Page 52 of In the Mouth of the Wolf

Marlowe’s departure from my servaglio had caused a deep wound. Not just to my ego, but also physically. Once a vampyr has chosen a Lunessa, a need for her love and devotion becomes like a drug. The strength of the servaglio depended entirely on the strength of the bond between the master vampyr and his Lunessa.

If she knew how much her rejection was killing me, she would come back. There was no way she could write off the years we’d been together for something as inconsequential as concubines, because Jen and Grace meant nothing to me. They were warm bodies meant to take care of my needs when my Lunessa was unavailable. I had originally chosen them due to their willingness to not only take a seat below Marlowe, but also their desire to worship her as much as I did.

If Jen and Grace didn’t please her, I’d get rid of them in a heartbeat.

Hell, for Marlowe’s love, I had decided I was willing to forgo a proper servaglio altogether.

But I had no chance of winning her back alone now that a pack of alpha shifters had set their sights on her. My blood curdled at the thought of them bonding with her already, filling her with their knots…

I needed help.

Vampyrs were normally solitary creatures. We didn’t form communities with each other like shifters. We had our servaglios, and then kept out of each other’s ways.

Unless one of us was wronged. A slight against one vampyr was a slight against us all.

I stopped in front of the large wooden doors, clasping my hands behind my back. I nodded a curt greeting to the vampyr guards, waiting for the summons.

Minutes ticked by, when a voice finally boomed. “Enter.”

The guards opened the doors and I walked into the dimly lit chambers, dropping to one knee and averting my gaze. “I, Michele Sanguinetti of the San Francisco order, give my thanks to the Vampyric Council for agreeing to hear my plea.”

“Rise,” sighed a bored vampyr. I stood again, my eyes scrolling along the curved table placed on a large dais. The five elders sat before me, shadows dancing across their pale faces from the dim candlelight that illuminated the room.

The high elder’s Lunessa approached me, a beautiful woman with dark, smooth skin and hair tightly curled in a halo around her cherubic face.

She held a chalice and knife, and I offered her a smile as I grabbed the blade, running it along my palm. I hissed at the sting, forcing my hand into a fist so she could collect the drops of my blood in the cup. Once she determined I had given enough, she took the knife back and offered the chalice to the elder at the far right, who took a sip and passed it down.

I took out the handkerchief I had prepared, wrapping it around the cut while the elders tasted my intentions.

“Speak,” commanded the high elder, apparently satisfied with my offering.

I bowed my head in supplication. “It is with a heavy heart that I come to you today, seeking vampyric assistance to retrieve my Lunessa. She was taken three days ago, her love swayed against me by shifters who coveted her.”

“You mean she dumped you.”

I bristled at the accusation, keeping my head low so they wouldn’t see the grimace on my face. “As you know, grooming a Lunessa takes time. She hadn’t learned the ways of our people yet, and, in her shock, sought comfort from those who would do anything to hurt us in order to punish me.”

One of the elders tapped his chin in thought with a thin, bony finger. “I find it difficult to believe that a woman would prefer a shifter over a vampyr. Are you… insufficient? Lacking, in someway?”

I took a deep breath, ignoring the cruel snickers from the other elders. I had known this question was coming. “My Lunessa is also a shifter.”

A chorus of hisses erupted, and the high elder spat on the ground in disgust. “You dared contaminate our bloodline with a mutt, and now have the audacity to ask us to help you do so? Leave. This is over.”

They started to get up, but I blurted out, “Have you ever tasted an omega?”

“Omega?” One of the elders turned back towards me, raising an eyebrow. “Omegas are extinct. What are you talking about?”

From another pocket I took out a bag with the underwear she’d left before she’d run off. They were coated in her slick, the scent potent enough to fill the room with her pheromones.

The elders inhaled deeply when I opened it, their pupils dilating and teeth growing. “What is this magic?” one elder whispered, his hand reaching towards his groin.

I closed the bag, tucking it back into my pocket before the memory of our last meeting drove me to tears. “It’s not magic. Omegas are biologically made to draw lust from males. She is beautiful, her body taut yet yielding, and her libido matches my own. I made the mistake of adding to my servaglio before she was ready, but the true error was believing I should even have one. A vampyr needs several women to sate his desire, and an omega requires a pack of virile alpha males to do the same. Together, we only need each other. We are the perfect pairing.”

The high elder called to his Lunessa, requiring her to tend to the erection Marlowe’s scent had given him. She dipped below the table on her knees, and he sighed as she made quick work with her mouth.

“Be that as it may,” he grunted. “You would sully the heritage of your own sons with such a Lunessa.”

“Sullly, or improve?”

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