Taming A Predator

Chapter 36

Xander's POV:

Lily ushered me out of the kitchen after handing me the meal she prepared, keeping Doe back there for a few more minutes

I listened to her without whining too much, knowing that I was lucky to have been in her kitchen for as long as I was.

Setting the carbonara she'd made me down onto the bar, I quickly glanced back to the far corner of the room at the familiar scent.

Marcus still laid his head on the table back there, fast asleep. Though this time, an unfamiliar boy sat next to him, fixing what looked like a small blanket around Marcus' shoulders.

My brows furrowed with the knowledge that I hadn't seen this boy during the time after Khloe was drugged.

Or at all for that matter.

Only a certain few have access to this floor, so where did he come from?

He looked to have noticed me not long after the thought passed my mind, eyes rounding almost nervously.

Which could have been for a variety of reasons.

If I hadn't seen him before then he hasn't seen me either until now.

His face blanched, glancing back to Marcus before walking a little too quickly towards the exit.

"I haven't seen you around here before," I called out, effectively slowing him down to a stop.

Which worked in my plan of giving me time to fully memorize his scent just in case.

Having to forcefully ignore the scent of Marcus who just happened to be on everybody today.

"Right," the boy began, the calm in his voice not at all replication his stance earlier, "I actually work with your father, Prince Alexander."

Okay... He was talking the truth.

And that did make sense. I knew mom and dad had a few trusted human workers as most Lords and Ladies did.

"I just came down to check-in is all." He concluded with an innocent smile.

Hm. Alright, I guess.

I just gave him a nod, and he made haste out of the room.

Doe walked out of the kitchen just about a second later, hands reaching above her head in a stretch.

I scooched down the bar a seat to give her a place to sit before lifting my fork.

She took it with a quiet 'hup', having the side of her that Marcus' scent covered facing me.

The sudden presence of it again had me gripping hard around my fork, suppressing any feral outburst threatening to reappear.

I tried to pretend like it didn't bother me outwardly, and I'd like to think that I was doing a good job.

But on the inside, I was reeling. That constant battle now that a physical bond had been formed between me and her temporarily becoming more difficult to deal with.

I had my scent all over her. What makes him think he has the right to challenge that by-

My fang dug into the inside of my lip, snapping myself out of it.

Reminding myself that he's a human and that these kinds of vampiric matters mean absolutely nothing to him.

The thankfully rational part of me argued that he wasn't doing this sort of thing on purpose.

He couldn't sense me. In the same way that Doe was thankfully oblivious to how I'd been instinctively laying a claim on her.

Which half the time, I didn't even notice I was doing.