THE VAMPIRE'S MATE

CHAPTER ONE.

"Are you out of your mind, Lalisa?!" Lord Manoban's voice thundered through the opulent study. His regal figure moved restlessly, the black coat he wore billowing behind him. The room itself was daunting, with its dark color palette and expensive furnishings. Lady Manoban, sitting nearby, shook her head repeatedly, her composure visibly shaken. Her normally immaculate appearance ㅡ hair perfectly styled, dress unwrinkled, hat adorned with a net ㅡ was marred by the absence of her signature brooch; mirroring her depth of emotions.

Lisa looks normal. She is wearing a crisp white button-up and a long overcoat too. She has an impassive look on her face as she listens to her father go on and on about how she is mental, how he didn't expect her out of all the dames to go after wolves and the lowest of them all, how this is preposterous.

"Father, I am perfectly fine," Lisa interjected calmly.

"Are you, truly? A Manoban withㅡ with an omega?" Luciano's words dripped with disbelief. "Of all people, you choose to consort with wolves, the lowest of beings. This is preposterous! Lalisa, she can't handle being with a vampire even. Her biology, her everythingㅡ"

"But she will," Lisa retorts slowly, pushing herself off the study table against which she had been leaning. She walked with measured steps toward where her mother sat, her head held high, undeterred by her father's reproach. "She has to."

Zenaida's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "You speak as if she is in love with you. Tell me, my darling daughter, is she your lover? Are you the reason why this band of wolves is here?"

Lisa scoffs lightly, "She doesn't know me yet, mother. She will, after the proposal is sent."

"I am not going to send in the proposal, Lalisa. I don't want the Manoban name to go into demiseㅡ"

Lisa sighed deeply, biting the inside of her cheek as she met her parents' intense gazes head-on, "She is my mate."

This stuns the whole room into silence till not even a pin drop could be heard. Luciano and Zenaida turn to look at their daughter sharply with wide, red eyes. Lisa stares back at them head on. "Your mate?" her mother whispers softly, rivaling the fierce look on her face.

Mates.

A concept so sacred in their world that it defies every single thing in it, every single rule. Someone who is just born with the other half of one's heart, one's soul, one's very being. Someone one would lose every inhibition of sense and rules.

"My mate." Lisa nods, "And besides," she starts, "She is an omega. She can carry my heir... The Manoban heir." she says and smugly watches as it dawns on her parents and their crimson-red eyes start twinkling in mirth, the excitement rising in them the more they thought about what Lisa meant. After that it was like everything fell in place.

Lord Manoban and Lady Manoban leaned back with twin thoughtful expressions on their faces.

××××

The next day, before the break of dawn, a hush fell over the gypsy camp. The air was thick with the scent of dew and the faint, smoky aroma of lingering campfires. Shadows danced in the flickering light of a single lantern as its glow seeped from the largest caravan, where early risers moved about, preparing for the day ahead.

The vampire messenger approached with measured steps, her presence nearly ethereal against the backdrop of the waking camp. She selected the most imposing caravan, its size and intricate decorations marking it as the dwelling of someone important. With deliberate precision, she knocked on the door, the sound sharp and intrusive in the pre-dawn silence.

A groggy alpha opened the door, his eyes blinking in the dim light, trying to make sense of the unexpected visitor. "Madame?" he questioned, his voice heavy with sleep and confusion.

The vampire nodded and presented the invoice to him. She already has an inkling that he won't know how to read so she clears her throat. He goes to say, but then his eyes catch someone else's eyes, someone who was standing behind all the other wolves who had woken up to see what the commotion was about. She had her eyes almost closed in sleep and she was wearing a shabby off-white sleeping gown ㅡ that had turned off white and almost yellow from how old it was.

She was standing behind so many alphas and omegas that they hid her completely and yet she sees her and understands why was it that this very omega was their young master's mate. She was beautiful, even while sleepy and hair everywhere, with gold bangles, with white things, she was beautiful.

"I am here with a proposal from my Lord; my Lord presents his proposal in the form of asking you for one of your omega's hand for young master Manoban." the admission leaves another stunned silence ㅡ a very similar one to the one in the Manobans study ㅡ amongst the band of gypsies. "Iㅡ I," the alpha stutters and has his eyes widened with his scent hitched up in surprise. It makes the vampire grimace slightly but she controls her expression.

"O- One of my omega's h-hand?" he says while his eyes fixed on the said omega, but seemed like the omega wasn't that interested in knowing who it could be as she closes her eyes completely in sleep and leans against someone else. She nods.

The alpha bows to her till he is completely bent in half, "W- We would be honoured to. T- The fact that master Manoban even wants one of our omegas..." he says with voice is full of awe.

She nods again. "We don't know her name yet but I can point her out to you now. The proposal is accepted then?" The vampires were a lot of things but they weren't crude.

He nods hastily and makes a lot more wolves behind him bow to her. "W- Who?" he turns around and looks at the direction he is at. "These are our omegas,"

The young master's mate looks a bit alert now as everyone turns to look at them. She raises her finger and points at her. The alpha beside her lets out a ecstatic shout, "M- My daughter, Jennie."

The said daughter is now very alert as her eyes widen in utter surprise and her family around her all practically let out shouts of joy and hugs her tightly in their embrace. All their scents turning sweeter and everyone is congratulating her, putting kisses on her cheeks and foreheads and the vampire just watches the omega get coddled. "M- Master Manoban chose my d-daughter? I will be forever grateful to the Moon Goddess. Luna bless us all," he says with a cry.

She leaves them to celebrate.

××××

However, soon, the happiness turned into fear and sadness. As Lord Manoban had stated, the band of wolves weren't aware that the Manoban's were one of the most powerful coven of the world. The wolves, naturally, feared vampire and on the same day, they got to learn about the Manobans being vampires, that too the most powerful of them and their hearts had broken to pieces.

To them, it felt like they were sending their one prized possession to death by sending the leader's only daughter to them.

Their laughs had turned into tears and they were now hugging Jennie goodbye forever not because they were happy for her.

Jennie was still in shock. Shocked that she was to be married so soon and beyond terrified that it was with Lalisa Manoban, the only ruthless of the vampire known to mankind. They heard from the gossips around the town her father visited to work ㅡ the first time because it had been only two days since they arrived and he needed to work for the marriage ceremony ㅡ that Lalisa Manoban has a record of never having any mercy for anyone. She was known as the killer warrior; the one who killed anyone left and right without blinking an eye.

It's why the vampires respected her a lot, held her up on a pedestal. She was the devil whom they worshipped.

And Jennie was to get married to the devil.