DISCLAIMER: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight not me. I just love playing around with the characters we all know and love. :-)

My 2nd Fanfiction... So VERY excited. Similar stories and ideas have been done I'm sure but this is my version of what it would be like for vampires to imprint. I had this idea and it wouldn't shake so I'm writing it down. lol

If you like this one check out 'I second that emotion'. The story is told from Jasper's POV, and centers around what it would be like if Jasper hadn't joined the Cullen's with Alice. What if she had already been a Cullen? What if she was newly created and her power was much different than original story?

THE ROYAL IMPRINT

SUMMARY

Vampires and Wolves are in a state of constant war and humans are caught in the middle. They are either controlled as subjects, enslaved for food, or worshiped as IMPRINTS. Imprinting is the cause of, cure for, and meaning of EVERYTHING in this world. Treaties and enemies have been made involving the rare and precious bond and those agreements are about to be tested.

F.Y.I.

*In my story both vampires and werewolves feed from humans.

CHAPTER #1: Blood Bonds

EPOV (Edward's Point of View)

Another day, another battle of will. "Sire?" I look over to my servant, Ben, as he bows hesitantly outside my door. He's a human that I took in a few years ago when he was only 15 years old. Human servants were fairly common though not with royalty. They lacked the strength, speed, stamina, and other things that vampires possessed, but I trusted him implicitly.

"Come in, Ben." I sat up from my bed as Ben entered then waited patiently for me to 'wake-up'. I actually hadn't slept as to much had been on my mind all evening. Of the many things occupying my thoughts our worlds history was at the top of it all. I was the crowned prince of the largest of the six kingdoms. That alone caused a lot of problems for me. Each Kingdom was run very differently by very different rulers. Not all the kingdoms were ruled by vampires either. Ours, Olympia, was one of only 3 ruled by vampires. The others were Denali and Volterra. The Wares also had 3 kingdoms; LaPush, Lyan, and Banlen.

There was nothing but unrest between all 6 groups and loyalties were tested daily. Our kingdoms closest ally, at least geographically, was Denali. They were the most peaceful and trust-worthy of the others. The problem was they were also one of the weakest covens, meaning our allegiance was more important to them then it was to us.

History would state many different reasons for all of the immortal covens constant wars but in the end I had my own beliefs. IMPRINTING. The mystical bond that changed everything a little more than 500 years ago. That may seem a long time, and is in fact my age, but for immortals it really wasn't. I was mature for my race but hardly on par with the elders of my kingdom with regards to seniority. For thousands of years vampires and werewolves have existed and ruled over the planet, while for the most part avoiding each other. The races hadn't actually fought on any grand scale in a long time, and the disputes had stayed personal not political.

Then my father happened. Like all vampires, he had once been a human that was eventually turned. Regardless of the strange way vampires 'procreated' it was the only way possible. My father was not created into royalty as at the time kingdoms rose and fell all the time in pursuits of power. He didn't even know who had created him as it was most likely done accidentally. From the start though, my father, Carlisle, felt different from those around him.

When vampires are first turned, they are mad with blood-lust, desperate to feed and passionate over even the smallest feelings inside them. My father was just as blood thirsty as all of them but his determination not to be a monster helped him stay strong. He managed to do something for the first time in our species known history. He fed off animals. Of course vampires had drank animals before him but only when humans had been scarce in an area. It was never an active choice that any had even considered sticking with, but my father did.

He eventually became the master of this new diet due to his own sacrifices and training. He learned to resist the call of human blood completely. To this day the only human blood he has had was from when he'd changed his children into vampires. He determined that this was a sign he was on the right path for himself. Never a man to judge others if he could help it, he chose to live with his own kind as he still wanted to help vampires, just not feed like them. These views among the royal court at the time were met with, as my father always explained, hesitation. Nevertheless he was a high ranking member due to his expertise when it came to physiology for both humans and vampires. Vampires were strong but still needed medical attention at times.

He overcame everything thrown at him and worked hard for human rights. I could only imagine what he had endured to get our kingdom from the state it had been in. The history of human treatment has never been anything but ugly in our world. He had sought for humans to be treated decently by the vampires. He was laughed off but when Carlisle made good points and plans none could argue. There was an active war between the vampires and the wares at the time with both competing for food. Carlisle argued that if things continued there wouldn't be enough humans.

He was given permission to create a human 'city' within our lands where the humans could live freely but would have to donate blood regularly for the vampire populace. His program was met with a lot of skepticism at first but within about 20 years it had flourished beyond anyone's imagining. None of the other kingdoms succeeded in doing this, and as a result they struggled to have enough blood, whereas our Kingdom never did again. To this day we hadn't struggled with blood rationing for hundreds of years, and it remained a constant problem in all 5 of the other covens. This amazing fact was one of the biggest reasons we were at the top of the hierarchy, and it was thanks to my father.

In the early days he lived very peacefully and actually volunteered to be the humans 'warden'. The Royals of the time agreed eagerly and appointed Carlisle to be the ambassador between the human city and the vampires. He actually lived with the humans to maintain their trust and felt it was his rightful place to be. He kept up the pretense of watching the humans, but in actuality his sole goal was to to keep the humans safe, not imprisoned. It was a routine day for him, some 500 years ago, when everything changed. A group of humans had escaped vampire hunters and had fled to our kingdom and our 'human sanctuary' that was looked upon as heaven on earth for humans. Among the humans that came there was a young girl, about 16 years old full of fear but beautiful beyond anything he had seen before. The exact moment Carlisle looked at her he saw nothing else. He wasn't the same man anymore.

His mind didn't register what was happening or why and in no way did he care. All he knew was she was his and he needed her. The bond, imprinting as it came to be called, had NEVER happened before and as a result no one knew what to say about it. Carlisle was well respected and loved by the people of the kingdom, both vampire and human, so not even the royals had the power to question the bond as any action taken against him or his 'human' would have resulted in a mutiny from the people. He was so respected and loved in fact that many vampires had switched to his diet which caused him an enormous amount of pride and joy. Carlisle was able to take care of Esme as a result of the peoples loyalty to him.

To make the connection more perfect he learned that the bond was in no way one sided. Esme, the young girl, fell just as much in love with him as he did her. Her feelings for him were not as strong as his at first, but that was simply because she was human and he wasn't. Everything vampires feel is more potent than it would be for a human. She succumbed fast enough though and gave her heart to him as completely as he'd given her his. The bond was just one of many surprises the two would face, and they had no way of knowing all the miracles fate had in store for them.

The biggest surprise came a few years later when Esme actually became pregnant. Vampires were incapable of conceiving children so this was impossible, and yet it happened anyway. Any vampire in his position would have assumed she had cheated on him but Carlisle never doubted her or their child. Her pregnancy proved to be difficult and Carlisle had worried he would lose her as a result. He was very wrong though as things only got more amazing. About two months into her strenuous pregnancy, Esme suffered a massive heart attack. Carlisle was panicked and was about to give her his blood as well as take hers, which would have turned her and killed the baby, before the next miracle occurred. Esme came out of it, all on her own. She survived what should have killed her and the baby.

After running tests, upon tests, upon tests, Carlisle learned the next amazing thing about imprints. Just as a human imprint gives their vampire mate the human ability to have children, a vampire gives their mate a bit of their own special skills. Imprints actually become immortal, just like their vampire. They aren't invulnerable and can still die far easier than a vampire can, but if left unharmed they can live forever.

The solution to her health issues was actually obvious looking at it now, but at the time no one would have had a clue. As it was Carlisle hadn't postulated the theory on his own, and it was actually Esme that gave him the idea. She began to 'like' the smell of blood and confided about it to Carlisle. His curiosity won out over his concern and he gave her blood to drink. After just 1 day of giving her the substance, her health increased dramatically. Esme quickly substituted almost her whole human diet with blood causing Carlisle to learn that their child was most certainly a vampire. This explained all of her health issues as the baby had been forced to feed from it's mother to get the blood it needed. This was what had caused her heart attack.

After nine months Esme gave birth to a son, Edward... me. I was the first BORN, not created, immortal in existence, which in a way made me the oldest of my kind. I grew fast into my vampire abilities and when I hit puberty the next miracle occurred. I had been watched carefully by the whole royal house but had ignored it as it seemed normal to me. Normal ceased to even allude being a part of my life the day my birthday came. I still remember the day I fully developed into what I was. My family was celebrating my birthday with the high court as my father's position had only gotten more powerful because of me. I was only fifteen but as strong as any other fully mature vampire was. Aside from the full strength I had started to shown signs of being far faster than most of the other vampires around, with my speed increasing almost daily.

All 6 kingdoms had members in attendance as word of the first 'born' vampire had become quite the story for the people to talk about. I was looked upon with emotions ranging from curiosity to disgust to jealousy, anger, hatred, and everything in the middle. I was told to make a speech and I was in the middle of the words that my mother had helped me with, as this was my first public appearance with the other kingdoms, when it happened. Everyone was quietly listening to me when it suddenly wasn't so quiet anymore. I heard EVERYTHING. It felt like everyone in the room was screaming at the top of their lungs at me, yet it wasn't a garbled up room of noise. I could pick up each individuals words, at least from the people I was familiar with.

I politely asked everyone to be quiet and they looked at me like I was crazy and the words I heard yelled back at me, backed up their facial expressions. I repeated myself as the noise got louder and everyone got more confused. My mother grabbed my hand and as soon as she did she gasped. I looked to her in concern as she watched me wide-eyed. I glanced around the room and focused on a random vampire when I heard him speak. He made a vulgar comment about my mother and how much he wanted to 'fuck her'. I immediately attacked him, no thought behind the action. NO ONE spoke of my mother like that. I slammed the much older vampire into a wall and threatened him for his words against her. It caught up to me then that I hadn't seen his lips move and I'd been looking right at him. Had I read his mind? Was that even possible? After I processed through the impossibility of the action I noticed something else. He was in very visible pain and crumpled down to the ground despite the minimum pressure I had physically been inflicting on him.

He held his head and screamed about the noise when I realized what I'd done. When I touched him I did the same thing I'd done to my mother moments before but the result was very different. For her I had somehow allowed her to hear what I did but in his case I overwhelmed him with all of it. After a few moments of me not touching him the pain ended and I looked up to a room full of awe, want, hostility, and fear. It was the moment that a series of events was about to unfold that a fifteen year old me couldn't have anticipated in his wildest dreams.

…...

Seeing what I could do meant that the other two vampire clans were now determined to have 'born children' and tried to mate with human females to get just that. The sheer thought of what was done to those women because of my outburst made me sick, even to this day. Fortunately it was fully accepted a little more than ten years later that only an imprint could bare vampire children and even then a birth was rare. Imprinting was so rare with only about 5 more having imprinted since my father at that point and that was about thirty years later. Statistically it was discovered that those who abstained from human blood had a higher chance of forming the bond though I believed that was simply because 'vegetarian' vampires tended to be around humans more then our red-eyed counterparts.

This caused many to switch to animal blood and as a result we had to create wildlife preserves to keep the animals as populated as we did the humans. Ironic, I know. Interesting news rose from one of the three ware clans about twenty years after that. I was a little over sixty at this point and the most powerful vampire in my kingdom, maybe the most powerful vampire entirely. The first ware had 'imprinted' on a human girl in the kingdom of Lyan. This caused a horrible war to break out between them and LaPush out of jealousy. The two kingdoms had been practically brothers but it didn't matter anymore. Nothing else mattered in the face of imprinting.

Throughout the decades, things only got worse. Powerful vampires that had imprinted grew wary as it was common place among the most despicable of monsters to target an imprint to destroy the vampire. Unfortunately my fathers best friend, Frederick, was such a victim. He had imprinted 45 years after my father had and even had a son, Jasper, with his mate. She was murdered viciously soon after by mercenaries and as a result the vampire actually died as well from his depression. My mother took in the, at the time 3 year old Jasper, and raised him with all the love she'd given me. He was much younger than me but we were closer than brothers regardless.

My father was a man possessed with his determination to find out who had killed Frederick's mate, Sarah. Not only was Carlisle determined to get justice for his friend but he couldn't shake the fear that something bigger was going on. He didn't let mom, Jasper, or I out of his sight around that time for fear of loosing us. His findings proved terrifying and for the first time he asked me to use my abilities to help him. We investigated and determined that it was our own leaders that had ordered the hit on Sarah. The worse part was that when I sifted through the mind of the King himself, I found that the target had been my mother, not Sarah.

Our own civil war broke out in which many died, including the king. As soon as he fell my father was put in his place as he already had the support of every human and more and more vampires. Over the centuries our kingdom grew but the threats from the other clans were very real and death was everywhere.

…...

"Sire?" Ben pulled me out of my reverie and I apologized for having tuned him out. "The Denali's wanted me to check that you were ready for the day." I frowned at the other clan ordering my servant around. I was visiting our neighbors in their land for a peace treaty. They had the best land for livestock and as a result fueled about 40% of our vegetarian populations blood source. We in turn fueled about 60% of their human blood supply. This was due to their inability to keep humans alive for long. They were more barbaric than our kingdom. In our lands it was just as illegal to cause any harm to a human as it would be a fellow vampire. That was one of the many things my father had put in place. Humans still lived separately from the vampires but that was by their own choice. We still had human blood drinkers and it made some of our humans nervous to be around them.

My father had wanted to outlaw human blood drinking entirely but I was adamantly against it. Not only were more than 90% of vampires carnivorous, but humans having a 'valuable commodity' to trade with gave them amazing comfort and wealth in a world where they were at a huge disadvantage to the other dominating species roaming around. Vampires needed the humans and that worked in their favor. The way we harvested blood from them was relatively painless anyway, and we only did it to them once a week at the most. We kept strict rules in place to control vampire population with a vampire having to get permission to make a companion, humans on the other hand, could procreate all they wanted which kept our kingdom strong as we had the most valuable commodity in the world to trade, blood, practically liquid gold.

"Tell them I will be going out to hunt before the treaty tonight." There was no way I would be sitting around and watching them all drink human blood while making snide comments about my own food. With that I left and fled to the lush forestry surrounding the entire Denali kingdom. I did love it here and it was my favorite thing in the world to just run here with no destination. There was a perfect balance of trees, streams, grass, hills, and everything that made nature beautiful. One of the few perks of this treaty was I would get free access to these lands as our 'friendship' would put us in close proximity to each-other.

One of the MANY downsides was the 'friendships' being formed. Tanya was the Queen of these lands and had wanted me since she first met me, over 400 hundred years ago. My father had flirted with the idea of an arranged marriage between us but as soon as the words were out of his mouth my mother, always my hero, stepped in. She was sickened at the idea of me settling for anyone who wasn't my imprint. No one wanted to bring up the fact that no pure (term for a born vampire or ware) had ever imprinted. It was believed that the whole point of imprinting was to procreate so once that was done our purpose was done. Many had made the derogatory reference to us as mules. Born of a horse and a donkey to make the ideal pack animal but it was incapable of producing itself, just like pures.

My mother refused to believe this and told me many times that she knew my mate was out there and that no girl was good enough for me except someone who could love me as much as I deserved. I wanted to be cynical and roll my eyes at my sentimental mother but I couldn't. Truthfully I wanted it. I wanted it with absolutely everything I had. I had seen the bond between my parents... watched it everyday of my life. Aside from what my eyes could see, I could hear all the love they had for one-another in their minds. After centuries they still watched each-other with total devotion and reverance. They always had a smile for the other and the elation they would get from a simple caress the other gave was beyond beautiful. I didn't want to settle for anything less than that. I wanted it all and nothing else would be good enough for me. Just as my mother had said.

…...

Another perk about Denali was how often I could just hunt. Instead of the animal blood being drained here and sent to us, I could get it fresh. We could do that a bit at home but had to be careful to ensure our livestock's numbers stayed strong. Since my homeland was so covered in mountains and hills, raising life-stock was harder, hence the alliance with Denali.

I stayed out as long as possible to avoid the Queen. As she was the leader here and I was the Crown Prince of her allied nation, I would be obligated to spend my time with her if she made the request, which she undoubtedly would. The sun was long gone by the time I made it back to the castle. I changed into my kingdoms trademark golden topaz, a color we chose to symbolize the gold eyes we received from our chosen diet. As the sole royal family to adopt this diet we held this color close to our hearts and no member from another kingdom could wear it nor could anyone who fed from humans.

I paired the golden tunic with a black jacket. The black was out of respect for my hosts. Black was their chosen color, not that others couldn't wear it though. We were the only clan that was territorial over our trademark color. Call it petty or prideful but I believed we had a right to it. My fathers training and efforts aided in the lifestyle we have now and I never wanted someone to take our history for granted by insulting what it stood for.

As soon as I entered the ballroom I knew the night would be far worse than I'd been prepared for. All the Denali royals, all 3 of which were women, wore black alone, in overly sexual designs. I sighed as the Queen noticed me and immediately stood to address the room. She introduced me and I bowed as the people looked at me wide-eyed. I was still quite the legend for people to meet despite there being many pures now. I guess I would always be the first and as a result I would always get unwanted attention.

I took my seat on the Queens left as she casually rested her hand on my thigh. I wanted badly to shake her off but didn't want to be rude. I had to remember I was representing my father and my people, not myself. Her hand rose after a bit and I asked her to dance just to get her hands where I could see them. She happily agreed and we danced easily to a few songs as the rest of the Denali people joined in as well as a few guests from my own lands, including my bodyguard and brother, Jasper. He didn't dance but stayed nearby and watched my every move. I rolled my eyes wishing he could defend me from the Queen I wanted nothing to do with. I had told him that very thing on the journey here and his response had simply been... "She's your problem, not mine." Then he smiled easily at me. Prick.

Jasper developed his own extraordinary gifts just like I had. Like me he got an advanced physical skill as well as a magical one. Where as I had super speed, he got super senses, specifically eyesight. It was unmatched by anyone I'd ever met. Nothing got past him, making him a powerful ally and a terrifying foe. His magical ability was similar to my own. Instead of thoughts however he could read and manipulate emotions. He couldn't really use his skill quite as offensively as I could but he also didn't have to touch to do what he did. I could read without any contact but I couldn't force anyone to hear the noises unless I touched them or foused to the point of actual pain. For Jasper he could read and manipulate from a distance and while he could project negative emotions he couldn't incapacitate anyone like I could.

I was just about to politely decline another dance when the doors opened and in came what could only be described as a herd of humans. I had not seen any humans since arriving here and had preferred that. It wasn't a secret that the Denali's were far crueler to their humans than we ever were, though sadly they were no where near the worst of the kingdoms. I took in the display in front of me and actually felt myself look at to the Queen in complete disgust though she didn't notice as she was watching the humans with bored interest.

Each human was wearing filthy rags and clearly none had been fed in some time. They were all thin and after a brief moment to get over the shock, I smelled blood, lots of it. The humans were bleeding, most likely severely. I took an involuntary step towards them, desperate to help somehow. Ever since I was a boy I had helped my father at his clinic where he treated humans and I had always admired his care and compassion of these beings many considered lesser. I had never been able to stand human blood enough to do what he did but I had better control than most, having managed to never slip and taste human blood. My father had only had it twice when he turned my brother, Emmett and my sister, Rosalie.

Tanya held me back with a laugh. I took that to mean she thought I wanted to feed from the humans. I violently shook off her hold of me. Again she didn't even notice as she was to wrapped up in her own disgusting head. "It's time for the banquet to begin." That's when it hit me as to what was about to happen. These vampires were about to butcher these humans right in front of me.

I looked from the blood crazed vampires back at the humans and saw the strategic marks near wrists, necks and thighs. All spots that bled well and would make their heartbeats scream to a thirsty vampire or in this case a room of them. Their minds screamed how scared they were and I'd never felt so powerless, disgusted, angry, and sick in my entire life. As I looked upon these helpless beings my eyes landed on one in particular. She had wavy brown hair and the warmest brown eyes I'd ever seen in my life, eventhough she currently wasn't looking at me. She glanced around terrified but after a few seconds her eyes met mine. They met and I was gone, lost in her entirely.

I felt my heart both go weightless and slam down into my stomach at the same time. Her eyes showed a beautiful soul and all I could think about was how much I wanted to hold her and gaze into them forever. I didn't have to think about it to know what had just happened. I imprinted. My breath caught as for one glorious moment I reveled in that fact. I IMPRINTED. I had a mate. Did this really happen? Was it possible? Could I be a father someday? My mind thundered with so many thoughts but then just as quickly reality crashed onto me harshly, just as fast as the magic had given me hope. I had instinctively looked over her form, wanting to memorize everything about her when I smelled HER BLOOD. I saw the slice marks all over MY MATE. There was blood all over her arms, collar bone, and I saw blood falling down her legs from her torn dress.

I didn't think, I didn't need to. I pulled away from Tanya and ran to my imprint. I wanted to hold her. I wanted to know her name. I wanted to tell her mine. I wanted to run her far from here where I could keep her safe and worshiped. That was what I wanted... but not what I did. There was nowhere to go, no way to get her safe. I immediately shielded her body with my own and crouched before growling at every vampire now looking at me. I had moved backwards a bit to press her against a wall so no one could sneak up and take her from behind me. A few made small steps towards me, towards HER, and overwhelming rage replaced the terror I'd felt for her a moment ago. None would get to her, I would die first. I crouched lower and let lose the fiercest growl I'd ever heard let alone ever released myself.

I felt a feather touch on my hand at the same time I heard the smallest whisper. "Help." I knew that sound had to be my imprint as it was the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard. I turned to her just as she closed her eyes and fainted into my arms.

END NOTES:

SO...

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