BLOOD BOUND: cursed mate

It all starts in the grand hall in the palace as Princess Kiara Jayson's younger sister, stood before her family, her voice cutting through the still air.

“I’m leaving tonight for a day or two,” she announced, her tone steady. “To spy on the kingdoms of Asteria.”

King Jonathan, her father, narrowed his eyes. “Spying again, Kiara. We have trained warriors for that as well you don't need to stress yourself.

“They won’t expect and it's my duty as a general of this accursed kingdom,” Kiara replied confidently. “We are going to have a peaceful treaty with the kingdom for eachothers benefits , and we need to know if the can be trusted or not .

Her brother, Jayson, sighs. “just don't get caught? it might cause misunderstandings.

“I won’t,”. "And general Max will be with me .”

Queen Amber,silent until now, finally spoke. “just please don't kill anyone again ,don’t let them see your fang..”. As Kiara smirks " I can't promise that".

King Jonathan sighed, rising from his throne. “Fine. Go, but no killing, no bodies. If anyone dies, they’ll trace it back to our kingdom.”

Kiara’s jaw tightened, but she nodded. “I understand.”

“And above all,” the king added, his voice low and dangerous, “do not get caught.

Kiara smirked. “like I said I won’t .”

Her mother’s voice stopped her as she turned to leave. “Kiara,” Queen Amber said quietly, “if things go wrong, it’s better to return with nothing alright .”

Kiara nodded again and swept out of the hall, grabbing her sword and cloak .

As the palace gates closed behind her, she whispered to herself, “I hope I can control myself.”

the scene skips to town in the Kingdom,

The sun was beginning to set, casting a golden hue over the crumbling streets as Sophie trudges her way through the narrow alleys of the city. Sophie's body ached from the weight of the day hours spent in a class, followed by a series of thankless jobs that that were a little enough to put food on the table for her and her family. Being a half-breed half-human, half-omega meant she was neither accepted by her human peers nor respected by the supernatural communities.

Her mother had been human. Her father, a Beta wolf. The union between this beings were rare but possible.

She had hoped school would offer some reprieve, a place where knowledge and hard work mattered more than bloodlines. But it was a foolish dream. Every class was a reminder of her outcast status. The whispers, the pointed looks, the teachers and lecturers who pretended she wasn’t there unless it was to humiliate her in front of the other students dispite her remarkable grades.

The streets outside were bustling with the evening crowd—humans, vampires, and other supernatural creatures moving through the city like clockwork. For them, life was a series of opportunities and choices. For her, it was an unending struggle.

Her first stop was at the bakery, a dingy little shop tucked between two larger buildings. She worked there for a few hours each evening, scrubbing the floors and carrying heavy sacks of flour from the storage room to the kitchen. The owner, Mr. Harn, rarely spoke to her except to bark orders.

“Move faster, girl,” he snapped as she struggled to lift a particularly heavy sack.

She bit her lip, forcing herself not to respond.because she needs the money . She couldn’t afford to lose another job, not with the rent of her house almost due as everyone in the family are working extremely heard. As she continued working, she overheard Mr. Han talking to one of the other workers, a young human girl who had just been hired.

“She’s slow,” he muttered, glancing in Sophie’s direction. “But what can you expect from her kind?”

The words stung, but she didn’t let herself react. She was used to it by now—the stares, the comments, the barely veiled contempt. It was her reality, and she had learned to survive it.

After the bakery, she made her way to her second job at the local tailor’s shop. The owner, Madame Mina, was a vampire. she was there to clean, nothing more.

“Half-breed,” Madame Mina called out without looking up from her desk. “Make sure those windows are spotless.Am having important clients tomorrow, and I don’t want any speck of dirt.”

As she nods, grabbing a rag and a bucket of soapy water. She scrubbed at the windows until her arms burned, all while Madame Mina continued her work as though I was invisible.

By the time I was finished, the sun had fully set, and the night air had turned cool. Exhausted and covered in grime, I left the tailor’s shop and headed to my final task of the day—a package delivery for the vampire royal family Even to me to deliver by one of the few people that see me as one of them sir Leo a friend and the owner of the package delivery service, ensuring these package reaches the palace I get a huge pay,the package felt heavy in My hands. Normally, I handled small parcels for local businesses.

Her heart pounded in her chest as the grand palace loomed in the distance, its towering spires gleaming in the moonlight. I had never been this close to royalty before, much less vampires and wolves of such high status. Her kind wasn’t treated that bad her as the king and queen believe in equality , but there kids were alot different. If she didn’t make the delivery, I wouldn’t get paid.

The guards at the gate barely glanced at her as they let her through, their eyes cold and uninterested. The palace grounds were immaculate, a stark contrast to the filthy streets I had just walked.

She followed the direction given by a maid, heading toward the servant’s entrance at the back of the palace. Her steps were hesitant, her stomach twisting with anxiety. She had heard stories about the hybrid royal family stories of power, of cruelty, of blood and especially the bad reputation of the known arrogant siblings.

As she approached the door, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off, that she was about to walk into something far darker than a simple delivery.

She took a deep breath and knocked.

The door creaked open by a maid who invited her in and went to call the queen who the package was meant for.

The halls was silent, Sophie wasn’t sure what led her to explore the palace. Maybe it was the faint, muffled voices or the strange pull deep in her chest, something foreign yet familiar. Her steps were soft, calculated. And then she heard it a loud scream that chilled her to the bone.

A low growl, followed by a sharp scream.

Heart pounding, Sophie peered around the corner of the lavish hallway. Her breath hitched, her legs frozen in place as her eyes took in the scene before her. The crescent hybrid prince, Jayson, stood over a body. The lifeless figure of a man was crumpled at his feet, blood staining the gorgeous flooring as he grabs the second man who was begging and killed him on the spot.

Jayson's fangs were still bared, his red eyes glowing with a predatory hunger quest for more blood. Sophie mind screamed at her to run, to flee before he noticed her, but her body refused to obey. Instead, her gaze locked with his and in that split second, something inside her shifted. Her pulse quickened, not out of fear, but out of a connection she couldn’t explain.

Mate.

The word echoed through her mind, foreign yet undeniable. It filled her with warmth and terror all at once. This… monster, the prince , the arrogant and heartless being who had just killed a man, was hers? How could it be possible? She was nothing but a poor girl and a halfbreed struggling to survive and his, a deadly creature of royal blood and what scared her the most is the fact that a crescent hybrid can't have a weak creature as a mate.

Jayson’s gaze flickered, his fangs retracting as his lips curled into a cold smirk. He stepped toward her, each movement graceful yet lethal.

“who could you be,” his voice was as deep and smooth as silk, but laced with the threat of violence. “And yet…” he paused, sniffing the air as his eyes narrowed. “You’re different.”

Sophie’s knees buckled under the intensity of his stare. Her body trembled, her mind fighting to comprehend the depth of her weakness in his presence. Every fiber of her being screamed in protest, but the bond that pulsed between them was stronger.

“I…” she whispered, voice barely audible as she stepped back, hitting the wall behind her. “I didn’t mean—”

Jayson enjoying seeing the terror in her eyes suddenly realised something was strange as he called out "MATE" but after a few seconds of realization he was overwhelmed with anger as he yells "A half breed"

The heat of his anger pulsed through his veins like wildfire as he immediately grabbed her and bit down on her neck, fangs piercing flesh with a savage force.

Sophie gasped, her body jerking beneath him, but she was too weak to fight back. Her blood flowed freely into his mouth, the sweet, metallic taste only fueling his rage. He was disgusted—disgusted at her weakness, disgusted at her frailty. She was supposed to be his mate, his equal. But now… now, all he saw was failure he cannot accept a weakling as his .

Her vision blurred, eyes fluttering shut as the pain began to drown her. Her life flashed before her in fragments—all the pain, suffering, loneliness and bullying she heard endured and most especially the fear and rejection she just faced by her mate who is also going to be her killer, she taught that death would be peaceful for her.

As her pulse slowed, she could feel herself slipping away into the cold void, every beat of her heart weaker than the last. But somewhere, deep within her, she clung to the two things that was left—her will to live, even if it had never truly mattered before and her family. Not like this. I can't die like this...* She thought of all the pain she had endured. All the promises she'd made to herself.

Jayson’s hands tightened around her, his grip bruising her fragile bones. Her world was nothing but the sound of her heartbeat in her ears, each beat fainter than the last.

And then… she felt it. A cold breeze that wasn’t part of the room. A whisper that wasn’t in her mind.

“Enough.”

The voice cut through the haze like a knife, cold and commanding, as Jayson was flunged over the room the iron grip around her waist loosened as his hands were wrenched. He stumbled, eyes wide with shock as his mother's figure appeared before him—a towering shadow cloaked in centuries of power.

Queen Amber, her dark eyes gleaming with disappointment.

“You’ve lost yourself, Jayson,” Amber hissed, her voice low and dangerous. “She is not prey for you to slaughter in your childish tantrums.”

JAYSON rage simmered, but he dared not defy his mother. “She’s weak mother, I can't have a half-breed creature as insignificant as her as a mate,” he spat, his voice barely above a growl.

His mom in shock with the word mate and realised how important Sophie is in her son's life to change her child and for that to happen Sophie is meant to be alive

“She deserves to die, A devil like me can't have a useless being as her as a mate, her death is of importance to me right now—” Jayson says

“She deserves *your respect,*” Amber snapped, her voice brokering no argument. She knelt beside Sophie, her hand hovering over the torn flesh at her neck. “And if you are too blind to see that, then you are no prince of mine or these kingdom.”

Sophie's world began to steady, her breaths deepening as she clung to the life the queen was restoring. She didn’t know if she should feel gratitude, fear, or both as the vampire queen’s cold hands withdrew. But she was alive, for now. Save by the mother of the man who would have destroyed her.

The palace, illuminated by a flickering fire, felt suffocating as the tension between the prince and his mother thickened. The air crackled with the sharp words they hurled at each other.

"You nearly killed her!" His mother’s voice trembled with rage and disappointment. "Is this what I’ve raised you to be? A monster, an uncontrolled and careless creature?"

The prince’s eyes darkened,". You've forgotten what I am mother no matter how you try to change me you won't it's both a blessing and a curse”, He poked his cheek with his tongue "stop defending these sorry excuse of a living being ”.

The queen scoffed, stepping closer to him. "She’s your mate! You nearly tore her apart, for what? because she's different or weak as you claimed? You're supposed to cherish her, not destroy her!"

As they exchanged heated words, neither noticed the frail, bloodied figure in the corner. The girl, his mate, was barely conscious, but determination coursed through her veins. Her breaths came in ragged gasps as she quietly pulled herself across the cold stone floor. Every inch of her body screamed in pain, but survival pushed her forward.

Her heart pounded in her ears, drowning out the royal quarrel behind her. She needed to get away. She had to escape.

Clenching her jaw, she dragged herself through the chamber’s grand doors, unseen and unheard by the warring royals. She stumbled into the night, disappearing into the shadows.

Back at her home, was calm until her broken figure emerged from the darkness opening the door. A collective gasp echoed from the people who saw her. Her mother, sitting down, let out a piercing cry upon seeing her daughter’s battered state as her sister and father where still in shock suddenly Sophie collapsed on the cold bare floor as her family picked her in worry and fear wandering who could have done that to their daughter.

The chaos at the palace had yet to subside. The prince and his mother’s argument reached a fever pitch, but a sudden, chilling silence fell between them.

“Where is she?” His mother’s eyes widened.

The prince turned, in realisation as he didn't notice her disappearance but saw a trace of blood .

She was gone!!!.

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