Kieran had returned from the tedious trip to Charleston, South Carolina. A meeting was held there with delegates from what used to be the European Union, and his damned stepfather of a king suddenly sprouted on him that Kieran would represent Avania.

“At least make yourself useful,” was what Abaddon had said. Such a bastard.

Honestly, he paid little attention to it after presenting his speech about future laws regarding human rights. The prince was antsy throughout the whole international convention. Something wasn’t right. He had a gut feeling that he couldn’t explain. His leg kept shaking up and down, fingernail tapping impatiently on the long table.

Anxious. Why am I suddenly anxious? And not hungry?

It didn’t help how he’d left Teru on such a negative note. Maybe that was it.

Kieran hadn’t meant to lose his temper when he broke the glass; just hearing the name “bloodsucker” set off a long-forgotten trigger with Van Helsing, who’d given him that nickname throughout the decades of endless torture. He didn’t particularly enjoy recalling those times, and Teru, with hatred in his eyes, had done a splendid job of reminding him.

And now he was on his penthouse floor with the maid beside him. 

“Report.”

“I’m afraid he hasn’t eaten properly in almost a week, Prince Kieran,” she reported.

“And did you request the food I asked for him? Beef? Red fruit only?”

“Yes. I even attempted to sit with him for company, but the way he snarls at me to leave him alone…”

How aggravating! Weren’t they past this unnecessary stubbornness? Did that human want to be fed by a vampire whom he clearly loathes? Well, that was perfectly fine with Kieran. Although he couldn’t detect Teru’s pride, that didn’t mean he didn’t have any somewhere in that weak body. Everyone had pride in them, no matter how innocent.

And he would find it, one way or another.

Kieran held the omega’s grungy bag. He had forgotten about it in the car, given to him by the auction house. The driver from that day found him as he returned, handing it to him apologetically.

 It could be used as leverage to make him eat—“no eating, no items,” was what he would say. Teru would be resentful, but it was for his own good. Kieran didn’t pay a quarter of his savings just so the hardheaded boy could wither away.

Once they entered his two-story penthouse, Kieran was on edge. It did not escape him that the atmosphere was tense. He didn’t hear any noises.

“Check if he’s sleeping.”

She bowed and took out the bedroom key from her pocket. Kieran went to the kitchen to examine the breakfast assortment, untouched—eggs, toast, bacon, and a red fruit smoothie. 

I thought he would like this.

If Teru didn’t eat lunch later, then Kieran would have no choice but to interfere. In the meantime, he brewed coffee. Trying different varieties of bitterness was a hobby of his. It kept him sane while in a continuous blood-deprived state.

He looked at the bag, wondering what was inside it.

“Sir! Come quickly! There’s blood!” the beta woman yelled.

He slammed down his cup haphazardly, spilling the hot drink on the counter. They were in the closet. He pushed her out, almost making her fall.

Sour pheromones saturated the space...as well as the scent of blood. He covered his nose. Drops of red spotted the floor. Kieran’s heart pounded against his chest to see items arranged in a weird circle.

Teru was crouching in the center of it all, biting his fingertips raw until they heavily bled. A few fingernails were missing. The padded tips were just…gone.

The omega saw him and gave off a distressed whimper. His mouth was coated in blood.

Shit. This is…!

Nesting.

It’d been centuries since Kieran helped an omega during a nesting fit. It occurred for certain reasons—when their heat failed to conceive, stress, missed their partner, or to build a safe space when pregnant. The latter was obviously not the reason, and they were not mates. Teru had not experienced his first heat, either.

It must have been stress. 

During nesting, omegas choose a comfortable spot such as a bed, closet, bedroom, or a couch, and gather soft objects and familiar scented things. They used these items to create a nest in the form of a circle, cave, fort, tent, and so on.

The purpose was to help relieve anxiety. 

But if it wasn’t resolved in a healthy way, they could end up self-mutilating themselves. The individual may “black out” while they’re doing it and not remember making a nest. Unfortunately, that seemed to be the case now. Teru was gone, replaced by feral instincts to cope.

The vampire stepped closer. He needed to make him stop. Teru gave a low, warning purr.

Back off, it meant.

“No,” Kieran said, letting his alpha take over. This omega needed strict guidance to get through this. “You don’t know what to do.” 

He entered the nest. 

Teru bared his teeth at him, his pheromones becoming more sour. Kieran growled back and sat down, dragging him onto his lap. He held both wrists with one hand.

The human struggled violently, legs thrashing, trying to break free. The distressed cries made his inner alpha eager to provide comfort, but the nesting was pretty severe.

“It’s all new. I hate it. All new,” he whined.

‘All new?’ What was? The room? The food? The…

Smells. The scents were all new.

“Get me the bag on the kitchen counter,” he commanded the maid. 

She rushed off to fetch it and came back in seconds, tossing it by his feet.

“Leave.”

Kieran grabbed the bag and held it up to Teru’s face. Immediately, he hugged the dirty thing to his chest and inhaled deeply. The sour pheromones were slowly disappearing. 

The vampire watched him open it and pulled out the contents: three dirty outfits that were clumsily hand-stitched together, a handful of dried-up raspberries, and a matted wolf…thing. A toy? Each item was placed meticulously around the nest.

Teru looked inside the bag again, searching for more. It was empty. The pheromones were getting tart again, very unhappy about something.

Maybe he is looking for this? 

Kieran pulled out a necklace from his blazer’s pocket. He’d placed it in there earlier, not sure if he should dispose of the intricate jewelry piece since it was made of solid silver, an element that was illegal for humans to possess. He held it out, avoiding the ring since it would burn him.

Teru saw and seized it. The sourness was gone.

As long as the distressed scent is at bay, I guess my job here is finished.

Kieran stood up to go. As long as the spoiled scent didn’t return, Teru should be capable of riding out the nesting fit without further harm. A nest was a very personal territory for an omega. They didn’t like others bombarding into it without an invitation, and Kieran had done just that.

He would keep a close eye on him from the bedroom, though, just to make sure.

As he took a step out of the den, Kieran was yanked back down until he landed on his back. One side of the nest tumbled over. Teru was on top of him, staring with glazed eyes while rubbing his bulge over Kieran’s thigh, rocking his hips back and forth. The uneasy whimpers returned.

Right. This.

He had forgotten that omegas could be horny during nesting. It wasn’t a heat, and thank god for that since Kieran wasn’t confident he could hold back from the irresistible fertile pheromones. 

But his inner alpha was in turmoil with an omega moaning in his ear. It wanted to take this human, pound into him hard enough to ruin the nest, and release his seed into that virgin womb.

But the prince couldn’t do that—he wouldn’t do that. Teru hated his entire existence. If he took his virginity this way, any chance of gaining trust would be impossible.

So he thought of another plan.

“Take off your pants,” Kieran demanded. Teru met his gaze while dry humping, clearly intending on not following orders. So defiant, so pretty.

Kieran liked the challenge.

“If you want me to pleasure you, then obey me.”

Teru paused, slowly pulling them down with shaking hands. Kieran sat up and placed the omega’s legs on either side of him into a straddling position. This gave easy access for Teru to smell Kieran’s scent gland in his neck, the small kidney-shaped organ that produced pheromones. Having someone so close to his throat made Kieran stiffen, since vampires naturally didn’t want anyone near that area. How ironic.

He allowed himself to get drunk from Teru’s body smell. It was intoxicating. Those artificial perfumes and soaps truly did not suit him; his natural fragrance was the best.

It’s strong. He hasn’t bathed in a while.

Teru leaned. He grazed the area above Kieran’s scent gland gently with his teeth. The smell of his breath had a hint of sweetened blood from chewing on his hands. He shuddered. It made his vampire instincts want to come out and ravage him. 

The alpha reached down on Teru, feeling skin, feeling him. He touched that place, his hole. It fluttered in response. Slick trickled out, a male omega’s natural lubricant.

As much as Kieran wanted to taste it and lick him clean, his goal was to relieve Teru’s frustrations so the wounds could be treated. If an alpha helped an intense bout of nesting, it could go away faster.

His finger swirled around the bud and carefully inserted it. The inner walls were tight. It pleased him knowing he was the first person to be inside. Teru quivered and pushed his hips out to feel more, purring loudly. 

It was like music to Kieran’s ears. His inner alpha answered with a much deeper rumble—like a lion.

Teru released slick, trickling and trickling. Pre-cum dripped from his cock, pulsing with need, signifying he’d climax soon.

So sensitive.

Kieran didn’t put in a second finger. Since this was a new experience for Teru, he didn’t want to make him sore…or frightened. He thrusted the one finger deeper until he found the spot—a spongy area that stimulated a male’s prostate.

Teru buckled, but Kieran held him in place as he stroked it. While Kieran had never been on the receiving end, touching this soft tissue supposedly made men feel like they were going to urinate. And sometimes they did.

“Can you come with just this? I bet you can,” he growled in the omega’s ear, nibbling it.

Apparently, he could. Teru’s body shivered as white cum spilled on Kieran’s pants. His back arched from the waves of pleasure. 

“Ah! Oh!” he moaned loudly with closed eyes and mouth slightly open. The expression was sexy as hell for Kieran, who wanted to bite the omega’s lip with his long fangs.

“Good boy.”

His praise prompted Teru to purr more. Kieran cradled him, letting him relax. It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep.

He was tired.

This would be a good time to heal the chewed-up hands. One by one, Kieran sucked and licked Teru’s fingers clean, savoring each one like it was his last feast. The dried blood tasted like fine wine.

He inspected his work after each finger was tended to.

Hmm. They still look a little red. 

The nails that were gnawed off would take time to grow. His own alpha purr began to sound anxious. The vibrations were quick and sharp. His omega hurting himself made him uneasy. The feeling was foreign because he never cared about anything other than himself before.

And that was how it was supposed to be. Kieran was the worst of the Deadly Sins. He shouldn’t forget that. Cherishing someone went against his nature.

He was Pride.

Knowing that omegas preferred sleeping in their nest during this unstable time, Kieran left him there but covered him with the bedsheet. He shut the door quietly.

He froze.

The maid was still in the bedroom, listening.

“Why the fuck are you still here?” Kieran seethed. How dare she come close to his omega during nesting! 

Her eyes widened at his aggression. She trembled. “P-Prince Kieran, I—”

“LEAVE.” He freed his dominant alpha’s authoritative pheromones, though it wouldn’t have much effect on her. But she could sense the weight, at least, that he was livid.

She sped out, tripping in the process from fear.

Due to her nosiness, it was time for a new maid. It wouldn’t surprise him if she was a mole working for the king or another Deadly Sin. 

Wouldn’t be the first time.

There was a trickle down his chin. Kieran touched the clear liquid with his hand and stared at it, knowing full well what this was. He went to the bathroom. When he stood in front of the mirror, he opened his mouth to inspect his sore fangs. As suspected, pheromone venom was dripping from them.

All alpha vampires had a gland in their skull, located on the right side above the roof of their mouths. It can be used for several reasons—to calm down an omega during heats or nesting, to subdue their mate into submission, or purely for sexual pleasure since it could act as a mild aphrodisiac.

This was a vampire’s pheromone sac.

But once human omegas began disappearing after his species took over society, there was no interest in having a pheromone sac anymore. Pheromone venom did not affect omegas that were marked. The few existing vampire omegas already had mates, and there were no new omegas to join the undead. 

Because omegas had stopped being born decades ago.

It was like evolution wanted to be cruel and force alphas—humans and vampires alike—to go unmated for life. That was why Teru was so special since he could potentially bring back the extinct gender.

Some time ago, a popular vampire celebrity got her sac surgically removed, creating a new “fad” to get the same operation. Many followed the trend, and some still get it done today. Kieran didn’t care about such things. A few of his siblings had gotten rid of theirs, but not him.

After having a small taste of Teru’s blood, his pheromone sac responded by…leaking. Oh, how they wanted to bite into any part of that perfect body and inject it. Watch him squirm. Watch him get a high. Watch him moan as his venom coursed through those exquisite veins…

The prince slapped himself hard to get rid of the lewd images. A fang accidentally split his bottom lip open, mixing blood and venom in the sink below. With his crimson eyes blazing from excitement, he was more of a mess than he was a second ago.

I should’ve gotten the sac removed.