The Lost Queen Book 1 - Alden

9. Wet Dog

We get into the VIP room and sit on the couches. "The wait staff filled the fridge with drinks and left a couple of bottles. So, we won't be bothered." I go to close the door. "What is that nasty ass wet dog smell?"

"Funny I followed the putrid smell of death to find you." The man standing in the doorway growls.

My fangs come out on their own. Michael and his friend jump up and push me back away from this strange person.

"What do you want?" Michael pushes him out of the doorway.

"To talk." the strange man says.

"Let's walk." Michael looks at his friend, "5 minutes."

Victor sits back down, "What the hell was that?"

"Werewolf. Or a dog as you put it." He holds out his hand to shake mine laughing, "I'm Bryan, Michael's mate."

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Alden and this is my brother Victor."

Victor is kind of frozen in place. "WAIT. ... ... Werewolves are real?"

"Dude, you're a damn vampire. Does it actually surprise you that werewolves are real?" I shake my head.

"Well, yeah."

"Anyways, Bryan how long have you and Michael known each other?"

"Almost 20 years now. I was working at a coffee shop. Michael kind of staggered in. I thought he was drunk or something. But he looked right at me and started running for me. I screamed of course. It was very traumatic at the time." He smile. "I started throwing all the empty cups I could find at him. He kept dodging them and smacking them away. He jumped the counter. Then he got about 6 inches away from me, looked right in my eyes and said 'Mine'. That was all it took. I was completely his at that point. Even being human and not feeling the bond, I knew he was mine too."

Michael comes back in, "What you all talking about?"

"How we met."

"Ah the avalanche of cups." Michael sits down and puts his arm around Bryan.

"So what's it like finding your mate? What's it feel like?" I have to ask. "I can't stop thinking I have a soul mate out there somewhere. I miss her and I don't even know her."

They both smile.

Michael takes a drink, "Well, I was walking down the street one morning. All of a sudden, I smelled this beautiful sweet smell. I started following it without even thinking. It became all encompassing. It was all I could smell and I followed it right into a coffee shop. When our eyes met, I felt the bond connect. I actually felt it, right in my chest. It felt like a tug. I never meant to scare Bryan, but I knew I had to claim what was mine. I thought he was going to run, so I ran first. I dodged the barrage of his weapon of choice and jumped the counter. Got as close as I could without touching him and said mine."

"My weapon of choice?"

"Sounds better than 'empty paper cups' love."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." Bryan smiles and Michael kisses him on the head.

"But the soul mate bond is the strongest there is. You won't mistake it for something else. It's impossible to describe but your body knows its other half is there. You will feel the bond connect and you feel all the good emotions when you see them."

"But it can kill you if it ever breaks." Bryan adds on. "Or make you go crazy."

"What could break it?"

"Death. And for being immortal, we die surprisingly easy." Bryan takes a drink, "There use to be about 200,000 of us in the world. Now there are only about 25,000 left."

"What happened?" Victor's brain seems to be functioning again.

"King Fane for one. He kept sending us to wars we had no business fighting in. Then his bullshit laws. Anyone who breaks a law gets sent with their immediate family to a hard labor prison to work until they can't work any more. Then they are killed off. And the king's police will bring in someone else and their family for" Michael does quotation marks in the air, "'breaking a law.' It's all slave labor for the king."

"But that's not the only reason." Bryan adds on. "There use to be vampire hunters. They don't really exist to much any more. But if you go against an experienced one and don't know all your powers, you could be killed fairly easily."

"And the way the royal ranks are set up. We can't even defend ourselves, at all." Michael takes a drink.

"Oh my, your getting all worked up." Bryan rubs the back of Michael's hand. "Basically, King Fane is the top tier. Between his king power and the royal guards, nothing can touch him. Next would be the rest of the royal family, if he didn't kill them all already though. They would all be very strong and protected as well. And also, they can kill anyone. They can pretty much look at you and say 'poof your dead' and you die... Well, it's a little more complicated than that, but you get the point. Then the next tier down would be the kings advisors and such. All the way down to the bottom tier, and that's us. Every tier above us can kill us and we can't do a damn thing about it."

"I once seen the King torture a defenseless child to draw her father out of hiding. He killed the father right in front of her. The mother died when the mate bond snapped. Then he killed the child." Michael takes a breath and wipes a tear away. "He made everyone there watch. If they made any noise, they were killed too. They are all monsters at the top. Just stay as far away from them as you can."

"The school will be safe for you guys. Take your studies seriously. Learn everything you can. Perfect your powers." Bryan tries again to change the topic.

"The king" Michael does air quotes around 'the king', "rules out of Slyborn Castle, and he keeps an entire town of humans right beside the castle as slaves. He and his group of thugs do whatever they want to those people. Most of them die from blood loss. The females are supposed to stay pregnant, so they don't run out of fresh blood. It's disgusting."

"What kind of powers do we have?" I try to help Bryan change the topic.

"Oh my, well, hypnosis is a big one and you'll be studying that one for like a year and a half. But that's a really good one. Then there's the 'supers'; senses, speed, and strength, night vision, floatation, that was my favorite. The normal ones like healing and regeneration. And a few odd ones like animal morphing, that no one really gets good at... But they make for interesting labs. I mean it's an 8 year program, there is a lot of stuff to get through."

"8 years?" Victor coughs out, choking on his beer.

"Yes, but remember the school is there to protect new vampires. Some of the strongest Vampires I know are there. And 1 really scary Wizard. Use them all. Learn everything you can from them. You have to be able to defend yourselves when you get out. They will show you everything they can."

"Werewolves and wizards. What else is real?"

"The blood-sucking royals are real... Just remember, there are 25,000 of us left and 500 are in the king's damn prison." Michael makes a grab for the next bottle.

"No no, let's not have any more of that. And Victor, there is an entire year-long class on super naturals. Seems like you will be really interested in that one." Bryan laughs.

"I'm going to put in a food order, pizza and nachos ok for everyone?" I am getting slightly concerned that Victor and Michael will both need carried out of here.

"That sounds great, could you add some soda on too?" Apparently Bryan is also concerned.

After we're all fed and watered, we call it a night. Everyone manages to walk out on their own feet tonight.