3. Anastasia

“I’m home,” Aiden heard a young female voice call out, and he wondered who that could be.

“Ah, you’re home early, Anastasia,” Maria greeted softly the teenager that had came into view.

“Hey pumpkin,” was The Troublemaker’s greeting.

He looked at the girl and saw deep sorrow in her eyes. He wondered what could have happened to her. Then realizing Maria had called her Anastasia, he rose to his feet.

“You’re Anastasia?!” He asked, bewildered beyond belief.

“Yeah, who are you?” She asked dispassionately.

“I thought she was two,” he said accusingly as his eyes darted towards his father.

“Me too,” his dad muttered under his breath.

“Dad?” The teenager simply called out, looking unnerved for some reason as she demanded an explanation with a cocked eyebrow.

“Ana, sweetie, meet Jonathan, the alpha ultra of the US,” Blake introduced his dad with a wave of his hand, and she just nodded. “This lovely woman here is his mate, Jasmine.” She nodded once again. “And this little pup here is their son, Aiden, your new bodyguard.”

“New bodyguard?” She repeated.

“I got a clue from the oracle that indicates I might find my mate if I were to follow you,” Aiden hurried to explain as he rearranged a lock of his hair, almost nervously.

“What if I refuse?” She asked no one in particular while cocking an eyebrow at him.

What if I refuse? The words echoed in his mind, sounding like a death sentence to him.

Aiden gulped down, panicking, fearing she just might refuse, and stammered on his words despite his best effort to sound confident earlier, “I… I… You… You won’t even notice I’m here.”

“Where’s here?” She asked anew, her eyes narrowed at him.

“Aiden’s moving in with us, until he finds his mate,” Blake The Troublemaker explained in a flat tone.

She shrugged after a while, letting out an indifferent “Whatever.”

As she was about to leave the living room, however, Anastasia turned to Aiden and told him in a deadly cold voice, “You’re not taking Ace’s room.”

He immediately held his hands up in the air when he realized she meant her mate. “Okay,” he drawled.

“I’m serious,” she told him, eying him suspiciously.

“So am I,” he retorted in the same tone. “I’m here to find my mate, not to replace yours.”

“As if you could ever measure up to him,” he heard her muttering as she ascended the stairs.

Without his consent, a low growl escaped Aiden’s mouth, and he felt the need to shift, to rip something to shreds.

That’s when Maria intervened and apologized for her daughter’s rude behavior. “I’m sorry, folks. She’s going through a phase.” She said.

A phase, my ass, Aiden thought angrily. I can see why her mate would agree to leave her.

“I didn’t think she would have grown so fast,” his mom declared from where she sat next to his dad.

His dad nodded, agreeing immediately, making his son want to roll his eyes. His dad was so whipped.

“Have you forgotten that she is a pureblood?” Blake let out smugly, almost proudly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Aiden let out, perplexed.

“That she was born a vampire, duh,” The Troublemaker explained. “A royal vampire too.”

Yeah, a royal pain in the ass is more like it, Aiden thought to himself. I shouldn’t have cried victory too soon. I

He could only hope he would find his mate soon and be done with the precious pureblood, as he wasn't sure he could stand her standoffish ways too long.

** ** ** ** ** **

The following day, as one of Anastasia’s bodyguards drove through town while she and Aiden were seated in the back, he couldn’t help but ask where they were going. “What’s the plan for today?” He let out.

“Well, it’s Sunday. I want to go to the beach first. Then, I have been invited to a werewolf party,” Anastasia told him in what sounded like a bored tone for some reason. “Maybe you’ll find your mate there.”

Aiden couldn’t help the excitement with which his next two words were coated, “You think?”

“I’m no oracle,” she started in a teasing tone, “but a werewolf party is a good start for the big bad alpha ultra to find his mate.”

“I don’t think it’s gonna be that easy,” he muttered after a small pause.

“Oh, who knows?” She shrugged nonchalantly. "It can be easy and you might still mess it up."

From her tone of voice, he gathered that her words were meant to warn him against doing something foolish. She was remembering what she did with her mate, and regretting it.

As the SUV approached the house that was almost bouncing with the blaring music, Aiden and the princess had a little bit of an argument. He had let it slip that Blake might have been trying to lift her spirits, for what he did, in making her attend the werewolf party.

Only Anastasia didn’t have a clue about what her dad had done, and thus she threw a fit when he refused to tell her.

“Hey Anastasia,” the she-wolf who opened the door greeted the vampire princess warmly. “Who’s your friend?” She asked while her eyes appraised Aiden at leisure.

“He’s not a friend,” she told her tautly with a little bit of an eyeroll.

“I’m her bodyguard,” he explained matter-of-factly. Although he felt flattered to know he had a certain effect on she-wolves, he would rather have his mate by his side.

Her eyes widened while her mouth opened only to let out a small “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh,” Anastasia let out dismissively. “Now where’s the booze?”

“Anastasia,” Aiden called out after her.

She ignored him, and followed Claire inside the house. He caught up to her soon enough and placed a hand on her elbow, making her stop in her tracks.

She turned to face him, glaring at the hand that kept her from advancing.

“Hands off,” she all but barked at him for some reason he didn’t fully understand.

He obliged and put his hands up in the air in surrender. “I didn’t mean to upset you,” he let out in a shaky breath.

“But you did,” she let out on a sigh.

“Well, I thought you knew that your father was the one who told Ace to leave,” he countered hotly before he realized what he had let slip.

She shook her head negatively. “You’re lying,” She held an accusing finger at his chest as tears started to gather in her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized.

One second he was apologizing, the very next one she was chugging down alcohol like it was water.

He knew what she was trying to do. Vampires and werewolves could not get drunk, but they could be less on edge, and bring themselves to feel less. She was testing that theory, it would seem.

Aiden was merely watching Anastasia dance, having already figured out by scents alone that his mate was not in the house, when a guy made a beeline towards her but stopped at a few feet from her.

He watched their exchange with mild amusement, realizing that the brown-eyed raven who exuded confidence was undoubtedly her mate.

Just as Anastasia denied her mate the satisfaction of telling him she missed him, or any sweet nothings of the sort, a brunette teenager came stumbling into Ace and hit on him, making the princess see red, it would seem.

In a fit of jealousy, Anastasia awakened at last, and had the human girl in a death grip in a matter of seconds.

Aiden, who was prepared to take action and put a stop to what was happening, watched how Ace managed to calm his mate with a simple touch and a few meaningful words.

Hello, mate. Nice to meet you, he thought to himself amusedly.