Fangless: The Alpha's Vampire Mate
Chapter 93: A Terrible, Horrible Day

Chapter 93: A Terrible, Horrible Day

"Your Majesty, what about sending a challenge?" an ignorant knight suggested.

The mere question already caused Valentin a headache. He growled, clearly displeased with his subordinate’s incompetence.

"Have you no brain? How will we gather information in the middle of a war?"

The vampire king was by no means afraid of werewolves. He was confident in his race’s ability to win any conflict.

But he wasn’t planning to rule the world; he was trying to find his sister’s killer, and starting a war would definitely not help.

The king waved his hand in anger, dismissing the task force from his office. He dwelled on the matter alone and decided it was best to feign friendship or partnership.

When the werewolves had their guards down, they might open up and give him the clues he desperately needed. For example, the Alpha might tell him about the previous Alpha or share any rumors circulating among them.

With this plan in mind, Valentin sent a letter inviting Thorin to the Kingdom of Eira.

He could imagine how his father would have reacted to this, had he still been alive. But the previous vampire king was dead, and there was no one to stop Valentin now.

His goal was to avenge his sister’s death, and he would do anything to achieve it, even if it meant smiling and being nice to werewolves.

Under the pretense of requesting help to fend off Asvaldur, Valentin planned to keep the werewolves in the palace. While they were there, his knights would follow them closely, hoping to uncover new information.

"I need a bait," Valentin muttered to himself. "What would be the best bait?"

Remus’s diary came to mind. It seemed like the perfect lure. To facilitate the discovery of this book, Valentin summoned the human witch and instructed her to create a scent that would attract werewolves to the diary.

As he searched for a suitable hiding place, Valentin stumbled upon a hidden chamber filled with forbidden books. He collapsed, feeling a wave of grief as he realized who had created this chamber.

It had to be his sister. Amara, ever the seeker of knowledge, would have been the only one interested in such books. His heart ached again at the thought of her.

The chamber had traces of a werewolf’s life. It seemed Amara must have hidden Remus here during the time she pretended to have expelled him, following the previous king’s orders.

Valentin couldn’t bring himself to renovate the chamber, so he left it untouched. He tidied up Remus’s belongings and carefully slipped the diary onto the bookshelf.

After the previous king had destroyed Amara’s chamber when she left the palace with Remus, Valentin had lost a place full of her memories. He vowed to protect this hidden chamber, the only remaining sanctuary of her past.

His decision to invite werewolves and extend a hand to make an alliance with them was not received well by everyone, especially the nobles. But Valentin was determined to move forward with his plan.

Once the werewolves came here and found the diary, they might visit places or meet people that could provide valuable clues.

Valentin surmised that as Thorin grew closer to Lisbeth due to their arranged marriage, the werewolf would be more inclined to answer his questions.

If Thorin remained hesitant to open up because of the historical bad blood between vampires and werewolves, marriage to Lisbeth would eventually soften him.

However, Valentin’s grand plan was derailed by one small variable: Riona. Like mother, like daughter, she attracted werewolves effortlessly, just as Amara had enticed Remus at first sight.

Thorin was clearly drawn to the halfling. Valentin could tell from the way the Alpha stared at Riona that he was already beginning to feel something for her.

Valentin knew he had to intervene. He stopped Riona from making a scene and drawing more attention. But perhaps, it was already too late.

He would say it wasn’t all that surprising when Thorin proposed to have a marriage alliance with Riona instead of Lisbeth. That didn’t make the proposal any less insulting.

What Valentin was scared of was that Riona, like her mother, would fall for a werewolf, as well. He would never allow history to repeat itself. Riona would not leave the palace with a werewolf.

Valentin would make sure of it.

Although he didn’t want to resort to this, he had no choice but to limit Riona’s movements within the palace. Using the pretext of punishment, he trapped her in her chamber with a spell.

His anger about being accused of Amara’s murder was genuine, but the subsequent punishment was a calculated move to keep Riona confined to the royal palace.

Riona would graduate from the academy and work as a royal guard under his direct supervision.

Financially, she would be well taken care of, as the pay for a royal guard would be more than enough to provide her and Florian with comfortable lives.

Valentin believed he was on the right track, with everything going according to his predictions. But suddenly, things went terribly, horribly wrong.

The vampire king was too focused on whining about his incompetent subordinates and his unfortunate situation that he didn’t realize something was happening in front of his eyes.

When he finally turned to look at Elder Alera, she was already frozen in place. Valentin waved his hand in front of her face, calling out to her in confusion.

He summoned Lord Marius, the elder’s descendant, who had accompanied his grandmother to the palace.

Lord Marius was just as bewildered as the king. Royal physicians were called to examine her condition, but they couldn’t determine what was wrong.

Then, Elder Alera’s fingers started to twitch. Chaos erupted as everyone scrambled to fetch the items the physicians requested.

Her toes moved next, followed by her eyes. Within seconds, she returned to normal, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Your Excellency, what happened?" Lord Marius asked, kneeling beside the armrest of the sofa.

Instead of answering her grandchild immediately, she looked up at the king and said, "This is bad, Valentin."

She didn’t bother using the formal address. That’s how Valentin knew it must be really serious.

"What is it?" Valentin asked.

"She is the Blood Moon child, and I think everyone knows it now. You must save her, Valentin! Her life is in danger."