~Witch's Territory~
~Third Person's POV~
The suspense in the air is so thick that can be cut by a knife.
Melania and her sisters had ushered Lord Titus and his beta into the castle after a few minutes of silence. They all took their seat in the living room and were offered tea by the sisters which they rejected. They were seated in uncomfortable silence for about five minutes before Melania decided to talk, ignoring the pang of pain that was gnawing on her heart each time she looked at this vampire who was supposedly her mate.
"I think an introduction is long overdue." Her words came out firmly and she gave herself a pat on the back mentally.
"Of course. I am Lord Titus and this is my beta, Maison."
"I wasn't notified of your visit. Why is that?" She asked and once again her heart squeezed in pain but her voice was quite cooperative and didn't betray her.
"You would have to ask that to the elders yourselves. As you can see, I have a plague of the entrance," He brings out the round gold-plaited plague and hands it to Lyssa who was seated closest to him. She examines it and nods in approval.
"State your business here," Electra states with venom in her voice. She was just as upset as Melania and just as pained, but unlike Melania who could keep her emotions out of her voice, she decided not to.
"I am here to collect something of mine that is in your possession. I have all the documents and permission from the elders to take back what is mine." He hands come documents over to Lyssa who had been quiet the whole time. She flips through the papers with a blank face and after about five minutes she motions to him to hand over the permit from the elders. He motions to his beta to fetch it out of a suitcase they hadn't noticed earlier. He moves to hand it over to Lyssa who reads through it with a blank face and hands over all the papers as well as the plague to Melania. Melania looks through everything with a similarly blank face and hands them over to Electra who does the same. Electra looks up from the pile on her lap and exchanges a look with her sisters. She moves to drop the pile on the table in the center of all five of them.
"We have what you seek," Electra says with a blank voice.
"Why do I sense something else in that statement?" Lord Titus asks. The three shoot him a glare and he lets out a growl as he leans back into his seat. He thought it was cute when his mate glared, but he hated the look on her sister's face.
"There is a little problem. We have only one part of her." Melania says as she shifts in her chair, feeling uncomfortable with the look her mate is giving her.
"I don't follow."
"We have her body, but her spirit is nowhere to be found," Melania says.
"What happened?"
"We don't know," Electra says quickly as she shares a look with her sisters.
"Why do I find it difficult to believe you?"
"Simply put, you have trust issues." Melania snaps. The tension between her and her mate had grown exponentially.
"Why don't we leave you two to talk?" Lyssa voices. "You are the one in charge of your troop and she is the one in charge of our little coven."
Without waiting for a response, Electra, Lyssa, and Maison step out of the room, grateful for the breath of fresh air. They were very sure they would have been choked to death by the awkward tension if they had spent any more time in the room with those two.
Meanwhile, Melania who had been boiling with rage from the moment he called her mate with disgust in his voice had gone completely silent the moment those three stepped out of the room.
"You look angry." Lord Titus comments lamely and gets no response.
"You know, if you don't tell me why you are upset, there is nothing I can do about it."
"Let's just get this over with," Melania says as she adjusts in her seat.
"I don't follow."
"I see. I'll go first then." She pauses for a bit. "I, Melania Everest Rosa, hereby reject you as my mate."
"I'm sorry, what?!"
"Why are you surprised? The moment you realized I was your mate you looked and sounded disgusted. You want this!"
"Is that what you think?"
"It is what it is. Now accept the rejection so we can get this meeting done and over with.'
"I, Titus Richard Thompson, hereby reject your rejection."
"Why?!"
"I am an Alpha, my people look up to me and follow in my footsteps."
"I don't follow."
"Exactly how slow are you?" He snapped with irritation dripping from his words. It was like a slap in Melania's face. She didn't wait for centuries just to get this jackass as a mate.
"You would not speak to me in such a manner." She replied firmly with authority dripping from her voice. She didn't see herself submitting to him, not now and not anytime soon.
There was a long pause in the room and the two of them glared daggers at themselves. Alpha Titus had never had a problem with getting anyone to submit to him, but he knew all that was about to change. He had no intention of rejecting his mate, not when he had waited so long for her. He also had no intention of letting her know how much he wanted her. He had always been one to play mind games to get people to crave his approval. In the case of his long-awaited mate, he wanted her to yearn for him, maybe even more than he did for her. Little did he know that he had gotten himself a mate with a strong mind, so strong that he would end up craving her approval.
"Look, all I am trying to say is that, I do now want my people rejecting their mates or suffering from a broken soul."
"I still do not follow." She does follow, she knew exactly where he was headed from the start. She did feel a little bit of doubt as to whether or now he would accept her or not at first, But all that soon cleared up as soon as she heard him say 'My people follow in my footsteps'. Although she was almost certain that he wanted her just as much as she did, she was going to make him say it and most importantly work for it.
Alpha Titus knew exactly what she was doing... or so he thought. He was aware that she knew exactly what he meant, he however was wrong about the reason. He thought that she was doing this because he made her feel rejected. He decided to give her what she wanted... or what he thought she wanted.
"I, Titus Richard Thompson, hereby accept you as my mate."
"I do not wish to have you as my mate." Melania wasn't going to back down easily. She wasn't joking about him working for it.
"You and I know that's a lie. You want me, and I want to make a good example for my people, so I say it's a win-win for both of us." She was being difficult, and being someone who always has his way, he was starting to get pissed.
"On the contrary, I do not want you. I do want you gone and I do not care about what kind of example you lay for your people."
"What kind of leader would your people see you as if you decide to reject your mate?" The direct approach wasn't working so he had to employ other means.
"My people know that I am all about freedom of choice. Just because someone has been tagged as my soulmate, doesn't mean that I have to be with them."
"You should stop playing hard to get. Even if you want to deprive yourself of something you want, think about your people. They may respect and fear you, but you and I know that they would talk once word gets around that you deprived them of a great leader."
"That would be mine to deal with."
It was quite shocking to Alpha Titus that this witch he so desperately wanted had no problem whatsoever letting him go. But he was going to have to bring out the big gun. The conversation and gone from him playing mind games with his little mate, to him subtly begging her to accept him and he didn't like it one bit.
"Fine. Once I collect what's mine, I'll be out of your territory. God knows how lucky I was to have gotten a plague of entrance in the first place." That was all he needed to say. Melania knew what that meant for her. She was most likely never going to see him again and she didn't like the sound of that. She was only trying to make him try hard to have her and for a few minutes, he was this close to begging her to accept him. But now she was going to have to do so, the idea of never seeing him again made her heart hurt.
"I..." She hesitated and he decided to give her a little more motivation.
"I would take what I am here for and be on my way now. She would make for a good toy as soon as her soul is found." He couldn't have predicted her reaction to what he said.
"You would not touch a single hair on her head!" She growled and her eyes began to glow bright red. The thought of anyone hurting her was enough motivation to kill. She was now standing in a defensive stance and the atmosphere had become dangerous and still.
"Hey, calm down. I didn't mean that." He quickly took his words back. While he wasn't certain that he would defeat an ancient witch in a fight, he wasn't interested in finding out. He also didn't intend on hitting his mate. "It was just a joke"
"I... I don't know what came over me." She suddenly went from wild to confused and he assumed she was reacting based on jealousy. Something about that made him pleased, and boy how wrong he was.
"It's okay."
"I... I accept you as my mate."
"That's not how it works." He growls out, partly from the joy he was feeling and partly from the frustration of her not accepting him properly.
"What?" She asked flustered. He notices this and decides to make her even more flustered. He stands and takes calculated steps toward her.
"You are supposed to say your name first." He stops right in front of her. Her tempting scent makes its way up to his senses.
"I, Melania Everest Rosa, hereby accept you as my mate." one would expect them to have a nice and romantic moment and so did the both of them, since the moon goddess is not the nicest god there is, Lyssa, Electra, and Maison walks in as if on cue.
"Took y'all long enough," Lyssa says.
Lord Titus got what he came by for and more. He got the body of The Lucky Charm; though soulless. He also got himself a mate. There were two problems now.
1. Nancy's soul could be anywhere in the world and tracking it requires a lot of magic. Magic he didn't have at his disposal.
2. His mate is the head of the Witch's territory. The two could not be merged and one cannot leave their post to be with the other.
Lord Jason on the other hand was having a different kind of problem, but unlike Lord Titus who was able to list out his problems, he couldn't even identify all of his.
He and his men were able to make it through the tunnel and everything went just as Athena had predicted. The whole place was destroyed by the time they made it out. Now all that is left is to collect his mate and be on his way.
Little did he know...