Rejected (04)

Dimitri

"Well, Mr. Postman where is the letter you came to deliver?" she asked pulling me from the task of admiring her spacious house. We had just passed a corridor that had been lined with countless paintings of many men and a few women. In fact, I had only seen three female portraits amongst the dozens and dozens of men. Each picture was distinctly divergent from the next. But even a blind man could not deny the one stark similarity all the portraits on the aisle shared. They carried an air about them. I cannot exactly tell you how I could tell this from mere paintings, but I guess it had something to do to do with how they held their noses up in the air as if the oxygen a millimeter above was more divine. Not to mention their raised chins and the subtle flaring of their nostrils as if they were constantly annoyed by the barbaric nature of the rest of society.

One thing was clear from my taking in of this surrounding, my mate was rich. She comes from a family of power. She also was not human thank heavens! I could not deal with a human mate. Humans were too weak for our world. One little nick and they were dead. I could not afford a weak mate. Besides, I was not about to start trying to woo her. See, if she were human, I would have to work to get her to fall in love with me first. Humans do not feel the mate bond at all. To them you are just another human being trying to date them. However, once successfully wooed, the human falls in love which always does happen eventually, then they finally feel the pull on their mate as in a normal mate bond between two vampires. Only once the blood oath is taken does the human mate feel the sparks, tingles, and emotions of their mate.

Now, I am to be king soon and I needed a queen, and I needed her fast. My mate did not smell like a human being and she recognized me as her mate, so clearly, she was not human.

I then pulled out the last letter in my bag and handed it to her. This was the main reason why I was here. Even though it was the least of my concerns now that I realized that we are mates. For a split second the tips of our fingertips grazed one another as I passed the letter onto her. The feeling that little movement gave me was electrifying. Every cell on my fingertips had felt that connection. Those cells were never more alive than in that pleasant moment. I wanted to touch her some more, but I also didn't want to seem like a weirdo so, I held back.

"Ohkay...urhmmm...?" she said sounding rather annoyed. It was just great that my brain was finally taking a much needed break when I needed functioning the most. I needed to at least act proper for my mate. I already had a feeling she didn’t like my appearance. Wait, did she don’t like me because I am poor? No, that cannot be. We are mates and mates fall in love at first sight. The mate bond would be too strong for her to deny it. “Mr …” She spoke again. It took me a few seconds to realize that she was waiting for me to respond by telling her my name. Now this was a tough choice. Do I tell her my real name or not?

"James Rodrick and you must be Mrs. Rivers?" I finally replied. My gaze was fixed on her as I tried to give her the best impression of me. Also, I really could not stop staring at her. She shivered when I spoke which was odd considering the fact that vampires don't get cold. We are always cold already. After calming down fully from whatever that was, she then responded, "Well yes, James, I am Lady Destiny Rivers." When she said my name, I finally understood why she shivered. I thought touching her was electrifying but I was wrong. Because every cell in my body awakened at the sound of my name coming from her mouth. I felt as if all of me wanted to be only near her. To only touch her and hear her voice say my name over and over again for all of my immortal life.

I wanted her to say my name again, but I refrained. I didn't want to make a fool of myself in front of her. I wondered what it would feel like when she said my real name. But I could not let her know of my true identity just yet. My sweet mate was in for a surprise. I couldn’t wait to see the look of realization when she found out who I really was.

This was good actually. My mate and I could fall in love properly. I always knew that whoever my mate was, they would act like they loved me no matter what due to my tittle. And I hated that fact. I wanted them to love me for me. Now, I had just been given that. But damn the pull was stronger than I was told. I was already in love with the girl in front of me and we just met. I knew that she was also feeling it by the way she is currently fidgeting around me. I even loved how nervous she was around me. Thus, I do not understand how some Vampires, reject each other. It is impossible to ignore this pull.

After realising that I was not planning on responding to her earlier comment, she went on, "Well James, I know we are mates. But I can't be with you... I want to make you a deal instead. I will go on and marry my dear friend Sir John Kennedy, and then we can get together in secret as I will be required to have children and I can only have them with you. He does not have to know that since he is only human. I will pay you and give you a good house to stay in, in return… Think about it... You would never have to work a day in your life again." She finished off with the biggest smile on her face as if she had just come up with something brilliant.

I couldn't believe that my mate had even suggested being with another man in my very presence. You see, unlike werewolves we aren't really forced to love our mates. We can mate with other people and it happens frequently because we live for hundreds of years and often don't meet our mates in our lifetimes. But for her to not even consider me was absurd. I am 99 years old, soon to be 100 and I just met my mate. This in itself is a miracle. But of course life couldn't be just plain and simple.

Vampires could mate with any other species, but we could only produce children with our true mates. This is why original vampires were so rare and most Vampires were often turned. So, she needed me to have kids as much as I needed her to procreate too. This was just not how I had expected my first meeting with my mate to turn out.

"Listen James, I could give you a lot of money and you could fall in love with a human. It's a win-win really. You wouldn't have to work a day in your life again. It's a good deal," she added when she saw that I wasn’t jumping on board with her idea. I guess it was normal for mates to reject each other.

"I have delivered your letter and would like to leave now please.