“You can come out.” Kieran held the door open, displaying a room that was much larger than the one Teru was held hostage in. All of that was on the other side and he didn’t know it? This whole time?

Teru wanted to go, but…the vampire was way too close to the bedroom door that would lead him there. He slowly inched forward, like a deer that was testing its surroundings for any sudden movements from a nearby threat. His inner omega gave a low growl at the alpha, meaning he wanted more distance between them.

Seeing his distrust, Kieran took multiple steps away. Teru relaxed. Much better. He went through the doorway.

He looked all around him. It was huge—tall ceilings that extended high above the second floor with wooden beams running across it, multiple doors with new rooms to explore, unfamiliar electronics, and interesting-looking furniture. He did his best not to get excited at seeing the giant refrigerator.

Teru lifted his head and sniffed the air. It smelled heavily of dominant alpha. Mint was the only scent he could detect, so Kieran must be the only person living here.

The awe went away. It couldn’t be that easy to get access to this.

What is his motive? 

“Why?”

Kieran, who leaned against the wall while watching him, wasn’t expecting such a question. “Why what?”

“Why let me out now? What are you getting at?”

“Can’t I do it from the goodness of my heart?”

Teru wanted to roll his eyes. This guy was trying to joke at the situation, reading the mood completely wrong.

Kieran could tell it was a dumb attempt. He walked towards Teru and grabbed his hand. It made his speeding heart jump into his throat. 

“You were hurting, weren’t you?”

So…he did notice my pain? Not even my family or friends could pick it up that quickly.

Teru remained guarded as he was given a tour of the apartment. He learned about the names for each assigned area— living room, kitchen, entrance, office, and library. The only room he wasn’t allowed to see was the alpha’s bedroom.

They stopped in the kitchen again. “I forgot to mention before, but don’t use the stove unless I’m here with you. It’s not safe,” Kieran warned. 

That made him curious about it. Surely it wasn’t that dangerous. When Kieran opened a cabinet, revealing several glass cups, Teru pressed a button on the oven’s front. It beeped. One of the circles ignited with a high flame. The heat almost touched his face!

“Ah!”

Kieran hurriedly switched it off and checked Teru’s face for any burns. “I said not to touch it!”

“You said it’s fine when you’re with me,” he reminded the penthouse’s owner.

“Just don’t touch. At all,” changing his mind. Kieran ushered him quickly out of the kitchen, worried that he would set the whole place on fire.

He brought him over to a glass sliding door. “This is the finale of the tour. It’s called a balcony. Like the kitchen, please be careful.” When Kieran opened it, a chilly wind rushed inside, blowing the curtains.

Outside.

Teru carefully tiptoed into the fresh air. Being this high up was dizzying, even with a high ledge to prevent him from falling.

Gusts of wind pushed at him. He inhaled, almost forgetting what this smelled like. It was so refreshing. He gazed at the view of the hundreds of tall buildings against the clear, blue sky. In the distance were the ruins of whatever city it used to be. 

“It’s amazing.” He said what was on his mind.

“Hmm, do you think so?”

Teru’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment. He wasn’t supposed to say that out loud.

“Do you want to play a game, watch a movie, or read a book?”

“We can watch a movie? Here?” 

Teru had heard stories about those. His father had multiple magazines about live-action and cartoon films. Supposedly, humans used to watch fake scenarios on giant screens for fun.

“If you’d like. What genre do you prefer?” Kieran guided him back inside and revealed a tiny closet with tons of thin, plastic cases with different covers. 

Not wanting to admit that he didn’t know what a “genre” was, Teru replied, “Uh, whatever is fine.”

The vampire gave him a doubtful look. “Right. I forgot that you lived in squalor. I guess you wouldn’t know.” He pointed to the cases, or DVDs, as they were called. “There’s romance, action, sci-fi, supernatural, war, comedy, and others. Just pick something with an interesting name.” 

Teru grazed a finger down the piles. The letters were foreign since he couldn’t read. The one with a man holding a handgun stood out. “This.”

“That one? How unexpected.” Kieran pulled out the disc and placed it in a black box.

Is that shiny, rainbow thing a movie? 

The TV turned on and the film began. Kieran sat on the couch and patted the area next to him. 

“Well?” He waited. 

But Teru chose the floor, keeping many body lengths between them. Kieran was displeased because he probably thought Teru would sit next to him, but he didn’t say anything about it. This was the first day out of the bedroom, after all.

Throughout the movie, Teru found himself scooching closer until he sat directly in front of the TV, mesmerized. The people would hold their guns wrong. How they shot at each other wasn’t realistic either, but still amazing, nonetheless.

“Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker,” the main character said. 

What an interesting thing to say. What does it mean?

When it was over, the picture turned black with a bunch of words rolling up the screen.

“What did you think?” Kieran asked.

“Is it a true story?”

“No, but similar. Humans often murdered each other for money, revenge, sex, or simply because they wanted to.”

“But vampires don’t murder humans for those reasons,” he said quietly.

Kieran shrugged unsympathetically. “Not most of the time.”

They both knew the main reason why—blood.

The alpha saw the disgusted look on Teru’s face. “But the intent isn’t the same as it was in the beginning. It was like a sport—to kill or turn as many humans as they could. Now, blood is more sacred and not to be taken lightly. We can’t even change a human into a vampire without getting approved and registered. A new vampire that is turned illegally is killed instantly if they’re caught.”

There was no point in justifying their actions. It was all so gross to him, how this bloodsucker talked about humans like they were nothing more than bugs. “Sacred” wasn’t the right word. Teru had seen the way vampires treated his pack at the auction house. Maybe Kieran was out of touch with how the real world worked.

“And where were you during all of that? When people were being massacred?” 

“It’s all a blur. In this city, maybe. I didn’t partake.”

“So, you let everything happen? You make it sound like you were hiding here to secure your job and live a cushy life.” People who did nothing were just as guilty.

The bratty tongue annoyed Kieran. “Listen. I put up with your words because we’re alone in my home. When we are in front of others, don’t speak with such defiance. They’d want to see you punished because I’m a pr— ,” he paused. “I work directly under the Queen’s biological children, the Seven Deadly Sins.”

So, fairy tales are coming into play now? Hilarious! Fine. I can go along with it. 

“Let them punish me, then. They can even choose how. The Deadly Sins are cowards. There’s nothing worse that could happen to me than being here with you.”

Musky pheromones spread through the room. The scent made him want to show his submissive belly. He almost did, flinching.

“Come here,” the dominant alpha ordered, using his authoritative pheromones on him. Just like Nolan did on other alphas. So fucking typical. Teru shouldn’t have expected anything less.

He had no choice but to oblige. Or perhaps he could say no. Except…

I want to obey, the suppressed omega deep within his mind whispered. Dominate me. Touch me.

Teru clenched his teeth hard, ready to retort some insults. But when he stood in front of Kieran, he almost became undone by that heated expression, crimson eyes seeing right through him. It was like the vamp knew what his cursed instincts desired. 

He was unable to stop the release of his own pheromones from leaking, which he had been holding in. It was subtle enough not to get a normal alpha’s attention, but a dominant could tell—and Kieran definitely did.

Kieran replied with his scent, switching from musk to…an interesting mixture. It was sharp, minty, and raging with testosterone that only one with powerful genes could have. Teru was figuring out what this scent meant. Their pheromones danced.

It had his inner omega at full attention. His chest itched to communicate.

To Teru’s horror, his purr did its own thing. Do you like it?  

Yes, Kieran’s alpha rumbled.

Shit. Even without speaking verbally, it was difficult to deny their chemistry. 

“Little one,” Kieran growled. Another wave of that interesting smell came out. “It could be far, far worse.” 

His scent…

Before Teru knew it, he was straddling the vampire on the couch, moving there voluntarily. His heart lurched.

Why did I just do that? I don’t think he used his pheromones to force me. Right? Right?

Kieran’s hand touched Teru’s thigh, traveling up until he reached the pants’ waistline. His hand slowly reached inside. Light scratches were left behind from his long nails. It tickled, sending a chill up Teru’s spine. Ever so slowly, the vampire’s finger grazed past the edge of his underwear. 

And this all happened while maintaining eye contact, each one testing the other to see how far they could push the boundaries. 

Kieran’s hand went in, closer and closer. He was so close to his cock—swollen from need, pulsing from anticipation. Teru pushed his ass out to seduce him, lips moving closer t—

Stop, stop, stop!

It was happening too fast! Teru pushed on the muscular chest to get away. He felt torn as if he had interrupted something important.

Kieran felt the resistance and stopped immediately, removing his hand. He placed the human roughly on the neighboring cushion so he could stand. As he got up, Teru gulped, feeling like a massive pervert ogling at the outline of the alpha’s hard-on. 

“Choose another movie.” Kieran’s voice was strained. He rushed to his bedroom, the one that Teru wasn’t shown. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

After locking the door, Kieran punched the drywall, making a hole. He breathed heavily from pain, trying not to groan out loud as he grabbed his crotch to stop the process. It failed miserably, feeling his member enlarge.

Knotting. He was knotting!

“Mhac na galla (“Son of a bitch”),” he said with clenched teeth in his native Gaelic tongue.

The bulb of his cock was swelled to the max, and his shaft doubled in width. This was only supposed to happen when an alpha followed their primal instincts to impregnate an omega. The engorged size was meant to lock in semen at the entrance of an omega’s uterus, increasing the chances of fertilization. Knotting was uncommon. When it did, it was during rut season. An alpha had to be deeply connected to their partner for it to occur, to be sure they wanted to create another life with the highest chances of that happening. 

But my season is over! I’m not even in a rut now! Why am I knotting for no fucking good reason? I’m not a hormonal teenager!

There had only been a handful of times he’d knotted, but never tied to nothing. It was excruciating for a knot not to be attached to a womb. 

He hobbled to the bed and buried his head in a pillow, thinking about other things to make it go down. Anything but Teru, who had unknowingly begun to court him, a sort of “mating ritual” made between omegas and alphas. It was a way to show off to each other, whether it was through scent, possessions, status, or whatever it took to get their attention. If the receiving party rejected the advancements, it hurt the pursuing one’s self-esteem.

And he did a great fucking job at rejecting me in the end. I responded to the courtship like a fool. But, he said to stop. Why couldn’t I control my pheromones? It’s impossible but…could I be having an out-of-season rut?

The time of the year for an alpha’s rut was called a “season.” A “cycle” referred the time for an omega’s heat. It was not a year-round period, but rather within specific months—spring/summer, summer/fall, fall/winter, and winter/spring. A rut or heat session occurred once a month for 2-3 days each, sometimes more if there is no partner to help. And being dominant, it was common to last for a week.

For Kieran, his season took place in the spring and summer. With summer over, he shouldn’t be expecting his rut until next year.

Damn it!

After fifteen minutes, the swelling decreased, but his balls were heavy, ready to procreate.

First, vampire venom and now spontaneous knotting? I’m in trouble. Deep, deep trouble.

It wasn’t normal. Not being able to drink blood without puking already stung his pride. Being called a bloodsucker by Teru bruised him a little.

Whatever was happening to his lower half was a huge blow to him. His perfect mask snapped in the center. If this continued, how long before he couldn’t hide his damaged side any longer? Kieran had worked too hard to create this concealment while he was being abused by Van Helsing. It was his coping mechanism for his Pride identity not to rip out every throat in sight.

If ever lost control of Pride again…

No one can see me like this.

No one.