"What time is it?" Amaryllis asked through a yawn when they woke up from their nap a few hours later.

"Four o clock," Ulric answered, burying his head back into the side of Amaryllis's neck after he turned to look at the clock.

"Can we get up soon so I can go get some dinner?" She asked.

"Do you want me to make you something here?"

"I would say yes, but the kitchen is making pizza tonight and I love pizza so much," Amaryllis answered. "But you can make me dinner tomorrow."

Ulric patted her stomach in response before sliding out of the bed. He had a fine ass and Amaryllis loved it when she got a glimpse of it. She suddenly got the urge to bite down on his toosh. It just looked so... nice.

She laid in bed until Ulric walked out of the bathroom still in all of his naked glory. She couldn't help but stare at his body. He was beautiful, sculpted out of the finest stone. His body was chiseled to absolute perfection with tanned skin wrapped tightly around hard muscle.

"Hey, quit staring at me and get up, pervert."

"But I like staring."

"You're the one who wants to go to dinner." Ulric wrapped his arms around her and hauled her out of the bed. He set her down on her feet in the closet where they got dressed.

"Why did you pick Silas to be the one that lived?" She asked as she thought about these few hours.

"I told Lawrence to chain them to the wall in a random manner. The closet person to Reynold was Silas so that's how I made the decision," Ulric answered as he pulled a shirt over his stomach.

"So Silas only lives because of the law of chance," Amaryllis said, not as a question, more as a general statement. All those other men died because of chance as well. It was wild to hear that their livelihood had been determined by random chance.

"What's wrong?" He cupped her faced and traced his thumbs along her brow bones.

"Nothing's wrong exactly. I'm just thinking about how they all just died because of their placement relative to Reynold," she answered.

"Are you upset with me?"

"No," she said shaking her head. "I just don't like death."

"Just stop thinking about it sweet girl. Don't let it consume your thoughts. They don't deserve that presence in your life."

Amaryllis nodded her head and shook her shoulders out, trying to clear her mind from the events of the day before. "Okay, I'm ready to go to dinner."

She quickly got dressed and then they left Ulric's quarters to head down to the human dining room.

When they walked into the dining room, Amaryllis saw Travis and his mate Addison sitting at a table. She tugged on Ulric's shirt as he placed slices of pizza on to her plate. "Can we sit with Travis and his mate?"

Ulric turned and looked between her and Travis. "Ulric there's absolutely nothing for you to be jealous about. Are you aware that you took my virginity?" She asked in a whisper.

He looked at Travis once more, softly glaring at him before returning his gaze to Amaryllis. He grabbed her hand and led her toward the table Travis was seated at, but she tugged his arm and stopped his movement.

"Wait. I don't know what to say. Will his mate be okay with me sitting there? I'm awkward in these situations." A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips before he picked up his pace again.

"Hello, Addison," Ulric greeted as he sat down at the opposite side of the table from the couple. Addison bowed her head slightly before responding. "Good afternoon, my King." Travis bowed his head as well, a movement he seemed to have been made accustomed to.

"My mate, Amaryllis, and yours know each other from childhood. She wanted to speak with him for a short while during dinner." Amaryllis's eyes moved from Ulric's hand wrapped around her thigh to Travis. His eyes met hers and he gave her a small, genuine smile. She returned one as well.

"Yes, Travis did mention her. I think it would be nice for old friends to catch up." Addison spoke. "Especially since you are to be our Queen." She said directly to Amaryllis.

"How have you been, Amaryllis?" Travis asked with concern flooding his eyes after the recent events.

"I've been good, thanks to Ulric. I'm glad to be back here, that's for sure. What about you?"

"Great. Addie and I are trying to figure out which colors to paint our apartment."

"You're repainting?" she asked.

"We just moved out of my family's quarters in the castle into our own apartment here, so we wanted to redecorate," Addison said.

"Oh, that's nice! Do you like your new place?"

"Yeah, it's very spacious. We just didn't want to live with her parents anymore." Amaryllis nodded her head and took another bite of her pizza.

"Congratulations, by the way," Addison said. Amaryllis looked at her confused. "On your mate-ship," she clarified.

Amaryllis's face lit up and she looked down at her plate again. "Thanks," she said quietly. "She doesn't like being the focus of attention," Ulric said as he squeezed her thigh.

"It's kinda strange at first," Travis said. "When people mention that aspect of your relationship."

"I wasn't trying to be rude, I was just congratulating them," Addison defended herself.

"I'm not saying you're rude. I know that's a thing vampires do. But as a human, it's strange to get used to."

"I know. I remember it made you feel a little weird. I'm sorry," Addison said while she grabbed his hand on the table.

Ulric's fingers danced across the inside of her thigh and she leaned her head into his shoulder. He bent his neck and kissed the top of her head. "Finish eating, you're the one that wanted this."

"I know, I know. I'm eating. I was just taking a break."

"How do you like the castle... I'm sorry. I'm not sure what to address you as yet," Addison said.

"Oh, just Amaryllis. I don't want to be called anything fancy."

Addison's eyes flickered to Ulric to confirm she was allowed to address Amaryllis simply by her name. It kind of irked her. She was her own person and she was allowed to want to be called by whatever she wanted without confirmation of her mate. Though, she understood. She realized Addison didn't want to make a mistake in front of the King.

"But I do like the castle a lot. It's definitely an improvement from the house I used to live in. I especially like the gardens outside. It's very peaceful out there."

"Have you seen the aviary?" Travis asked.

"The aviary?"

"Yeah, it's out in the backfield by the Rossen Garden," he said.

"There's an aviary here and you never told me about it?" She asked Ulric.

Ulric shrugged. "I don't frequently visit the place and I don't take care of it. I never thought to mention it."

"I want to go," Amaryllis said.

"I can take you tomorrow, little mate."

Once Amaryllis was finished with her food, she said goodbye to Travis and Addison and walked back to their quarters. Ulric grabbed a blood bag from the fridge when they got back home.

"You can just ask me if you're hungry. You don't need to use the blood bags anymore," Amaryllis said as she stared at him gulping the contents of the bag.

He shook his head. "I'm not going to waste your perfectly good blood."

"Okay," she answered with a shrug.

"I spoke to Kayla," Ulric announced.

"About what?" She asked suspiciously.

"Her bullying you. Don't be surprised if she apologizes to you within the next few days," he said.

"Ulric what did you do?"

"I let her know of the horrible fate she would endure if she ever so much as thought about speaking of you poorly again."

"While I do appreciate it, it's unnecessary. That was months ago."

"I don't care Amaryllis. You are mine and I won't have anyone belittling what is mine," he said.

Amaryllis rolled her eyes, "I'm always yours," she said with a snarky attitude. "And what does that mean?" Ulric demanded.

"You're so overwhelmingly possessive! I know we are mates and the possessiveness comes with it. I understand, but sometimes it gets to be too much. I am my own person, you don't own me," she huffed.

"Oh, I don't?"

"No. Stop thinking that you do! Your answer to everything is because 'I'm yours' and it frustrates me."

Ulric deposited the empty blood bag in the trash can and walked toward Amaryllis. Her heart rate sped up some when he walked toward her, thinking about what he might do. But she was mildly disappointed or irritated, she couldn't decipher which, when he walked passed her and out the door.

She was stunned for a quick second, very confused by his actions. She spun around on her heel and ran toward the door, flinging it open. "Ulric?" She looked down the hall but he was gone already.

She huffed and walked back inside. How dare he just walk away from her like that, especially when she was in the middle of explaining her feelings. What a dick, she thought. The more she pondered on him walking out like that, the angrier she got. The one time she wasn't so submissive, he thinks it's acceptable to ignore her.

He didn't come back for the rest of the evening, and she was perfectly fine with it. If he wanted to ignore her and disregard her feelings, she could play the same game.

At night time, she got dressed in her own clothing as a way to demonstrate she was not pleased with him and not willing to be so compliant at the moment.

She turned the lights off and crawled in bed. Except, sleep did not come easily. She couldn't sleep without Ulric at her side. That made her even angrier than she already was because she was trying to prove a point that he didn't own her, yet she was showing signs of dependence on him.

She tossed and turned all night long, only sleeping in very small increments before waking up again. It was a terrible night's sleep. Amaryllis woke in the morning feeling restless and bitter.

Crawling out of bed, she went to the bathroom in attempts to make herself look better because she looked exhausted from the lack of sleep. Then she changed clothes and went to the living room. Once again, her anger with her self grew when she found herself hoping to see Ulric in the living room or kitchen. And then her anger grew more when she felt the disappointment of him not being home.

Around 9 am she ventured down to the dining room to get breakfast. She scowled when she saw she'd be sitting alone again and wished Ulric would appear to provide her with company.

"Amaryllis," she heard a few minutes after sitting down at a table. She looked up and saw Kayla standing in front of her with a mildly fearful expression, most likely due to whatever Ulric had said to her.

"I would like to apologize to you for the way I treated you before coming here. It was despicable and I'm truly sorry. I also regret the way I would glare at you when I saw you because I was jealous of your relationship with the King. I don't expect you to forgive me, but I wanted to let you know."

Amaryllis stared at her for a moment and collected her thoughts before speaking. She did something she'd never done before, she didn't accept the apology. "Well, I don't forgive you, Kayla. You can take your half-assed, forced apology, and leave. I know you don't mean it. I know Ulric threatened you into apologizing, so I won't accept it."

Kayla's mouth dropped open in shock at Amaryllis's response, but she didn't say anything back. She nodded her head and turned around, going back to her table. Amaryllis saw people staring at her in her peripheral vision, most likely after overhearing what she said to Kayla. She couldn't help but want to hide her face, she hated being the center of attention.

Throughout the remainder of the day, she was constantly reminded of her dependence on her mate by the hopeful wishes that he would show up to comfort her, or by randomly thinking of him, or the horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach that would not relent. It was anxiety. These thoughts only made her angrier though, because she didn't want to want him to rescue her from loneliness or to comfort her. She didn't want to want him.

During the night, she slept approximately an hour in total, and it was only in the early evening. She woke around 1 am and was awake to watch the stars disappear and the sun come up from the horizon. She rolled out of bed around 7 am and walked into the living room.

She hoped to find Ulric there and was disappointed when she didn't. She didn't get angry this time. She was tired of being angry. She wasn't an angry or resentful person and she didn't like the way being consumed by anger made her feel. So, she just let herself feel what she was going to feel with or without the anger- missing Ulric.

Amaryllis spent most of her day outside in the gardens and she even went to visit the aviary. It was a beautiful place, straight out of a children's fairytale. There were luscious plants of all colors, similar to the garden, but in the aviary, there were also many species of birds flying about. A few of the birds even landed in her shoulders and arms.

As she walked further through the aviary, she saw doors leading to another room. She walked through those doors and saw a little butterfly habitat. It was very similar to the house with the birds but with butterflies this time. The keeper working there - an older human woman - handed her a sponge soaked in sugar water.

Amaryllis sat on a stone ledge and held the sponge out. A few of the butterflies noticed and came forward to inspect. After the butterflies no longer paid her any attention, she thanked the keeper and left the aviary. She couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness as she walked out, Ulric was supposed to take her there. It was a magical experience and she would've liked to experience it with him.

She went back to the castle and went to her and Ulric's quarters when the sun started going down. Once again, Ulric was nowhere to be found. She sighed and sat down on the couch, picking up the book she left there a few days ago. She opened the book up to where she left off and started reading. Before she knew it, her eyes started fluttering shut, and eventually, she fell asleep from exhaustion.

She woke up early the next morning and even though she had gotten more sleep that night than the last two nights, she still didn't feel well-rested.

She went down to the dining room for breakfast and sat alone for the third time. It sucked. Not even because Ulric wasn't there, it was because she wanted friends. Cameron left her and all she had left were Thierry and Marley, but she didn't want to be the awkward third wheel. She missed her friends from back home.

After her breakfast, she didn't go back to her place like she'd done the two previous days. Instead, she went on a walk around the castle. When she approached Ulric's office, she planned on walking straight passed it, but she couldn't help but stop in front of the door.

She stood outside for a moment before pushing the door open. She doubted to find him inside, but she was shocked when she found him sitting at his desk, while a woman sat across from him. Ulric wasn't speaking when she opened the door, in fact, he looked at her expectantly like he knew she was outside the door or like he was waiting for her to finally come to him.

That spiked up some anger in her that she hadn't felt for two days. Then, she felt absolutely blinded by jealousy as she looked at the woman sitting in front of the desk. She was in a tight, red, leather dress. It was extremely short and her boobs were almost bursting from the neckline.

"Blair, if you could excuse us, we can meet again tomorrow to finalize."

"Of course, my King. Thank you for your time," she bowed her head and stood up. She walked passed Amaryllis and greeted her with a bow of her head as well. Amaryllis glared at her before the door shut completely and blocked her view.

"What can I help you with?" Ulric asked as he folded his hands in front of him.

"What can you help me with?"

Ulric said nothing but continued staring at her, waiting for a response. "Who was that?" Amaryllis demanded.

"A woman."

"No kidding, how do you know her?"

"She's a business owner in town."

Amaryllis tried to reign in her jealousy, but she couldn't help it. He'd left and ignored her for three days and the first time she sees him, there's a gorgeous woman in his office with her boobs practically in his face.

"What was she doing here?" She asked, trying to sound merely curious rather than absolutely crazy.

"We had a meeting," he answered, sounding cool as a cucumber. And it annoyed her. She knew what he was doing, not relaying information in order to frustrate her and punish her for their argument three days ago.

"Ulric! What was she doing here!" She said loudly. She didn't yell, but she wasn't quiet any longer.

Ulric stood up and pushed her body against the desk before she could even process it had happened. "Why are you raising your voice at me?" He demanded.

"Because you're making me very angry Ulric! You've ignored me for three days and the first time I see you, another woman's chest is in your face!"

"So you're jealous?" Ulric asked. She could hear the teasing tone in his voice.

"Yes. I am. I'm fucking jealous and you know what else, I want you so badly! I haven't had any contact with you for three days and now that you're touching me, all I can think about is your cock inside of me!"

"Do you know why you feel so jealous?"

"Because of that woman!" She exclaimed.

"No, because I am yours," he growled right before he ripped off the pants she was wearing. He pushed his dress pants down and let his cock spring free from his boxer briefs. He lifted Amaryllis up so she was sitting on top of the desk. Then he spread her legs open and positioned himself at her entrance.

Her nails sunk into his back and she released a cry of absolute bliss when he rammed himself inside of her with no warning. His thrusts were not gentle or loving like they had been before, they were wild and full of emotion. She'd heard of the term "makeup sex" before but never really knew what it meant. She assumed this was it.

He thrust into her with no relent, very different from the first time they were intimate. The first time, he made love to her. He was gentle and loving, but this time, he was completely and violently fucking her.

She felt herself approaching release, and she gripped his hair harder to ground herself to something as the bliss started taking over.

"Who do you belong to?" Ulric grunted above her head. She didn't answer but whined when his movements slowed.

"Who do you belong to, Amaryllis?" He demanded once more.

"You! I belong to you," she cried. He slammed into her once more and her climax hit. She released all over him. Ulric reached out and extended his claws, ripping her shirt off. After two more thrusts, Ulric pulled out and came all over her now naked chest and abdomen.

Ulric moved his hand from the desk to her back to support her when he noticed she was struggling to keep herself up. She looked exhausted, he thought to himself. She leaned into his chest and rested her head on him.

"Why did you leave?" She asked, evident vulnerability in her voice. He fucked the anger right out of her.