Lucius

21

Lucius stands close to Faline. He hates being here. If it weren't a direct order by the council then he wouldn't be. Already more than a few vampire bitches had tried to steal him away from Faline. He doesn't like the look in her eyes. Faline has just about had enough of the female vampires. If he had in any way shown anything other than disdain at their being near them and touching him there would be some dead vampires.

If there wasn't enough tension to destroy both races in this room tonight he might just allow Faline to do just that.

"Love, you need to calm down." Lucius whispers in her ear softly then nibbles a bit on her ear.

Faline melts into Lucius's hold. 

"They are ignoring my mark." It isn't Faline's voice that is coming out now, it's Star's and Lucius knows that things need to calm down or there will be deaths.

"Perhaps your mark is too low down and covered by my clothes. Why don't you mark me again where it will be fully visible to all?" Lucius says, he is amused but he won't show it. Right now things can go sideways real fast and he doesn't want to be the one to cause that. Nor does he want Faline blamed for it happening either.

"I think I will," Star purrs.

Lucius angles his body so that she will easily be able to take his neck into her mouth. He closes his eyes for the brief pain then has to hold back the moan of pure pleasure as Faline marks him once more.

What neither of them realize is that the second mark is more than just her teeth. A tattoo like graphic forms on his neck. The teeth mark are the center of it, but the graphic encompasses the neck.

There are nearly silent gasps of wonder by those that notice the mark. There are no more attempts by females to detach Lucius from Faline. Any males had previously been warned off by Lucius's warning growl.

What no one else notices is a lone female vampire watching the whole thing. She angrily wipes her tears away. It's obvious that Lucius loves his mate. She can't and won't try to come between the two, although he should have been hers.

When she realized that Lucius was her mate she was both terrified and thrilled. Lucius is powerful both in the vampire world and the world of humans. She just wasn't sure how she'd ever get to be near him for him to find her.

"Are you alright, miss?" A males voice makes her turn all too quickly. She nearly runs into the male behind her.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." She tells the male then under her breath she says, "I accept your rejection." It is all she can do to hide her pain and sadness.

"They make a lovely couple. Faline is well matched with Lucius." The male says after allowing the female vampire some time to collect herself.

The female gives him a smile, not realizing how wavery it is. "You sound as if you know them both? I thought Lucius stayed away from supernaturals?"

"He does, but he hires freelance wolves as security and other supernaturals at times. But I know him because he was Faline's guardian and he brought her to our pack to be trained. Not that she needed much training. By the time he first brought her she'd been training under him for a year. She was better than the rest of us that had been training for more than a year as wolves."

"So you're from her pack?"

"Her adopted pack. Her pack was attacked and killed three years before we met her. She had escaped from the rogues that had enslaved her and found Lucius. Lucius took her in and became her guardian."

"You sound ambivalent about Faline. Why is that?"

The male gives the female vampire a wry smile, "I am the beta's son and thought I was something hot. When she received her wolf I realized that she was my mate. Faline is better in human form than any of us in the pack, the idea that she now has a wolf form and would be better was more than I could handle. 

"I was foolish and rejected her because of my jealousy of her." Quinlin snorts in self derision. "Not that I think for even a second that she would have accepted me anyway. Lady Faline, doesn't trust anyone. With the exception of Lucius. None of us would ever have won her acceptance even if her wolf hadn't chosen Lucius."

The female vampire stares in shock at the male wolf, "The wolf chose her mate?"

"It's rare, but does occasionally happen. In this case, her wolf had chosen Lucius years earlier and had kept herself from presenting when she should have."

The female vampire is hooked on the story, "Why would she do that? Doesn't it hurt the wolf to hold back like that?"

"Yes, but according to her wolf, she didn't want Lucius hurt. He was having a hard time with Faline growing up. She wanted to give them that time, then she had no choice and had to present. After that it was just a matter of time and they were formally mated."

Quinlin looks at the vampiress sharply, "But that's not why you were crying while watching them."

"He was my mate, a few days ago I felt his rejection. I came tonight hoping to get him to change his mind and accept me, but after watching them together I know he was right to reject me."

"I'm sorry for you, Miss?" Quinlin waits for her to respond.

"Oh, sorry, my name is Sharee Nastergal." Sharee offers her hand to the young wolf.

"I am Quinlin Masters, son of the beta of Faline's adopted pack." Quinlin takes Sharee's hand and kisses it instead of shaking it. Sharee blushes a light pink. She doesn't know why, other males have done the same thing before.

"Sharee, would you do me the honor of this dance?"

There were a few other dancers, but mostly it was divided between the races. Vampires dancing with vampires and wolves with wolves. They would be one of the only vampire wolf pairings and the only one where the vampire is female and the wolf male.

Again Sharee blushes a light pink. "I would love to, Quinlin." Quinlin sweeps her into the dance without another word.