Mated To A Vampire-Hunter Princess

Chapter 7

*Hi loves! I'm so sorry fr the mix up in yesterday's update. If you read chapter 6 yesterday, you would've realised that it is a repeat of chapter 5. Well I have updated it, so you can go and read it before reading this chapter.*

I felt frozen in my seat the moment I saw him. 

It wasn’t what I expected or had been anticipating all night, but he was right in front of me, drunk as every other man in this damn place. I didn’t even know vampires could get drunk. But unless my eyes were deceiving me, Drew was definitely drunk. 

I rose from my seat as if on instinct as I moved towards him. The closer I moved, the better look I got at him. His eyes were barely open and his hair was a mess as if he'd run his fingers through it countless times. 

I actually felt sad seeing him like this and I couldn’t understand why. Why would a vampire have this effect on me? I felt like I wanted to take him to the castle and make whatever problems he had disappear, yet I felt like I wanted to rip his throat out for putting me in this pain. 

Was he feeling the same thing? The thought only just occurred to me after seeing him this wasted. I paused a few feet away from him as I considered it all. What if he was telling me the truth? 

I knew I denied it, simply because I couldn’t dare begin to think that I was the soulmate of the very thing I live to kill. I didn’t want to believe it because I thought he wanted to come into my life and ruin it. I am to marry a duke who will be my prince and who will be the king one day. But yet every time I think about marrying another man, I am pushed into awful pain as  if I'm being punished. 

Why would it be happening only when I met him? I was thinking about marriage days before my ball, because my mother had been buzzing about it for weeks! So what are the odds that only after I meet a vampire who claims that I'm his mate, I start feeling like this? 

Not to mention the fact that he messes with my emotions, my mind won't give me a break because it's on him 24/7, and I can't, no matter how hard I try, bring myself to kill him. 

Maybe he isn’t so crazy after all, or maybe I’m just as crazy for considering it. But there must be some level of truth behind what he's saying. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be feeling this only now when I met him. 

This made me even more determined to be done with him. Yesterday he said there wasn’t any way to undo a mate bond, but it had been clear that he was lying. I grew determined that I wouldn’t leave tonight without knowing. 

I simply cannot afford to have him come into my life and turn it upside down. I have a duty that was instilled upon me from the minute I was born, and then fate comes with this crap? I cannot be  a vampire's mate. It wont work because I don’t want it to work. Besides, what will I tell my parents? 

'Oh by the way, Mother, I cannot marry the duke because I have learnt that I am the mate of this vampire, and so you and the entire kingdom should accept him as I have.' 

Yea right. 

I haven’t even accepted him, not to mention my mother. I could see both our heads flying by the simple thought. 

I resumed my journey towards him, pushing away whatever affection that I felt in my stomach by the simple thought of him. Hell, even after I just accepted that he was telling the truth about this mate bond, I felt immensely better. I relished in the feeling for a while, but I knew what I simply had to do. 

His eyes found mine only seconds before I was in front of him and I watched as his eyebrows pulled together in confusion as if he was trying to remember who I was. I stopped a few inches away from him with my arms crossed, and his eyes lit in realisation before a lopsided smile grew on his face. 

"My princess," he mumbled in a slur as his eyes drooped. He smelled disgusting, as if he puked and bathed himself afterwards in alcohol. 

I avoided the butterflies in my stomach when he said that and mustered up enough courage to do what I came to do--what I left home and had been searching all night for him to do. 

"We need to talk," I said sternly, and his eyebrows shot up in what seemed like amusement as he reached for me. 

"Oh? You wanna marry me instead of that duke don’t you?" The venom in his voice was evident, and it made me realise that this was the reason why he's like this now. 

Guilt rose in me, but I quickly dismissed it before leaning closer to  him which I immediately regretted. "I said, we need to talk." I didn’t wait for a reply,  only held him by the collar and dragged him from the bar. 

I almost moaned when the fresh air hit me, eliminating all the stench and high scent of liquor that inside provided. I let go of Drew and he stumbled and fell to his bottom before rubbing his eyes. 

"Ouch that hurt," he mumbled as he shuffled to get up. I watched him in annoyance, knowing I probably won't get much out of him like this, but I could at least try. 

Who knows? Maybe he's an honest drunk. 

"Get a grip on yourself Drew. I need to ask you a few questions." 

"How did you find me?" he asked in a low, almost disappointed voice. He met my eyes again, and they seemed a little bit more focused, as if he was sobering up a bit. 

I grabbed my water bottle from my holder on my bike and threw it at him. I was shocked when he caught it, but he eyed it weirdly. 

"This won't help me if you want me to get sober," he slurred, but drank anyway. Shivers ran down my spine when he licked his lips, making them glisten under the moonlight. 

Get a grip Amber! 

"What do you need then?" 

"You can't help," he mumbled, making his way back inside but I grabbed onto him to keep him from leaving. It then occurred to me that he's a vampire, and vampires drink blood. 

This went against everything that I believed in, but not even twenty-four hours ago, I didn’t believe that I could be the mate of a bloodsucker. So in order to get what I want, I made a tough call. 

I grabbed my dagger from my waistband and made a slice in my hand, barely wincing as it opened my skin. Drew's eyes watched me in confusion as I held my palm out for him. He didn’t even take a whiff. 

"I can't feed from you, Amber," he said with hurt evident in his eyes, as if I'd just offended him. Did I?

"Why the hell not?" I snapped, growing really tired of his games. 

"Because you're my mate. I won't ever feed from you unless..." 

"Unless?" I probed, but he only looked more hurt. 

"It doesn’t matter." He spun on his heels again, almost falling over as I caught him. "You will be another man's wife soon so it will never happen." He sounded as if he was talking to himself rather than talking to me, which was pretty sad. 

"Is that why you got wasted in a bar? Because you believe your mate is getting married to someone else?" 

His famous smirk emerged at that, but he nodded anyway. "So you believe me now huh? Why?" 

"Because..." My voice almost came out harsh, but with him in this state, I thought it would be best to keep a reign on my annoyance so I can get better answers from him. "Because I've been feeling...pain." There was no pain in telling the truth about, well, the pain. 

"s**t," he cursed softly, smirk gone as if it wasn’t even there. "You feel it too? I thought it would've only been me since you don’t want me." 

"But you don’t want me either." I pointed out. He seemed to always forget what he said to me. 

"No. But only because I don’t deserve you, not because I don’t desire to be with you, Amber. You must know that," he said, sounding very much sober and sincere. My breath hitched and images of Nathan's happy face flashed in my mind, reminding me why I’m even here. 

"Drew." I sighed. "I need you to tell me how I can put us both out of this misery." I thought it would be beneficial for both of us. Even after this mate bond is broken, I don’t think I'd be able to kill Drew. 

So, he can leave when I no longer 'trap' him, and I can move on with my life forgetting he even existed. I only need him to speak up. 

"How?" he asked again, feigning confusion. 

"When I asked you yesterday how I can undo this..." I motioned between the two of us for emphasis. "You said there was no way to break the bond, but I feel you weren’t being honest." 

He chuckled humorlessly, and his eyes looked detached again as he staggered closer to me. "You want to reject me?" 

Reject him?

That’s it? All I had to do was reject him? 

Both excitement and misery rose in me at the very thought. I knew I had to do it for the sake of myself, my duty and my kingdom, but the very thought gave me chills like I’ve never felt before. And they weren’t the good kind. 

"Is that all? All I have to do is reject you and this will be over?" 

"But you can't," he replied almost immediately. 

"But I must. We don’t belong together Drew. You know it, I know it, even fate knows it. You said it yourself, you feel trapped here because of whatever bond we have. You want to be free, you don’t want me like you think you do. I don’t either, so I must." 

He shook his head, looking desperate." You don’t understand Amber. It is only painless if both of us reject each other. As much as I still believe that I don’t deserve you and I can never have you, hell, I want you so bad. If you are going to reject me, it will be better if you look me in the eye and sink a golden dagger in my chest." 

For the first time since my siblings died, I felt my eyes burning in an unfamiliar feeling. Tears. 

Fucking tears. 

I didn’t dare let them fall, but they scared me. Who would’ve thought? Amber Rousseaux, the hater and hunter of vampires, would be at the state of crying by only the words of  a certain grey eyed man. 

I couldn’t let these emotions manifest. Even though the look of desperation on his drunk face and in his voice almost broke me to the core, I knew I had to do it. 

I had to do it for the sake of everyone. He will get over it, right? He must. 

Clearing my throat, I stared deeply in his eyes, realising that I didn’t know how this rejecting thing works. Still, I tried. 

"I reject you, Drew," I said, but nothing happened. No sparkly light shone, no contraction happened in my chest, and Drew still looked the same. It didn’t work. 

Why didn’t it work? 

"Why didn’t it work?" I voiced my thoughts, but he only shook his head. 

"That is not the way." 

"Then what is the way?" I almost snapped, just wanting a good night's sleep. I cannot go home with this mate bond still in tack. I won't have peace until it's broken. 

And Drew wont have peace if it's broken, my subconscious taunted. I thought she was on my side! 

"I-I don’t know how a mate bond is broken," he mumbled softly. Unlike yesterday, I could see that he was telling the truth. All he knew was that rejection broke the bond, but he didn’t know  how it actually works. 

I sighed deeply as I accepted my fate of another sleepless night. I'd have to cancel my brunch with Nathan tomorrow and spend the day learning how this works. I can't face him with all this mess. 

Imagine, two days ago I didn’t even know that soulmates exist! What a messed up world we live in. 

Without another word, I spun on my heels and made for my motorcycle before Drew could say something else mushy and change my freaking mind. Drunk Drew is definitely an honest Drew. In his sober state, he was so cocky and...cold, almost like a bad boy teens watch in those dumb movies. 

But tonight I got a glimpse of what actually goes on in his mind, and it made me feel awful. He said he desires to have me, but don’t deserve me. What does that even mean? 

It doesn’t matter. I needed to stay focused on what I should do. 

As I climbed onto my bike, my hair blew in a sudden whoosh of wind and Drew was in front of me again. I hate it when he does that. 

"Amber, don’t do it," he said, gazing straight into my eyes. 

If I'm lucky, I hope vampire drunkenness works like human drunkenness and he won't remember any of this. Then, he won't be expecting it when I actually reject him. 

"You can't do it, Amber. Please don’t," he repeated as he reached out to hold my hand. But I pulled away and sped off into the open night. 

I must, Drew. I must reject you.