RedBedSheets

Madeline Colter despises her country, Grandor, home to the most conservative and racist people to exist, the only country to reject people of other species while having a half-vampire prince. But when the prince comes of age and every woman in the country is forced to participate in a competition for the position of queen, Madeline is dragged into it. 

She expected to be failed immediately, not that she'd meet with the so-called feared prince and realize they may not be so different after all.

Alexei, known as the fearful war monger prince, feels little affection for anyone. Ostracised among nobility with his only protector now dead he has to pick a queen to ascend the throne. What he hadn't expected was to meet a girl that would make him realize how touch-starved he truly was. 


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I stared at the people below me, all their faces enamoured with awe as they beheld me. I was a commoner moments before, but here I sat- a crown atop my head.

I felt his fingers squeeze my hand and tried to stop my flinch. His red eyes boring into the side of my face. I knew he was grinning from ear to ear. I knew he had set all this up for me. Not to show me. But… to warn me.

Thousands of eyes leered at me and I knew what was to come would be much worse than what had already happened.

“Long Live the King and his Queen!” The chants began and I could feel a prickle in the corner of my eyes.

“Do not cry”.  His cold words were warmer than the finger that brushed my eyelid. My eye stilled and slid toward him. “This is all yours now. Just as much as it is mine. A country in the hands of those who hate it. Let’s ruin it all”. The fire burning in those eyes shook my core.

“Long… live the king” I said slowly and deliberately, watching his smile stretch further.

“Long live the queen”. 

———————-

I looked at the massacre around us. There was blood everywhere… why didn't he care for that?

"Why do you want mine?" I asked curiously, face turning pink when he lifted his intoxicated eyes towards me and his face was flushed, lips panting. It sent a strange thrill through me to see a man of such power on his knees, practically begging.


"I want all of you. Everything" he laid a kiss on my skin, breathing in the scent.

Warning: slow- burn R18

The Monsters First Love

I watched the prince carefully, as he smiled benevolently at me, but I could tell how fake it was.


"Of course, Lady Colter. I wouldn't deny you such an honor" the ridicule in his voice so clear I could feel a few ladies grin. 


I approached where he sat, waiting for him to move, but he did not. He simply waited for me to pick the glass up one by one. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of my displeasure.


I pulled out my handkerchief and laid it flat on the table. Then I began to lift the broken shards of glass.


It was broken in a way that suggested it was held with too much force. Squeezed in places that should've been handled delicately.


I may have paid more attention had I not found myself hyper-aware of the eyes that watched my entire body. The small breaths that I could make out along with every twitch in his arm.


I was sure I had collected all the pieces.


"You wouldn't happen to have any fallen on you?" I asked, not lifting my head and simply glancing over his shirt.


"Why not take a better look?" He leaned closer, standing slightly so my vision was blocked by the sight of his chest.


My thoughts cut off when I caught the smile on his face as he stared down at me.


"What's the matter?" He whispered, voice muffled by my hair, "I thought you had no interest in me?"


I stepped further away, rushing to collect the handkerchief full of glass shards and in my haste my finger brushed against the tip of a stray shard.


I didn't dare make anything of it as I tied the cloth and handed it to a nearby maid who waited diligently beside me. 


I could feel the burning sensation of the cut in my hand and I looked at it for a moment. My mind recalling his words.


My eyes snapped up to the prince to find him staring at my finger. Eyes resembling mine when I had saw that steak from earlier. I wasn't sure how the etiquette for offering blood to a vampire was and as much as I didn't want offer any to him I also wanted to see his reaction. 


"Your highness, we should allow the servants to do a proper sweep of this place. There may be more glass" Lady Willows words went unheard. He was barely in his right mind…


"Your highness?" I said, catching his gaze as he answered absently.


"It's not safe here" I noticed the immediate understanding in his eyes as he stood up. 


"Of course. Please clean this area thoroughly!" He ordered and left in a hurry.


I stared at his retreating back, unable to help a smile as I caught the redness of his ears.


I looked once again to the cut on my finger.


Chapter 36