Prologue

*huff

I remembered treading the blizzard with just a white dress and one pair of shoes. Dragging my little feet, I moved one step at a time. I lost count on how many times I stumbled and was swallowed by the snow. But I kept going.

To where?

I didn't know . . .

I just kept walking . . . and walking . . . aimlessly.

I didn't even remember the biting cold nor the storm that night. But the vivid memories of what happened hunted me to this day.

In my path was a pair of boots of a man with red eyes, face covered in blood. Its mouth ripped open, and two long fangs glistened under the red moon.

With how little my neck, I was sure it would rip apart . . . I was sure I was going to die . . . I was so sure . . .

Until him . . .

It was silent that night, and the man fell with his head detached from his neck and with his blood dying the snow red.

Where the man stood was a boy with the purest ruby irises I had ever seen. Skin pale like the snow and a face so beautiful that it appeared in my future dreams night after night.

"Rules . . . ," he said and licked the blood from his fingers.

"My Prince . . . ," they said as the men cloaked in robes kneeled before him.

They spoke in words I couldn't hear. There was nothing in my mind but his otherworldly existence.

He looked at me with his ruby-incased crystal eyes. The coldest of snow couldn't even compare to his expression.

"Leave her. She'd die anyway."

. . .

Yes, I did.

But not that night . . .

. . .

Rhazien diz Razim, the Prince of Razim Kingdom. Ruler of all pureblooded Vampires. He was bred to be the leader, a King . . . and I became his Queen.

Together we faced numerous struggles and adversaries from the power-hungry vampire council, the pitchfork-wielding humans, to the hypocritical corrupt church, down to the countless silver daggers of the vampire hunters, to curses and spells of warlocks and witches and from the long years of war with the werewolves.

I have stayed by his side and turned myself into a vampire to cope with his eternal age. Time was irrelevant when I was with him . . .

But I started counting the days when she appeared . . .

I realized that the love and struggles that we shared for years were insignificant in the face of a mate.

A woman destined to be with him.

And that was not me . . .