giving Nikolai his hand to help pull him up.

Nikolai allows Ambrose to pull him up, but as soon as he's standing, he growls at the faerie prince, using strength that he shouldn't yet possess based on how weak he was just moments ago to pull Ambrose to him sinking his fangs into the faes neck. Nikolai drinks hungrily, swallowing deeply, extracting Ambrose's intoxicating magic-filled blood and filling his body with it. Nikolai pulls away after a few minutes, "You owed me that and so much more, old friend."

"Here," Marques states, stepping toward Nikolai, his palm up wrist extended out, "Take some from me two. You'll need all the magical power you can possess to defeat the Alpha wolf."

Once again, Nikolai hungrily latches on and gently sinks his fangs into the merman's wrist. He drawls the blood out slowly this time, not wishing to harm the stranger that's dished himself up to the vampire king like a fancy feast. I felt something strange stirring in my stomach, but I chose to ignore the sensation for the moment; my attention needed to be fully focused on the task at hand, destroying the Alpha wolf and his followers while saving the Queen. Marques's eyes find my own, a look of understanding in his eyes as Nikolai drinks from him.

"I'll prepare the troops," I state, my voice gruff as I march out of the room, a slightly pissed-off Ambrose following at my heels.

**AUTHOR NOTE***

***A prequel and a standalone sequel are in the makings- meaning I have an outline slightly shaped but no chapters written yet; but still prepare yourselves for Ambrose's and Marques's stories coming hopefully mid-fall if not sooner; dependent upon when my other books (Divine Academy- A reverse harem featuring Gods & Goddess and Angels & Demons) and a new one that's only a few chapters in- Enticing His Flames (A contemporary Persephone and Hades- Mafia Style Romance) are finished. Enticing his flames is on hold until the completion of THE VAMPIRE KINGS SLAVE MATE- which is priority one in my writing currently.***

***XOXO MARRIAH***