Fangless: The Alpha's Vampire Mate-Chapter 143: Sneaky Spy Stuff

"Pardon?"

Margrave Nicholas felt he must have misheard. Why would King Valentin order him to join the side plotting treason against him?

Noticing the margrave’s confusion, King Valentin explained, "You’ll be a spy in Elder Alfred’s plans. Since your daughter is close to Lisbeth, he’ll question your loyalty—but that’s for you to handle."

That made more sense than simply throwing Nicholas into the lion’s den. He gave a firm nod. "Understood, Your Majesty."

He didn’t yet know how he would explain his sudden shift in loyalty, but he would need a convincing story. Not because Elder Alfred was particularly sharp, but because Lady Tanith was. And she would be far harder to deceive.

"You will give me updates every three days. Someone will come to your manor to collect your report in person. If anything urgent comes up, send a messenger directly to Margrave Boris," the king instructed.

"Yes, Your Majesty." The margrave once again gave a firm answer.

King Valentin appreciated Nicholas’ unwavering loyalty. He felt like he could trust the margrave. Besides the strong friendship between their daughters, Margrave Nicholas had never let him down.

Meanwhile, Lady Maris was handling things smoothly. She subtly distracted the guests who were looking for the king, skillfully keeping their attention on her.

She was completely at ease. Building on her previous efforts to rally support for the king, she monopolized their attention, encouraging them to join his cause.

As expected of Lady Maris, she had sworked her magic. The noblewomen were now persuading their husbands to pledge their allegiance to the king. It was a clever strategy, and it was paying off.

Lady Maris basked in the success of her plan, while also ensuring no one ventured near the king’s private chambers. When guests asked about his whereabouts, she gracefully changed the subject.

Lisbeth didn’t know that her father secretly had a meeting with Margrave Nicholas, but she sensed her mother’s need for assistance. She quietly stepped in to help to swat the flies away.

She kept an eye on her mother from a distance, ready to step in if needed. Most of the time, though, she mingled with her friends who were also at the banquet.

"Where’s your father, Cielo?" Lumi asked, looking around in confusion. She had seen Margrave Nicholas just a little while ago, but now he was nowhere to be found.

Cielo seemed to have a clue of her father’s whereabouts, but she was reluctant to say.

Noticing her discomfort and correctly guessing it had something to do with King Valentin—since Cielo had told her about Elder Alfred’s invitation—Lisbeth said, "Why do you care about him? Just enjoy yourself."

Lumi was always the carefree one. She grinned and agreed. "You’re right!"

As she snacked on the fancy bite-sized treats laid out for the guests, Lumi added, "I heard Elder Alfred tried to get Emperor Kaan to use his vote to dethrone your father."

Lisbeth wasn’t very interested, as she had heard it all before. She calmly sipped the warm, high-quality blood from the Crimson Vitae Workshop and said, "The emperor refused to help him."

"Really?" Lumi’s eyes widened.

"Yeah. People have been talking about it for a while. Apparently, Elder Alfred was furious when he stormed out of the palace," Lisbeth said casually.

"What will you do now?" Cielo asked quietly.

"I’m just going to train, train, and keep training," Lisbeth said with determination. "I’ll train until I’m strong enough to protect the king if anything happens."

Cielo hesitated, then finally asked what had been weighing on her mind. "And Fangless? Are you okay with her disappearing like that?"

To be honest, Lisbeth was not okay with it. Not okay at all. But it had been King Valentin himself who allowed the fangless vampire to leave the palace. Something must have happened that Lisbeth wasn’t aware of.

"It’s not the time to dwell on childish things," she replied.

Cielo was stunned, though she did her best to hide her surprise, not wanting to upset Lisbeth. But it was truly shocking. Was Lisbeth admitting that her inferiority and the rivalry with Riona was just a childish obsession?

She almost felt like she should write this moment down for history—it was that unexpected.

***

Aside from the obvious haters of Riona—Vesper and Morgan—there were also non-affiliated werewolves who despised her, largely due to her being a vampire. Their dislike stemmed from simple race prejudice. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

Discrimination, it seemed, was everywhere.

These werewolves wanted to drive the vampires out of their home but didn’t want to join Vesper and Morgan’s groups. Instead, they decided to act on their own. They went to Charna, asking her to pass their demands to Thorin.

"We expect to see action within this week," one of them said. "We’ve let her feel too comfortable here. Let me be clear: they are not part of us and never will be. How can werewolves live with vampires?"

Charna cringed at the word expect. They were not making a request—they were making a demand. Though there was no explicit threat, it felt like one.

She was frustrated with the ongoing issues between the werewolves and Riona. Some werewolves had started to like Riona because of her help with hunting and saving Majora.

But that wasn’t enough to change the views of those who still held a grudge.

"I’ll talk to Thorin about this," Charna said, deciding to act as a mediator rather than trying to come up with a solution herself.

Even though Charna was the Chief of Wintertooth and responsible for managing the community, she felt that Thorin should handle this issue.

After all, he had been the one to bring Riona into their midst, calling her his almost-bride. Why did it always fall to Charna to deal with the fallout?

She relayed the message to the Alpha word for word. Thorin leaned back in his chair, scratching his chin and looking as if he was trying to solve a particularly tricky crossword puzzle.

"I thought she had proven herself. Why can’t they accept her yet?" he wondered aloud after a thoughtful pause, which felt like an eternity of pondering.

"Racism isn’t just a vampire issue. We have our own version of it," Charna replied with a shrug.

Racism was deeply ingrained, and Thorin knew he couldn’t change it overnight. Even with months of effort, he doubted he could fully alter the mindset of the werewolves.

But his job wasn’t to eradicate racism—such a fundamental change would take years, if not centuries. His role was to ensure Riona felt welcome in Wintertooth.

The best plan for Riona hit Thorin like a lightning bolt. What was the best thing about Riona? Her strength.

He clapped his hands together decisively and said, "We’ll hold a training session. Both werewolves and vampires will attend. Once they see her skills, they’ll be her biggest fans!"

What Thorin didn’t realize was that he had overlooked one minor detail: Florian still refused to leave his room.

Thorin underestimated how committed Florian was to being a professional hermit.