Chapter 35

Olivia’s POV

I froze, not wanting to answer that question. The very last thing that I wanted to admit to my werewolf kindred, so soon after being accepted by them again, was that I had a blood bond with my vampire master. Especially if it was making me feel less like a werewolf.

Being a werewolf was one of the few things that connected me with the other slaves and with my family back home, even across this distance and the other changes in our lives. To lose that connection now felt unbearable.

Worse than losing the connection with my werewolf kin was feeling more and more like a vampire.

They were a hated enemy, despised and disgusting monsters. They’d murdered my father and so many others in cold blood, and treated my entire species like they were the lowest of the low, barely even people.

What had Damien called us? Animals. Dogs.

To be associated with them would be the worst kind of joke. I’d become the very thing that I hated most in this world.

Right now, there were only a few who knew what Damien had done to me, that we were now bound with some kind of blood bond. It was taboo, even among vampires.

The werewolves would be disgusted.

Dee was already leaning away from me now, her hand releasing my own, putting new space between us like I was contagious.

I had just fixed these connections. I couldn’t bear to see them broken again, all because of something that a vampire did to me while I had been unconscious.

“Of course not,” I told her, lying through my teeth. Damien could detect my lies, but I hoped Dee and the other werewolves couldn’t. “It must be the blood loss.”

Dee nodded, accepting that. Angela continued to stare at me for a moment longer. She knew me better than most others here, because of the close friendship I had developed with her brother. If anyone could see through my lies, who was also present in this room and at this table, it would be her.

Fortunately, even if she was able to tell, she didn’t call me out. Instead, she said, “Take care of yourself, Olivia. Drink as much water as you can. Maybe ask your Duke if he can give you vitamins. Your color really doesn’t look good. Whatever he’s doing, if he keeps it up, might actually kill you.”

“I understand,” I said, slightly relieved.

It must have shown on my face because Angela was suddenly very annoyed. “I mean it, Olivia. My brother died for you. The least you can do for him is make sure to stay alive.”

I could see now that my relief had been misinterpreted for flippancy, and that was very unfair and unkind of me. I didn’t mean for things to come off that way, and without giving her the explicit reason for my relief, I would just come off cold.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “Of course you are right.”

“Good,” she said, seeming to accept that. The conversation turned then, and we talked about other things for a while.

I stayed quiet for a while, nervously holding onto my secrets, worried about what the changes in me could mean moving forward.

What were the circumstances of the blood bond, especially with a vampire as ancient and powerful as Damien?

Would I eventually become a vampire? Would I lose myself and my werewolf heritage?

I didn’t know, but here, I was in the center of vampire life. Couldn’t I search here and find answers?

Maybe it was past time for me to try to find them.

Sophia’s POV

Once the werewolf slaves returned to work, I walked into the kitchen. It was the end of the week, so it was time to receive my cut of the profits from our food scheme.

These slaves didn’t need full portions, so under my direction, the guards I’d assigned would take some of the food back to the werewolf towns and resell it to the hungry people there. We’d been slowly cutting down the portions for months.

At first, the werewolves didn’t notice. We just skimmed off a small percentage each time. Lately, we’ve got it down to a 20%, 80% split, with 20% of the portions going to the slaves, and the 80% being resold for profit.

All of this was done in secret, without the oversight of the vampire leadership. I was sure they wouldn’t have disapproved if they were to discover what we were doing, other than to be annoyed they were excluded from the profits.

I could deal with that issue if and when it actually became a problem.

For now, I just wanted the money.

I searched for the guard that usually had my money. He looked small in the corner of the room, almost like he was trying to sink into himself.

I walked toward him and extended my hand. The amount of coin he placed in my palm was a paltry sum, not nearly as much as had been given the past several weeks.

“Where’s the rest?” I asked.

“There’s been a problem,” he said.

My frown deepened. Our little operation had been a well-oiled machine for months. We had contingencies on top of contingencies. There was nothing we hadn’t prepared for. What could have possibly gone wrong?

“What sort of problem?” I asked, my annoyance clear. If these guards were thinking of stealing from me, I would kill them and deposit their bodies on the other side of the castle wall, for the starving, rejected vampires to pick at their bones.

“The past few days, we haven’t been able to ration the usual portions,” he said. “In fact, we had to give the slaves the entire amount.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but it’s true.”

“Who the hell gave you authority to do that? We have a system here. We cannot delineate from the plans.”

“Something happened,” he said. “A werewolf bitch. She made demands…”

My irritation spiked through the ceiling. “Since when do vampires even listen to the demands of these animals, let alone obey them!”

“I didn’t have any choice.”

“Everyone always has a choice,” I told him. “But you better explain before I rip your head off right now.”

“It’s the Vampire Duke’s pet,” he said. “She made the demands. We all know what Duke Damien nearly did to Devon a few weeks ago, and all he did was question that blood pet.”

“The pet made the demands?”

“Yes.”

“And out of your fear for Duke Damien, you gave into them?” I wanted to be clear about what happened, which meant I needed to go slowly and repeat things. Else, I was going to lose my temper.

“Yes, ma’am.” The vampire hung his head, but with the shame in his posture I could see the barely concealed anger.

A very similar anger rose within me. That bitch Olivia was using her position as Duke Damien’s pet to act well above her station.

She clearly didn’t see how generous we had been with the slaves. They didn’t even deserve the 20% portions we were giving them.

Those animals were so far belong vampires, they should be living on slop and garbage. They didn’t deserve to eat real food.

For this pet to interfere in that…

Someone needed to teach this girl a lesson.