Alec's P•O•V

Awakening in my bed fit for a king, I could feel the sun beaming down onto my bed. It felt warm against my ice-cold, porcelain skin. The one side of my lips twisted upwards into a crooked smile. Today was a good day.

I opened my eyes and saw my fraternal twin brother, DeMalo, standing there, leaning against my door frame.

"Nice to see you've woken up finally," He chuckled and pushed himself off of the door frame and walked over to me. I looked at him and got out of bed gracefully. I walked over to my wardrobe, opening the Victorian doors to reveal the contents. I took out a white, button-up shirt and some black dress pants.

"You ready for the big city?" He asked as I started buttoning up my shirt.

"What do you think?" I asked cockily and looked over at him.

"I guess I should ask if you're ready to have an American soul mate," He said and I could feel myself tense up for a split second.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" I said with a smirk. He pats me on the back before starting to walk to the door.

"The plane leaves at twelve," He said and walked out. I looked over at the clock to see that it was already 11:36. I continued to pull on my dress pants.

You see, I'm technically 21 a week from today. Actually, I was 143, but we vampires have aging periods that get rarer with each time they come. When DeMalo and I were kids, we flew through our aging periods and stopped once we looked 18 and at the time we were 76. Yet, our aging periods were always random. DeMalo's sometimes happened months after mine. Sometimes weeks.

Not one vampire had a prediction of when they would age. All we knew was they were rare once you got older in looks. And once you felt your body start to age, you had 3 months from the day you started aging until your "birthday." And in my case, three months ago, I felt it. I knew this year would be the year I aged. DeMalo would most likely be later.

This aging period was a different one for me though. Every vampire male turning 21 was given the week before their "birthday" to go seek out a female mortal to be their soul mate. It wasn't anything like werewolf mates. Those dogs had it easy; getting an instant mate that is miraculously in love with them the second they smell each other. For me and every other vampire, we had to go find and choose a mate.

But other than the weary feeling I got whenever I thought about becoming an adult vampire, I was ready. I was ready to age and I was ready to find my mate. Besides, I heard American women were absolutely beautiful. I had been stuck in Romania all my life, I had no opportunity to travel.

I heard a knock on my door. I walked over to it, still pretty much unprepared clothing-wise. I barely opened the door before my mom barged through the door.

"Alec Dimitri Gheata. The plane is already prepped and ready for your trip and you're not even ready!" She scolded while tucking my shirt in like she would when I was in the academy. I groaned and pulled my black blazer on while she poked, prodded, and straightened out my clothes.

"Mama," I told her and held her wrist. She was nervous and I could tell. I smiled at her softly, looking down at her seemingly 40-year-old structure. She may have only been a few inches shorter than me, but that was with her 6-inch heels.

"Everything is going to be alright. I promise I'll come back with a proper woman," I said to her in reassurance. She sighed and looked me in the eyes, studied them for a second, and then nodded. She pulled me into a tight embrace.

"You better. This Kingdom will need an adequate Queen one of these days."

♱

I stared out the small airplane window and sat back on the leather couch. DeMalo sat next to me, stretched out and drinking from one of the flight attendant's necks. I rolled my eyes and tuned out the noise, closing my eyes.

"Your highness..." I opened my eyes to see a young, Romanian girl staring at me. I knew it was her that had spoken.

"Yes?" I said politely, even though she was probably used to DeMalo's inappropriate behavior on this jet, especially towards a mortal like her. They had let him travel many times before and do whatever he wanted. I was never given much freedom outside of Romania. I was destined for the crown, they had me watched all these years like some priceless jewel. Now, I was aging into an adult male vampire, and my restrictions were breaking down.

"May I get you anything?" She asked with a small smile, breaking me out of my thoughts. I shook my head.

"Not right now. Thank you," I smiled back. She swallowed hard and I could hear her heart pounding in her chest as she glanced at DeMalo. I hit him on the back and she snapped out of her gaze on his animalistic act. She fled out of the room.

"Where are your manners? At least wait until the mortals aren't watching. You know how they react," I groaned. But DeMalo smirked at me with bloody lips and sent the girl on her way. I tried to hide my smirk and watched her leave the room.

"Just wait until you find your American lady and then we'll see who has manners then," He said and slapped my back. I rolled my eyes at him.

I could feel the plane starting to tilt as we were going down for landing. I looked out the window to see the beautiful city full of tall buildings, and streets filled with all the mortals and cars.

The sun was starting to set around the active city. People were heading out of the city, or farther into the city, from a long day at work. We were turning onto a landing strip that was outside of the city. DeMalo had told me it was owned by a company that has private airbases for those with private jets. I had heard of them before, but I had no idea they were this large.

I sat back in my seat as I watched out the window and we started to level with the ground. We landed and I felt the plane slow to a stop. We came to a complete stop on the stretch. I sat, still watching. DeMalo was already up. He had to hit me on the shoulder before I snapped out of it. I stood finally and straightened out my blazer.

Walking out of the plane, I was greeted by a man in a tux. He escorted me out of the plane and down the stairs. I thanked him and walked down the steps and onto the concrete.

"They already have your bags in the cab." He informed me as we got closer to the cab that was waiting for us. DeMalo was ahead of us and leaned on the cab.

I approached the cab and a guy with shades and a tux on walked around the cab. He opened the door for us and smiled.

"Welcome to New York."

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❤️