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Andrew nodded, but before he could explain, the door right above  James’s head opened as Vlad stepped outside into the cool night air.

James quietly disappeared back into the shrubs, not so much as  disturbing any of the leaves as he did so.

The pack was going to watch and see. Were they also going to  follow? Andrew no longer felt a connection with James, so he didn’t  ask. Either the other alpha was standing too far away for that, or he  put together that Andrew’s loyalties were to someone else now, and  the connection was gone, probably for good.

I’m sorry
, he thought.

The two guards rushed to their stations. Stelig opened the door on  the other side of the Hummer for his master while Dominic got  behind the wheel.

Vlad nodded to Stelig for the assistance and let himself inside. He gave Andrew a nervous kind of smile, and Andrew returned it by climbing into his lap and planting a kiss full on his mouth.

Vlad made a sort of shocked sound, but Andrew used that to his

advantage, sliding his tongue inside, finding Vlad’s tongue, and  working it until it relaxed and stroked back.

Though he was no longer connected with his alpha, he knew they  were still watching him. His window was still down, and they would  be able to perfectly see Andrew’s actions, as well as the way Vlad ran  his hands up and down Andrew’s solid arms.

This wasn’t any kind of declaration that Vlad was a mate, but it

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would be enough for them to know that Andrew really was here of his  own choosing, and that he’d taken this vampire as a lover.

He just hoped he wasn’t leaving them with a sour taste in their  mouths for this.

When the Hummer thrummed to life beneath their thighs and the windows rolled up electronically from somewhere in the front,  Andrew couldn’t help the small feeling of sadness that washed over him as he was taken away from his pack.

One look into the red eyes of his lover made that sadness all the more real as an anxious happiness also came over him. He was leaving his pack, but he was taking a chance on his mate. For now that would have to be enough.

* * * *

Andrew couldn’t believe the size of the house. Cabin, yeah right, this place was practically a castle!

They drove an hour out of Brampton before making a turn off the highway and finally stopping here. It looked like it could’ve been the  Windsor Castle’s double. The windows were open. Now that it was night, it was safe for vampires to let in the cool air, and golden lights flickered from nearly every room, lighting up the windows and climbing vines.

Somewhere Andrew could smell the scent of pipe water, and he heard it rushing and splashing. There was probably a big stone water statue in the back somewhere.

“You sure your family just rented this place?” Andrew asked. He  head a
 
tsking
 
sound come from one of the front seats at his lack of  tact, but Vlad simply smiled.

“My family did not rent it, no, but my brother King Markus did,  and before that, my father. This has always been a sort of second  family home to us, however, especially when we were all very small.  The owners have always refused to sell it, but every August and

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September my father has always managed to convince them to vacate for us.”

Vlad said that like he didn’t realize his old man might very well have threatened the humans if they hadn’t left. Then again, maybe the former vampire king hadn’t. After all, if threats were required, Vlad’s family would own this property right now instead of just renting it out for the last months of summer.

“And, uh, the humans have been doing this for how long?” It  occurred to Andrew that he didn’t know how old Vlad really was.

“The last thirty years or so,” Vlad answered as the Hummer’s tires  crunched along the gravel drive. “The bargain is that my brother shall  inherit it upon the death of the true owner. Apparently that human has  no family that he cherishes.”

Andrew wasn’t really paying any attention to that last bit. Thirty  years? Hadn’t Vlad said he’d been coming here when he was very  young? “How old are you?”

Vlad looked at him. “Thirty-five.”

Andrew was shocked. Thirty-five? That was five years older than  Andrew, but he’d expected the other man to be older. What he hadn’t  expected was for him to give such a small number. He’d been  thinking along the lines of three hundred, not thirty-five.

“I can see that my age shocks you,” said Vlad.

“Well, yeah. I mean, you’re just so
 
young
. For a vampire.”

“Everything is born at some time.”

He had Andrew there, but still, thirty-five…

The Hummer’s engine died out, and the two font doors opened.

“We have arrived, my lord,” Dominic said, as though Vlad  couldn’t have already seen that himself, even with such darkly tinted  windows.

Vlad nodded his head. No sarcastic comment. No nothing.

Andrew let himself out of the Hummer before Dominic could get to the door. “Thanks, I got it,” Andrew said.

Dominic nodded. “As you wish.”

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Real respectful, that one. Andrew knew better than to just like him or trust him over something as simple as that.

He looked back in the car and saw Vlad still sitting in his seat, staring straight ahead, waiting for Stelig to get to his door.

Stelig opened the door, bowed low, and Vlad finally stepped out.  The vampire brushed himself off as he walked around the vehicle.

“What was that?” Andrew asked.

Vlad blinked at him. “Pardon?”

Andrew nodded to the Hummer. “Why wait there so long when you can do it yourself?”

Vlad frowned at him, an embarrassed sort of thing, and Andrew knew he’d should’ve kept his mouth shut. “I was brought up as such,” was all he said.

“Okay, sorry,” Andrew said, raising his hands a little so that Vlad  could see he wasn’t playing around with him. “I was just curious, was  all.”

“Will you please address his highness with a little more respect  than that?” Stelig snapped. “It’s bad enough we have to be dragged  into this farce without listening to you speak to him like a commoner  like you.”

“Stelig!” Dominic hissed. “Watch your tongue.”

“Yes, Stelig.” Vlad’s eyes flashed a bright shade of red. “Watch  yourself.”

Stelig had the good sense to look away, a small flush coloring his  cheeks crimson, but that didn’t look like it was from embarrassment.

He looked like he was getting ready to pop with rage. “My apologies, my lord.”

Vlad nodded coldly, and then he turned to Andrew. “As much as it does not please me, there will be certain rules you will have to abide by if you wish to survive this situation. While we are in the presence of any of my brothers, the king especially, you must never speak unless spoken to, and you must also keep your sentences short. If anyone approaches you, simply back away and make the claim that

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you belong to me. That will not be good enough protection if any of  my brothers request your blood, but they will not because―”

“Because they won’t want to touch a lowly werewolf, I get it,”  Andrew said.

Though he wasn’t looking forward to the situation he was about to put himself in, he had to admit that he liked the look of worry on  Vlad’s face.

“If you wish to turn back, now would be the time. I will take back  your oath of loyalty. For whatever foolish reason it is that you do this,  you need not do it.”

Yes, I do, Andrew thought. “I said I’d go wherever you go, and I  meant it.”

He pointed with his hand to the almost palace and looked at the

guards. “Lead the way, guys.”

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Chapter Six

This werewolf was most assuredly mad, and he was likely going to die for it. The thought saddened Vlad. Perhaps it was because he never had any sort of love at all in his life, even the love that came from his parents was a cold sort of thing. Vlad had always known that his worth to them stemmed from what he would be should any of his brothers die or be assassinated.

Perhaps that was the reason for his sudden attachment to the wolf.  When a man was given such affection, open smiles, and deep lust for apparently no reason, how could Vlad resist?

He was going to go to hell for putting Andrew in such danger, that much was a certainty.

There were four more guards waiting at the doors. Their dress was more casual than that of the men walking along the grounds, searching for trespassers. Some were human, most were vampires.  That would change during the morning, when the majority of the human guards would patrol the grounds while the vampire staff stayed safely indoors.

Stelig and Dominic were expected to give their identification upon arrival, and they did, flashing their badges for scanning.

Andrew was stopped and inspected. When he growled at the vampires who came to close to him, Vlad was forced to step in.

“He is a new feeder. My personal feeder,” Vlad clarified. “He has not yet been given any identification.”

This was entirely his fault. He should have made arrangements, but he’d been too preoccupied with Andrew’s skills in bed. If the guards found him to be too suspicious, then they would be within

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their rights to turn him away, and Vlad, lesser prince that he was,  would be helpless to stop them.

One of the guards gruffed to the other then folded his arms. Vlad  felt very much like a child being chastised. “He’ll need identification  for the next time, my lord.”

Vlad breathed in a sigh of relief. “He will have it. Thank you.”

The doors were opened for them, and they entered the main hall.  Though the house was no longer Vlad’s to enjoy―it was not even yet  his brother’s―he still enjoyed the awe that was clearly on Andrew’s  face when they entered.

Vlad’s parents, and now Markus, had always decorated the  interior to their personal satisfaction during the months when they  were in possession of the grand house. Plush red carpeting and the  stone gargoyles crouching menacingly at every door were additions  that Vlad would not have added, but he had to admit that they did give  the house a sort of Gothic appearance that his family enjoyed.

It was ruined only slightly by the crystal chandelier shining above  their heads.

“Andrew, stay with me,” Vlad commanded then bit the inside of

his cheek.

How pathetic was he? A couple of nights of passion and he was already protective of the other man, fearful of what should happen should he be caught wondering around without any invitation or identification.

He was glad when Andrew did as he was told without comment.

“There is a chamber especially for the feeders,” Vlad explained.  “But I will not put you there. I will find you a suitable room close to my own.”

He would not risk putting Andrew in with one of the other feeders. They were too often used as whores as well, and Vlad did not want him with them. However, putting them in side by side bedchambers was simply asking to be noticed.

Not that Vlad wasn’t asking to be noticed right now. He’d chosen

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a werewolf lover in the hopes that when their tryst ended, they would  be forever rid of each other, and Vlad would never run the risk of

Boris overhearing any rumors that Vlad had been with someone else during their engagement.

Yet here they were. Andrew had been wrong earlier. Andrew wasn’t going to be the only one to die. They both were.

Andrew nodded, ignorant of Vlad’s paranoid thoughts. “Okay, great.”

“I shall arrange for you to have suitable clothing for your stay as well.” If Vlad pretended he was speaking to another guest, it made him a little less edgy.

“Great, these ones are starting to itch.”

Vlad had been forced to offer Andrew the only thing he had available in his closet that was not so high class that it would appear suspicious for a werewolf to be wearing it.

He wore an old golfing sweater and a pair of khakis that was much too small on Andrew’s large body.

Vlad cleared his throat and motioned to Dominic. “You know

where I would like him. Take him there, and then come for me

immediately.”

Dominic nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said, taking Andrew around the  arm. The werewolf jerked and growled a bit, but he allowed himself  to be touched as thus and led away.

Vlad watched them go, and when Andrew turned back to look,  Vlad was forced to walk away. His brothers and Boris would be  waiting in the sitting room. The fireplace would be blazing, as per  usual.