Hello Darling Collection

Alina’s POV

I sit in my vanity, watching my handmaidens do my hair and makeup. Today is the day when I meet my future betrothed. I am the future Queen of Valania, and my parents, mainly my father, want to expand the kingdom before he hands over the crown. So, naturally, he finds a king with the most land and influence, with a son who needs to be married, and hands me off like a piece of meat. Gotta love and family, right? I, for one, am not looking forward to this at all. I want to be married to my soulmate—the one person who is right for me and me alone.

*Alina, darling, we need you in the gallery hall*

I sigh as I hear my mother’s voice ring in my head.

*Yes, mother. I will be right down.*

I wave my maidens away and adjust my dress. God, I hate having to wear something that extenuates anything of mine. When I am out in public or at an event, I will dress up and look my best. But at home, I prefer to be in pj’s and eat my weight in pizza and donuts.

So, my lovely father has picked out an outfit in which I cannot breathe, cannot think, cannot do anything. Something that will make my future husband drool.

I slowly make my way to the gallery hall where I meet with my parents, the Majesties of South Northern Illovira, and their son.

Father raises his hands and places them on my shoulders.

“You look lovely. You will make a fine bride of Maddox.” Ew. I hate that name. It’s just...ew.

“Yes, Father.” I refuse to acknowledge that fact. This is not a real marriage; it’s a business transaction.

“Alina, this is Ilinica and Vasile Martor of Northern Illovira. And this is your future betrothed, Maddox Martor.”

Maddox Martor is exactly who I thought he was going to be. Cocky, rude, ignorant, and arrogant. He thinks he’s the poo and I need to take a big whiff. Yeah, as if. Maddox looks me up and down and sighs.

“Well, she does look like the picture you sent. This will be just fine.” Fine?! Are you kidding me!?

“Alina, why don’t you Maddox the garden? I know it’s your favorite place to be, for some reason.” Yeah, no. I will not ruin my favorite place with this disgusting being. God, his smell is revolting. I wanted to throw up.

“I think the training grounds might be more suitable for the prince here. I see he has a sword, so he might find it beneficial,” I try to sway.

“That sounds wonderful! Alina, you are as smart, and you are beautiful.” Yeah, yeah, I don’t need your compliments, bro.

“Let me get the help to bring me my coat.” He rings a bell, and I wanted to roll my eyes. This guy is ridiculous. The moment I can, I leave his kingdom and throw myself off a cliff. And then, it happened.

I had to hide my gasp when I smelled the smell. I have never smelled anything like this before. It made my mouth water and my fangs sore. The door opened, and in walked the most delicious-looking vampire I have ever seen. Now, all vampires are attractive in some sense, but this vampire was so handsome. He had shoulder-length black hair that was in a man bun, plump lips, bright red eyes, and a very fit body. God, I wanna wrap my legs around his waist and let him fuck me into oblivion. Yes, that sounds wonderful.

He carries a coat, and Maddox snatches it from his hands. Anger floods into me. How dare he be so disrespectful?! Even if this guy wasn’t my soulmate, you don’t get to treat anyone that way. Even our servants are treated with respect.

“God, you’re supposed to be a vampire! What is with this snail’s pace?!” Maddox snatches his jacket from my mate, and it’s taking everything in me not to rip his head off.

“Sorry, sir. I was getting the rest of your things for your stay at the palace.” Oh, dear Lord above! That voice! I need to be careful, or my arousal will fill the entire room, but I can’t help it. He smells so fucking good!

But I did forget that Maddox and his family are going to be staying with us for a week before I make my move to their kingdom. I think it’s pointless, but whatever.

“Did I ask for an explanation?! No, now get the hell out of my sight!” My mate just bowed and left the room without even one glance at me. Man, I miss that smell already.

“Well, let us be off on our walk, shall we, darling?” I resist the urge to roll my eyes but just nod. I link onto his arm, and we walk out to the training area where our warriors are practicing. Now, just because we are vampires doesn’t mean we are invincible. It does take quite a bit to kill a vampire, but we still can’t rest on our laurels. Maddox takes a look around and seems impressed, like I give a shit about what he thinks until his face screws up in disgust.

“What is this?!” I turn to see his attention on the female warriors. Some of the fiercest women in our kingdom. They are the ones who bring us glory for all of our victories. One of the women is my best friend, Sanda.

“Yes, those are our females. Some of the fiercest women in the kingdom. We owe almost all of our victories to these women.” Maddox scoffs with disgust and shakes his head.

“Well, don’t be getting any ideas about that. When we get to my kingdom, you will be cooking my meals and breeding my children. It is so unladylike to fight. Why would any woman want to fight?”Yeah, it’s not that assault exists.

“Yes, well. That is your opinion. My father is quite proud of these warriors.” He rolls his eyes.

“Your father is foolish. It’s a good thing that you will not be taking over as queen. You would probably make silly decisions as well.” See, I was going to just let it slide, but this man insulted my father. I may not like that he sold me off like a prized goat, but that is still my father.

“I will not have you insulting my father like that. He may not share the same ideas as you, but he is still the king of our nation. I’m sure he will not take too kindly to the foul words that spew from your mouth. I suggest you watch how you talk to people. Especially in my presence. Maryann will escort you back to the palace.” I walk away from him before I lose all sense of reality and rip his cocky head off. I breathed out through my nose to try and calm myself down.

“Ooh, is your future husband already getting on your nerves?” I look over to see my best friend, Sanda, in some training gear, and her long blond hair is tied in a ponytail.

“Shut up, bitch. You heard the entire conversation.” She laughs and nods.

“I know I did. Now, what’s going on? You do seem more on edge.” I look around and take her arm and take her over to the bushes.

“I found my mate. My real mate.” Her eyes go wide, and she hugs me.

“Girl, that’s great! Now, you don’t have to go through with this!” I sighed.

“Yeah, but how do I break that to my father? He is dead set on my marrying this jobber, and I can’t find my way out.”

“Well, he can’t marry you off if you have your mate. That is vampire law.”

“True, but to get out of an arranged marriage like this, my mate has to be of equal or higher status than the one I am betrothed to, and he is a servant.” Sanda strokes her chin.

“Hmm, I’m sure you’ll think of something. Unlike you, I do have to get back to training.” I push her back, and she does some stupid backflip like the show-off she is.

“I hate you,” I grumble. She giggles and kisses my cheek.

“Love you too, babes. You’ll figure it out, don’t worry.” She runs off to join the other warriors for training. I sighed, thinking about how the fuck I get out of this situation.

*Later that night*

Unfortunately, my search earlier in the day went like a goose chase. Every direction I ended up going was a dead end.

“So, honey, how did Maddox like the training area?” Father asks me. It was just me, Father, and Mother eating dinner for tonight. Maddox has already retired for the evening. Yes, he is NOT in my room, which is wonderful.

“He seemed impressed,” I lied. I wasn’t going to tell him the disgusted look in his eyes when he saw the female warriors.

“Oh, that’s wonderful. So, your mother and I-” Mother clears her throat and shakes her head.

“You know damn well I have nothing to do with this. This is all your doing, and you will crash and burn on your own.” She shakes her head at him and walks off with her maiden by her side. Father clears his throat and continues with what he has to say.

“So, to celebrate your engagement, we are hosting a ball! We’re going to invite all of the kingdoms in the land to celebrate you and Maddox! Your dress will be over the top and wonderful, and right then and there, Maddox will get down on one knee and propose." Ew, just what I needed.

“When will it be?” I ask.

“In one week.” Oh great.

After dinner, I call for Sanda to come to my room. I need her help. After getting dressed in my dressing gown, I hear a knock at my door. I open it and see Sanda.

“Well, hello darling.” I yank her inside and start pacing around the room.

“Sanda, I’m screwed! My father wants to announce my engagement in one week at the ball! What am I going to do!?”

“Okay, calm down. Let’s start by trying to find where your mate is staying. You say he’s a servant, so let’s check the servant’s quarters.”

“I already checked, and he wasn’t there,” I complain.

“But he has to be there when the lights go out. It’s standard.” I nod my head.

“You’re right! Let’s go.” We slip out of my room and head downstairs to the servant’s quarters.

The servant’s quarters are a big room with 15 beds for our servants. It’s all equipped with bathrooms, food, beds, and anything else the servant might need.

My maiden, Camelia, notices me and gets up from her bed. She looked like she was just about to get ready for the night.

“Princess! And Head Warrior, how may we be of assistance?”

“None of that, Camelia. Have you seen the guest servant with the long black hair and red eyes?”

“Oh, Sorin? Yes, he said he left for the balcony. He said he wanted to pray.” Sorin. His name is perfect.

“Right, thank you.” We leave, and I turn to Sanda, excitedly.

“I’m going to go find him.” She nods, and I head to the main balcony. It’s a long walk from the main hallway to the main balcony. Soon, I picked up his scent, and it was still just as mouthwatering as when I first smelt it. Soon, I saw his shirtless figure perched atop the gargoyle. He’s perfect. I didn’t need to know if he noticed me because I saw his figure stiffen. Soon, he turned to me, and our eyes connected for the first time.