Alpha’s Blood: A Vampire Shifter Romance (Midnight Doms)
Alpha’s Blood: Chapter 4

Selene

A band of sunlight falls across my face. I kick my legs, frantically freeing myself from the sheets. I’m in a strange room, in a strange bed. I sit up and the pieces fall together: the auction. The ten million dollar bid. The King of the Vampires bought me and now I’m in his home.

Scariest of all: I slept like a baby. No dreams, no nightmares. No waking to check for monsters in my room. I haven’t slept this well since I was eleven, freshly orphaned. That’s when I learned the monsters were real.

I had the best sleep of my life in my vampire enemy’s home. Worse, I fell asleep in his arms. Around Lucius, my body loses all good sense.

I roll my heavy limbs out of bed and do a few stretches before prowling around the luxurious bedroom.

Door locked. Of course. I’m a captive here. Lucius is smart enough to know ten million dollars doesn’t make me a willing possession.

I head to the bathroom to do my business. The room is sunny thanks to a row of high windows near the ceiling. I could break out if I wanted to, but my mission is far from complete.

Once you are inside his house, you must be doubly vigilant, Xavier told me. Vampires do not let their guard down when they bring someone close to their lair. Frangelico’s place of rest will be well protected.

Then how will I get close enough to kill him? I asked Xavier. Before he answered, he smiled so wide his fangs flashed at me.

I splash water on my face and drink from the tap. Today I rest, explore and prepare myself as best I can. Tonight the real work begins.

For now I’m alone. Vampires sleep during the day. Lucius might send a servant to care for me, but until then, I’ll conserve my strength the best way I know how.

Going to all fours, I stretch and shift into my wolf. Bright smells burst in my brain, my wolf nose telling me what scents make up this vampire bouquet. Lucius has his house cleaned regularly. The perfumed cleaner his housekeeper uses makes me sneeze. Other than someone entering to clean, this room has been unused for a long time, but still holds the scent of vampire.

I sniff around the room’s perimeter. By the time I make it to the door, voices outside make me retreat to the foot of the bed. I fluff my fur and display my teeth to look as big and mean as possible. As werewolves go, I’m of average size, bigger than a normal wolf. In human form I’m deadly to vampires, but my wolf is better suited to fight out of a tight space.

Three people are standing in the hall, arguing. A hand grabs the door handle, then undoes the lock.

He spots me right away and grins. “Well, hello, wee wolfie.”

Teeth bared, I stand my ground. Two more heads pop around the door to peer at me. One is wearing a fedora over grey hair, the other is taller with giant prescription glasses. They smell like shifters, but I can’t place their animals. A growl escapes my throat and the dark haired one raises his hands like I’ve drawn a gun.

“Easy, we’re just here to check on ya. Don’t bite the messenger.” His Irish brogue tickles my ears. “We’re here to check on ya.”

Someone must have elbowed him in the side because he grimaces and starts struggling. “Lay off.”

“Tell her Frangelico sent us–” the tall one with big glasses murmurs.

“I’m tryin’!”

“Well, do it before she eats us–”

The three crash to the ground, pushing at each other and cursing. Their scent is a confusing tangle of werewolf, feathers, and Irish whiskey. My nose twitches but I can’t help grinning at their antics. The dark haired one pushes up first, struggling to his knees while his buddies sprawl around him. The gawky one’s glasses hang from one ear and the grey-haired one has lost his fedora.

“I’m Declan,” the Irish one announces. “Frangelico ordered us to check on ya. Give ya food and water, that sorta thing.” He looks around and grabs the fedora right before the grey-haired guy can get it. “The rest of these ijits can introduce themselves. I’m the handsome one.”

“I’m Parker,” the grey haired guy rises and dusts himself off. He snatches the hat back and hands it to the tall one.

“L-l-laurie,” stammers the tall guy who smells like feathers.

“I’ve never been in a vampire’s house before,” Declan remarks. “Do ya think we should explore?”

“No!” both Parker and Laurie yell.

“Jay-sus, no need to shout. I’m not deaf, ya know.” Declan sticks a finger in his ear and twists it around. “What say ya, wolfie? Ready to get some fresh air?”

I assess them a second. Three shifters, unknown animals. Close friends, somehow working for Frangelico. Threat level: zero.

I bark once. When they head out of the room, I follow.

For never being in Frangelico’s house before, they seem to know their way to the kitchen. The three knot together for a whispered conference.

“Is she staying in wolf form? Should we just go with it?”

“I guess…Just act natural.”

Parker pours fruit out of a bowl and fills it with water. He sets in down for me while Declan opens the fridge.

“What do you want? Steak?” The Irishman holds up one finger, “or lasagna?” he holds up a second. I bark once.

“Good choice.” He lays out my steak on a platter, sets it on the floor and backs away. The three lean on the counter at the far end of the kitchen while I rip into my breakfast.

They talk amongst themselves, slowly growing bolder. How did these guys end up working for the Vampire King? They’re wondering the same thing about me.

After breakfast, they let me outside, and I roam around do my business on the base of a saguaro cactus. I sniff around a palo verde tree. I’m careful to stay away from the jumping cactus.

I spend the rest of the morning lazing on the warm patio, napping and gnawing on the steak bone that one of my sitters left out for me. I act like a normal canine pet, all the while clocking the guards patrol times, and the location of the security cameras set around the estate.

Around noon, someone comes to the front door. Declan and Parker’s surprised voices echo through the house. They accept the packages, and carry them–box after box full of shopping bags–down the hall towards my room.

Declan pops out to check on me a few minutes later. “Frangelico, uh, ordered you some things. Must’ve had three personal shoppers working round the clock for ya. Clothes, make up and, er…” He flushes and I have no trouble guessing that a good portion of the bags came from a high end lingerie company. “We, um, left them in your room. We’ll let you unpack them.”

I nod and go back to worrying my bone.

The Irish wolf squats down a few feet away.

“Frangelico wants us to replace out what happened your pack. Do ya have any clues ya can give us, lass? Any leads?”

What? Why would Frangelico order these guys to replace my pack? What is he trying to prove?

He said he’d check my story. What will he do when he replaces out who I am? That I’m the only wolf who got away?

Declan scratches his head, as if wondering how I’m going to communicate to him in wolf form. There’s no way I’m telling him anything so I stare at him until he looks away.

“Right,” he says, and goes back inside.

I doze for a few hours before they call me inside for dinner. Salmon this time.

“Here wolfie, wolfie, wolfie,” Parker pours a bottle of fancy Fiji water into my clean bowl. Nothing but the best for the vampire king’s pet.

At 3:00 p.m, the trio tries to lure me to my room with dog treats. I play along and let them lock me back in my room. They didn’t ask to be my keepers. My problem isn’t with them. I’ve got a few hours left before I face Frangelico again, and I need my wits sharp as a wooden stake. As the light in the bedroom thickens and turns amber, I change into human form and curl up in the bed to sleep.

I wake at sunset. Somehow I know. I take a shower, dry my hair. Use the primping tools. I’m not the best at doing my hair but I manage to tame it. Frangelico seems to prefer a natural look, so other than chapstick, I leave off the makeup. I sift through several hanging dresses and about thirty shopping bags, finally selecting a flirty little romper with a V neck of scalloped lace. No shoes, no bra, just a tiny thong. White. I’m still a virgin, after all, and I’m not going to let the vampire forget.

Finally, I stand in front of the door, combing my fingers through my hair so it falls in sexy waves around my shoulders. I pinch my cheeks and bite my lips, but thinking about what Lucius might do to me tonight has my color high.

My plan is simple. I’m in Lucius’ house, but I haven’t yet penetrated his defenses. I’ll never get a chance to strike if he doesn’t let me in. I have to earn his trust, and that means using all the weapons at my disposal. My beauty, my body, my submission.

I have to seduce him.

About an hour after sunset, my door clicks. I wait, but no one enters. When I check the door, I replace it’s been unlocked remotely. I open it wide and consider the dark hallway.

Somehow, I know he’s waiting for me. I bet anything there’s a camera on my door, not to mention in my room.

Before I take a step, I remember what he said last night and sigh inwardly. This is a test. It’s a lot like living in Xavier’s military compound. Everything is a test and any gift comes with a high price. I promised Lucius my submission, and I’m going to give it to him. I’ll be his perfect little pet until the last, when I turn on him and shove my submission so far down his throat he chokes.

With that savage thought warming my insides, I drop to all fours and crawl.

Lucius

I hold my breath as Selene’s white blond head appears. I set aside my tablet with the feed from the security cameras seconds before she rounded the corner. She stood in the doorway of her room so long I was about to go and get her. Then, in a movement so graceful it squeezed my heart–and my cock–she stretched out on her hands and knees. Kneeling for me. Crawling for me. I’ve never been tempted to permanently collar a submissive, but this she-wolf is a perfect mix of defiance and willingness to please. It’s easy to imagine long nights together, her stretched out before me, quivering flesh caressed by firelight, waiting for my bite. She’d be mine. All mine.

As she crawls closer, hips swaying, her eyes flash up at me. I meet her gaze with brow raised, and she ducks her head, then frowns at her natural reaction to my dominance. For all her insistence that she’s been trained by vampires, she’s not used to being the least dominant predator in the room.

She’s gnawing her lip. I’ll have to put a stop to that particular habit. The only one who gets to bite her is me.

I beckon her closer. She crawls well, slinking across the floor like a cat but her back should arch more to best display her face and ass. I’ll have her practice later, as part of her training. It’ll be a pleasure to teach her.

She settles in front of me, between my feet, her blonde head bowed, hands upturned on her bare thighs. The romper she chose slouches over her bare breasts. When I lean forward, I can see all the way down to her bare nipples.

“Excellent, pet.” I settle my hand around her neck, enjoying her quiver, and position her on all fours in front of me. I run a hand down her spine, pressing on her lower back until her ass cants upward. “Look at me,” I murmur.

She blinks at me. Her face is free of makeup and exquisite. The sharp little nose, the bow mouth, the dark lashes sweeping over flushed cheeks. She rocks slightly on her knees, and I get a whiff of her upturned cunt.

“Enjoying this?” I ask, and she flushes further. How delightful.

“You’re doing so well. Tell me, what made you crawl for me?”

She licks her lips before answering. “I thought…you wanted..”

“I did, pet. I did, and you did it beautifully. But I want to know why you, Selene, why you would choose to crawl for me.”

“I lost the bet.”

“Did you?”

She turns her head so her hair veils her face. I could order her to look at me, but I’ll give her the illusion of privacy. “I guess…I wanted to please you.”

Truth. I straighten, triumphant. Her scent confirms her desire.

“Poor, sweet pet. I’ve neglected you all day. Come.” I hold open my arms. Biting her lip, she crawls up onto my lap. I put two fingers against her mouth.

“Did you enjoy your day?”

She nods and I take my fingers away. “Speak.”

“Who were the shifters who visited today?

Did you like them, pet? I thought they would provide much needed entertainment.”

“They said they were looking into my pack.”

“Yes. I want to replace them.”

“Why?”

“To corroborate your story, of course.” She stiffens in my arms. Aha. “Do you not want

me to replace them?”

“I…it’s been a long time.”

“You could return to them, if you wish.”

She blinks at me. “What?”

“After this…experience. Once we’ve had our fun. Did you think I’d keep you forever?” I

prod her, enjoying her wide-eyed expression.

“You’d let me go?”

“Why not? You can stay if you wish.” I stroke her rigid back. “There will always be a

place for you in my club. I’ll take care of you. Or if you want to return to your family, you can.”

Her head bows and her hair veils her face. “My family is dead.”

I make a fist behind her back. I’d forgotten. “My apologies,” I say, and mean it. She

peeps at me from behind the shimmering fall of her hair. “I meant I will return you to your kind,

if you wish it.”

She’s biting her lip again, looking past my French double doors, worry knotted on her

forehead.

“Relax, pet. I only meant to give you a gift.”

“A gift,” she echoes.

“A kindness. After our time together, I will not keep you caged. Wild animals are meant

to run free.” I brush the hair back from her tense face. “What are you thinking, pet?”

“I don’t know what to think. I never thought you’d set me free.”

I set my fingers around her neck, collaring her. “Not yet, pet. First, you earn it.”

She licks her lips, visibly reigning in her focus. “What do you want me to do?”

“Come,” I rise with her in my arms. “I’ll show you.”

I head to the door with Selene stiff in my arms. She always seems uncertain of what to do when I carry her, and I enjoy putting her off balance.

The guards see me coming and pull open the doors. “Mr. Frangelico,” they greet me and usher me to the limo. I set Selene on the floor of the limo and take my seat. She looks a little dazed, so I snap my fingers and point to a place in front of my seat. She scoots closer and settles into a submissive’s pose gracefully. I sift my fingers through her hair and pull her head to my knee.

“Relax, pet,” I order. She blows out a breath hard enough to stir her hair, but the tension in her shoulders eases.

The limo rolls down the street, heading for my business holdings. I had Tucson on my radar for years before I moved in. My stay in Hollywood left me tired and jaded, even for a two thousand-year-old vampire. The production company I founded still pours money into my coffers, but when the time came to fake my death and move on, I was more than happy to replace a new town to haunt. LA, for all it’s glamour, feels old. A shrine where virgins sacrifice themselves for fame.

We pass a movie theater plastered with posters of the latest blockbuster. The starring actress came to stardom through my agency. She was one of my replaces. She offered to fuck me for a role, but by I was tired of it all. Tired of the fake tans, the airbrushed photos. The wheeling and dealing and greed that surpasses everything, even desire for human contact. When sex is a tool, a weapon to win a final role, life becomes more hollow than even a jaded vampire can bear. I came to Tucson–retreated is more like it–to replace something real. Two bodies, colliding in the night. Untempered, uncalculated passion.

It’s no use. People look at me and they see my role. Vampire King. Ancient ruler. Even my sired eventually turn on me, try to take my power. Mine is the first face they see when they rise as vampires, and mine is the last. They attack and I kill them. One by one, the stars go out and I am left alone, in the dark.

“Sir?” A soft voice at my knee. “Are you all right?”

I’m sighing like a Victorian fop. The men of that era were useless, though a few wrote half decent poetry.

“I’m fine, pet. Just a little…stressed.”

Selene blinks up at me, dark lashes framing ocean grey eyes. She isn’t afraid of me, not really. Her wolf seems to accept me. It surged to the fore during the day, when I couldn’t protect her.

Her hair washes over my leg and I finger the silky strands. “Selene,” I say out loud, and lift a lock of hair to my lips. She flushes like I’ve kissed a very personal part of her–which I intend to do. Soon. “Goddess of the moon. Fitting name for a werewolf.”

She sniffs. “That’s a myth. We don’t have to shift with the moon.”

“There are many false myths about us. Both our kinds. For one thing, I enjoy garlic.”

She smiles at that. “The garlic stuffed olives tipped me off. You’re Italian, right?”

I raise my brow at her direct question.

“Sorry,” she looks away.

“No, you’re not,” I chide, tugging her hair. She’s not sorry at all.

“Is it rude to ask questions about a vampire’s past?”

“Not rude. Impertinent. You’re lucky I enjoy it. But be careful, pet. Push too far, and I’ll gag that sweet mouth.” Her eyelashes flutter and I sit back. “I spent some centuries in Italy, yes. Turf wars between the city states. Whoring and dining with the Medicis. It grew tiresome, and the church’s increased focus on replaceing and burning out any evil or witches became uncomfortable. I escaped to the New World, with plenty of wilderness and cover for monsters who hunt at night.”

“You think you’re a monster?” she whispers to the carpet.

“I know I am. A creature of hunger and darkness. The older I get, the more my perversions.”

Her throat convulses. “You hurt people.”

“I do,” I drawl, deepening my voice. “I enjoy it.” I tug her head back, exposing her neck. “So do you.”

Her head jerks and I tighten my grip.

“You deny it?”

“I don’t like pain.”

“Not just pain.” I run a finger from the jaw to the soft column of her throat, enjoying her struggle to keep from lashing out. “Pain, pleasure depends on the way the body registers it. Two sides of the same coin. When I whip a sub,” a tremor goes through her at the word whip, “I balance them on a knife’s edge. Suspended over two chasms. One way–immense pain. The other–boundless pleasure.” I hold out my hand and rock it back and forth as she stares. “They never know which way they’ll fall.”

“So that’s it. You like being in control.”

“I don’t like it, pet.” I wind her hair around my fist until she’s caught, throat taut, lips quivering, on a white golden leash. “I live for it.”

The limo coasts to a halt. I hold her in place one, two, three long moments before releasing her. “Shall we?”

I help her out of the limo and usher her to the club door. The door’s unlocked but no one’s inside, as I instructed. Selene clings to my arm as we walk through the murky coat check area and descend the stairs into the gloom.

“What is this place?” she asks, voice hushed.

In answer, I press a hidden panel and flick on the first set of lights. The first part of the room is dedicated to lounging. A backlit bar faces an assortment of low tables and plush armchairs. I wait for Selene’s eyes to adjust and illuminate the second half of the dungeon. Spotlights appear around the vast room, shining on the heavy wooden furniture bolted to the floor. St. Andrew’s crosses, spanking benches, wooden horses, long tables topped with black leather–a well appointed BDSM dungeon. A dom’s paradise. A submissive’s hell and heaven all in one.

I flip the final switch and entire wall lights up. Selene gasps at the display of hanging floggers, Shibari rope, whips, paddles and canes.

Her shock is refreshing. Was I ever so innocent? Her head swivels, her wide eyes lit up, taking everything in. Her nipples are sharp points. Not so innocent. At least some part of her is fascinated.

Excellent.

“Well, pet.” I touch her hair to awaken her. “What do you think?”

She blinks. Licks her lips. Says the last thing I’d expect: “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.”