Aliya's POV

On the way to Emma's room, I was turning a corner when I bumped into someone. A small sparkle of hope died as soon as it was born when I noticed who the body belonged to.

Certainly, not Damien.

The person who I wouldn't want to be in the same room with even if he was the last one on this planet. Any feelings of friendship or companionship I felt towards him died when he stood against Damien in the throne room.

It was Nicholas.

He seemed surprised to see me walking though the halls.

"Ni- King Nicholas," I lowered my eyes.

"Don't look so disappointed now," he said, "was it someone else you were expecting to see? Or rather, bump into?"

I chose to ignore his statement. Even though he has been kind to me during our encounters, there was something stopping me from reflecting that energy back. The thoughts of any developing friendship between us came to a halt after today's events.

He had joined hands with the council and stood against Damien in the throne room.

I always knew there was some form of tension or rivalry between him and Damien, but it wasn't so evident until today. It almost seemed as though he was waiting for an opportunity to speak against him; waiting for him to make a mistake.

"Sorry," I mumbled and tired to walk past him, but he stopped me by raising an arm.

"Is everything okay?"

Did he just ask me that?

"Yes, why wouldn't I be?" I found myself answering.

I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing the distress he has caused both me and Damien.

This was between us.

"I don't know," he sighed, "after what happened in the throne room, I just don't want you to think I'm the villain."

"Why does it matter what I think of you?" I asked, turning to face him completely.

"Because we're friends," he claimed.

There was something completely strange about this situation. The past few times when I had talked to him it was light hearted and very much in a friendly way. It shouldn't sound so foreign for him to consider us friends. He may be the only other vampire who has been nice to me besides Damien and Emma.

But being friends with him didn't sound right.

I just didn't know why.

"How can we be friends?" I asked him, "you're a royal vampire and I'm- well, human."

"If a vampire and human can be mates, why can't we be friends?"

He said it so casually, which made it more difficult for me to believe the words.

Did he know?

No, he couldn't possibly know about... I stop myself before finishing the thought.

He was a vampire and could still read my mind.

"What?" I pretended to not know what he was talking about.

He was watching my reaction closely, and suddenly I wanted to run and hide from his stare. I chose to calm my thoughts as my eyebrows scrunched together into a frown.

"I know what you are," Nicholas began slowly as he proceeded to watch me, "King Damien doesn't just enter the ball with a random girl as his date, multiple times."

The first ball Damien and I attended was at King Nicholas' castle. Emma had convinced Damien to take me with him as his date, even though we both hated being in each other's presence at the time.

That was when I met King Nicholas and he asked me to dance with him, his first warm gesture towards me.

Was there something more to it?

Now that I thought about it, ever since then Damien and I have walked in together as a pair at every event and party.

His birthday party; the welcome ball for Emma and Eric's wedding.

"Sure, everybody knows about him being a man-whore-"

Nicholas stopped mid sentence when he saw the anger flash in my eyes.

I didn't like the way he was talking about Damien.

"I mean, everybody knows about his habits. But what he never did before was bring that to the public's eye. He never showed any form of care or possessiveness like he shows with you around."

"I don't understand why you're telling me all this," I said, "if you have something against Damien then talk to him about it."

Damien and I haven't had the chance to talk about the whole mate thing and its logistics, I wasn't sure who to trust with this information. I didn't know the risks associated with the people finding out about his mate being human.

I wasn't going to jeopardize his and his kingdom's safety by saying something I shouldn't.

This wasn't my conversation to have.

"Oh no, I actually wanted to talk to you about this." Nicholas said.

A few servants passed by us in the hallway, talking amongst themselves as they hurried up the stairs around the corner. Nicholas glanced around to see if there was anyone else present before he decided to pull me into a room.

"What are you doing?" I expressed my disinterest and pulled my arm away from his grasp.

After quickly scanning the room, I noticed we were in a study or a conference room. There was a long table in the middle of the room accompanied by numerous chairs and office supplies.

I didn't care to take in any other detail as I turned to step out of the room but Nicholas stopped me.

"Just hear me out, please," he raised his hands to show he wasn't a threat.

I crossed my arms and waited for him to talk. The sooner I get this over with, the sooner I can go back to finding Damien.

Who disappeared off to God knows where.

"I think you're making a mistake, Aliya. You're choosing to side with the wrong person."

"I'm not on anyone's side," I shook my head, "I'm only here for a few days and then I am to return to the human world, away from your species."

"You think you can go back so easily and pretend that you're not tied to our world somehow?"

Tied to this world?

"What do you want Nicholas?"

I think it's time he stopped beating around the bush and cut to the point. I was starting to get impatient, something that I had picked up on by being in Damien's company.

For him, it was straight to business when it came to people not related to him.

And I couldn't relate to him more.

"I want you to reject him."

"What?" I took a step back, not sure if I heard him right.

"A mate can be rejected. You'll just have to break the bond that ties the two of you together by rejecting him."

How dare he suggest such a thing?

I didn't even want to think about the consequences of doing that. From what I knew, a mate bond was very pure, and to mess with it would have to meet with a deadly outcome.

"I'm not going to reject him." I said, boldly.

"I'm only saying this for your safety, Aliya. There is... there is a war coming, and I don't want you to get stuck in the middle of the chaos when you have the choice to step out."

"A war between who? What is it that you know?"

I didn't have much political knowledge but the thought of war made fear erupt in my mind.

A war, no matter who is on the other side, would only bring loss and destruction.

Bloodshed.

"Damien's brother. He's going to seek revenge for the death of his mate. He's already making allies with another kingdom for something in return, I just don't know what."

Valentino? Of course it was him.

When has he ever decided to leave Damien alone to live in peace?

"Does Damien know about this?"

"I'm assuming yes, that is, if he is close to as smart as me to have spies deployed everywhere."

Did that mean Nicholas had spies in our kingdom too?

"I have to find Damien," I said, ready to leave.

I needed to talk to him about what I had just discovered.

There was a part of me that hoped he knew about this and was already making plans to take action. But if he didn't, I needed to warn him as soon as possible.

It had been proved to us time and time again how dangerous Valentino could be.

He was sneaky and liked to attack when you least expect it.

If there was anyone who could match Damien's brutality and wickedness, it was his own brother. But along with being cruel, Valentino was also far from being fair and moral.

Nicholas stopped me yet again by stepping between me and the door, with my hand still on the handle.

"Why do you want to help him?" He looked confused.

He was now close enough to smell my anxiousness. My eyes met his before I took in his features, those naturally gifted features of a beautiful vampire.

"Why is it that every time he's in trouble, you go running towards him?" his voice dropped lower.

There was a pause as silence filled the air around us, we continued to stare at each other as if neither one of us wanted to lose the battle or back down.

"Have you forgiven him for what he did to you, did you forget the way he treated you?"

"I haven't forgotten anything, but you seem to be forgetting to stay out of my business," I said through gritted teeth.

I know I shouldn't be talking to a king like that, but I didn't care when it came to my personal life.

When I choose to forgive him or move on from the past was up to me, I didn't owe anyone any explanation for it.

"Aliya," Nicholas pushed further, almost begging me to listen to him.

"Listen to me. I can't just stand by and let him manipulate you, trust me I know how convincing Damien can be. It'll be hard for you to not fall for his playful ways, but that's all it is. He's playing you."

"You don't know him," I told him.

"I've been alive for almost as long as him, I know him more than anyone here. Playing tricks and getting girls to fall at his feet is an old game of his. He's just having fun and toying with your emotions, he can't even make up his mind whether he wants a mate or not. He's not capable of keeping a beautiful mate like you."

I shrugged off the hand that he had placed on my shoulder, "Stop. I'm not going to stand here and listen to you talk trash about Damien."

A small part of me knew what he said could have been true about the past Damien, but he has changed for the better. I've seen the change in him myself, when he started to care about me and my feelings.

"Damien can never change, that's like waiting for a lake to dry. All he cares about is himself so you need to stay away from him before it is too late."

"If he only cared about himself he wouldn't be successfully ruling over the vampire world and be loved for it," I snapped at him.

"Successfully?" he huffed, "he's turned the whole place to shit. He wasn't supposed to be the vampire king, anyways!"

"Then who is, you? Maybe instead of obsessing over Damien, you should focus on your own people, your own kingdom."

His jaw clenched, "it was my job to warn you. What you choose to do with this information is completely up to you. If you wish to be another casualty in this conflict, then so be it."

"Damien isn't going to let anyone hurt me, so you don't have to worry about my safety. I have him for that."

"Don't be a fool. He isn't going to think twice before sacrificing you for his sovereignty."

"That won't be a choice that he will have to make, ever."

I'm not going to be an obstacle in his mission, our relationship won't be a weakness for him. He shouldn't ever have to choose between me and his kingdom. I'm going to ensure it never comes to that.

I hope what we have turns out to be his strength, not weakness.

And I will be with him every step of the way to remind him.

That is when it hit me.

Why being Nicholas' friend didn't sound right.

Because any opponent of Damien's could never be my friend.

I was just being protective of him.

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A/N

MORE COMING SOON. VERY SOON.

-J.S