The Wolf's Forbidden Vampire Mate

I am Elena Russo. I am not a princess who needs saving. I am the Alpha who does the saving. My father was the Wolf King. Adrian Russo. The most feared Alpha in all of Italy. When he died six months ago, every male Alpha came to my territory. They didn't come to mourn. They came to take his throne. Because I am a girl. They stood in my father's house, in my father's chair, and they said, "Elena, you are beautiful. You will make a good wife for a strong Alpha. You cannot lead. A she-wolf cannot lead a pack. It's nature." I smiled. Then I broke the first one's jaw with my fist. The second one lost an eye when I shifted my claw. The third one still can't walk after I threw him out of the second-floor window. Now they call me The Bloody She-Wolf. And they bow when I pass. Even the old ones. I am twenty-two. I am five foot eight. I have long black curly hair, grey eyes that turn yellow when I am angry, and a scar on my left shoulder shaped like a wolf bite. That was my first shift. I was twelve. I lead a pack of fifty wolves. All male. All stronger than me in size. All terrified of me. Tonight, I have a problem bigger than stupid male Alphas. Vampires. They crossed the border. They entered my forest in Tuscany. They killed two of my patrol wolves, young boys, only nineteen. They drained their blood and left their bodies hanging from a tree like a warning. A warning to me. The Vampire King is back. Leon Dragomir. Three hundred years old. They say he is cruel, beautiful like a fallen angel, and his eyes turn red when he feeds. He was sleeping for fifty years in his castle in the mountains. Now he woke up. And he is hungry. My Beta, Marco, my father's old friend, told me not to go alone. "Elena, take ten warriors. Leon is not a normal vampire. He is a King." I put on my black leather jacket, my black boots, and my silver dagger that my father gave me. I tied my hair up. "Marco, if I take ten warriors, they will think I am afraid. I am not afraid. I am going to kill their King myself and hang him from the same tree." I walked into the dark forest alone. The full moon was above me. My wolves howled for me from the house, but I howled louder, telling them to stay. The forest was cold and silent. No birds. No insects. Vampires make the forest silent. I could smell them. That sweet, rotten smell of old blood and cold skin. I reached the old oak tree where my boys were killed. Their blood was still on the grass. I knelt down and touched it. My yellow eyes came out. My anger came out. "Show yourself, leech! I am Elena Russo, Alpha of the Russo Pack! You killed my wolves on my land! Come out and face me like a man!" Silence. Then a laugh. A low, beautiful, cold laugh from the top of the tree. I looked up. He was sitting on a branch, like he was weightless. Long black hair, pale skin that glowed in the moonlight, wearing a black suit that looked too expensive for the forest. And red eyes. Bright red eyes that were looking at me like I was food. Leon Dragomir. The Vampire King. He was even more beautiful than the stories. And even more arrogant. "So," he said, his voice like velvet and ice. "The little she-wolf finally came. I thought your father was the Wolf King. Now I see a little girl in a leather jacket playing Alpha. Where is your father, little girl? Did he send his daughter because he is too scared to come himself?" My father is dead. He doesn't know. I stood up, my fists clenched. "My father is dead. I am the King now. And you are on my land, vampire." He jumped down from the tree. He didn't land, he floated. He was tall, at least six foot four. He walked towards me, slow, like a predator. "Dead? That's a shame. I liked Adrian. He was strong. You..." He sniffed the air. His red eyes widened a little. "You smell... different. Not like a normal wolf. You smell like... power. Like old blood." He was too close. I could smell his cold scent. He reached out his hand, his nails long and black, to touch my face. "Pretty little she-wolf. I will forgive you for coming into my forest. If you kneel and offer me your neck. Your blood smells delicious. I want to taste the first female Alpha in five hundred years." He thought I was going to kneel. Every woman kneels for him. Every woman wants the Vampire King. I am not every woman. I grabbed his hand before it touched my face. I twisted it. Hard. CRACK. His wrist broke. The sound echoed in the silent forest. His beautiful face showed shock. No one had ever broken his wrist. No one had ever dared to touch him. "Don't touch me," I growled, my voice changing, my wolf coming out. I let go and kicked his chest. He flew back ten feet and hit the oak tree. The tree shook. He stood up, his wrist already healing, his red eyes now burning like fire. "You... you broke my wrist," he whispered, like he couldn't believe it. Then he smiled. A big, crazy, obsessed smile that showed his fangs. "Do it again." He ran at me. Faster than any wolf. Faster than wind. He was a blur. But I am an Alpha. I shifted my claws and my eyes turned full yellow. I dodged and slashed his face with my claws. Three lines of blood on his perfect pale cheek. He laughed, even with blood on his face. He grabbed my waist and pinned me against the tree. His cold body against my warm one. His red eyes looking into my yellow eyes. "You are strong," he breathed, his fangs close to my neck. "So strong. So angry. So beautiful when you fight." I headbutted him. Hard. My forehead against his nose. He stumbled back, blood coming from his nose too. Now he was bleeding from two places, and he was still smiling like a madman. "I am Leon Dragomir, King of Vampires. I have lived three hundred years. I have had a hundred women. I have killed a thousand men. No one has ever made me bleed. Until you." He knelt down. On one knee. In front of me. The Vampire King kneeling in the dirt for a she-wolf. "I don't want your blood, Elena Russo," he said, looking up at me, his red eyes soft now. "I want you. Be my Queen. My pack and your pack. Together we can rule Italy. No male Alpha will ever dare to challenge you again if you have a Vampire King kneeling for you." I looked at him, kneeling, bleeding, obsessed. My chest was heaving. My claws were still out. My wolf was growling inside me, but not from anger. From something else. Something I never felt before. No man ever knelt for me. They all wanted me to kneel. I put my claw under his chin and lifted his face up. "Listen to me, leech King," I whispered. "I don't need a King to protect me. I am the King. If you want to be with me, you will have to learn how to bow. And how to obey. Can you obey, Vampire? Can you obey a woman?" His smile became even wider, even more insane. "For you, my Alpha," he said, "I will learn to obey. I will learn to kneel. I will learn to be your dog, if you let me. Just don't send me away." And in that moment, in the dark forest, with two dead wolves behind us and blood on both our faces, I, Elena Russo, the She-Wolf who never needed anyone, felt my cold heart beat for the first time. The Vampire King was mine. I tamed him. But I didn't know that taming a Vampire King would start a war. Because tomorrow, every wolf and every vampire in Italy will hear that their King knelt for a girl. And they will all come to kill us.