Kieran had returned from the tedious trip to Charleston, South Carolina. There was a meeting there with delegates from what used to be the European Union, and his damned stepfather of a king suddenly sprouted on him that he would represent Avania.

"At least make yourself useful," was what Abaddon said. Bastard.

Honestly, he paid little attention to it after presenting his speech about future laws regarding humans. He was antsy throughout the whole international convention. The only thing on his mind was how he left Teru on such a negative note.

Kieran didn't mean to lose his temper when he broke the glass; just hearing the name 'bloodsucker' set off a long-forgotten trigger with Van Helsing, who gave him that nickname throughout the decades of endless torture. He didn't particularly enjoy recalling those times and Teru, with hatred in his eyes, did a splendid job of reminding him.

Knowing the feeding schedule, he waited for the maid to accompany her to his floor.

"I'm afraid he hasn't eaten in days, Prince," she reported.

It was aggravating! Weren't they past this? Did he want to be fed by him? That was perfectly fine with Kieran, but as a human who hated vampires, Teru probably didn't want to be hand-fed by one. Although he couldn't detect Teru's pride, that didn't mean he didn't have any somewhere in that weak body. Everyone had pride in them, no matter how innocent.

Kieran carried the omega's grungy bag with him. He had forgotten about it in the car, given to him by the auction house. He was going to use it as leverage to make him eat - 'no eating, no stuff' was what he would say. Teru would be resentful but it was for his own good. He didn't pay a quarter of his savings just so the stubborn boy could wither away.

Once they entered his two-story penthouse, Kieran was on edge as the maid dug through her pocket for the bedroom key. The atmosphere was tense. He would stay in the living room, figuring that Teru would rather not see him. Who would want to welcome home the nastiest prince, anyway? No one has ever done that in the past, and he doubted it would happen in the unforeseeable future.

If Teru didn't eat this meal, then Kieran would interfere. In the meantime, he brewed coffee for himself. Trying different varieties of bitterness was a hobby of his. It kept him sane while in a continuous blood-deprived state.

He looked at the bag in his hands, wondering what was inside it.

"Sir! Come in here quickly! There's blood!" the beta woman yelled.

He slammed down his cup haphazardly, splashing the hot drink on the counter. He pushed her aside, almost making her fall.

Sour pheromones saturated the space. Drops of red spotted the floor. His heart pounded against his chest as he opened the closet door. Items were strewn everywhere.

Teru was crouching in the center of it all, biting his fingertips raw until they bled. A few fingernails were missing.

The omega saw him and gave off a distressed whimper. His mouth was coated in blood.

Shit. This was nesting.

It's been centuries since Kieran helped an omega during a nesting fit. This happened in between heats because nesting was like a 'period' for male omegas. When an omega failed to conceive, nesting was the result where they gathered various objects to create a comfortable, private space. If it wasn't resolved in a healthy way, they could end up self-mutilating themselves.

But...Teru supposedly hasn't had his first heat yet. Why was he nesting?

The vampire stepped forward. He needed to make him stop. Teru gave a low, warning purr.

Back off now, it meant.

"No," Kieran said, letting his alpha take over. This omega needed strict guidance to get through this. "You don't know what to do."

He entered the nest. Teru bared his teeth at him, his pheromones becoming sourer. Kieran growled back and sat down, dragging Teru onto his lap while holding both wrists with one hand.

Teru struggled violently. The distressed cries made his inner alpha eager to provide comfort, but there wasn't much he could do if Teru didn't want it.

"It's all new. I hate it. All new," the human whined.

All new? What was? The room? The food? The...

Smells. The scents were all new.

Kieran reached over to grab the bag he had dropped outside of the nest and held it up to Teru's face. Immediately, Teru hugged the dirty thing to his chest and inhaled deeply. The sour pheromones were disappearing. He opened it and pulled out the contents: three outfits that were clumsily hand-stitched together, a handful of dried-up raspberries, and a matted wolf toy. Each item was placed meticulously around the nest.

Teru looked inside the bag again, looking for another item. It was empty. The smell was getting tart again.

Maybe he was looking for this? Kieran pulled out a necklace from his blazer's pocket. He placed it there earlier, not sure if he should dispose of the intricate jewelry piece since it was made of pure silver, an element that was illegal for humans to possess. He held it out, avoiding touching the ring since it would burn him.

Teru saw and seized it. The sourness was gone.

I guess my job here is finished.

Kieran stood up to go. As long as the spoiled scent didn't return, Teru should be able to ride out the nesting fit without further harm. A nest was a very personal territory for an omega. They didn't like others bombarding into it without an invitation, and Kieran did just that.

He would keep a close eye on him from the bedroom, though, just to make sure.

As he took a step out of the den, Kieran was yanked back down until he landed on his back. One side of the nest tumbled over. Teru was on top of him, staring with glazed eyes while rubbing his bulged crotch over Kieran's thigh. The stressed whimpers returned.

Right. He had forgotten that omegas were still horny as fuck during a nesting period. It wasn't a heat, and thank god for that since Kieran would've given in to the irresistible fertile pheromones, but his inner alpha was in turmoil. It wanted to take this human, pound into him hard enough to ruin the nest, and release his seed into that virgin womb.

But he couldn't do that. Teru still hated his entire existence. If he took his virginity this way, any chance of gaining trust would be impossible.

"Take off your pants," Kieran demanded. Teru met his gaze while dry humping, clearly intending on not following orders. So defiant.

Kieran liked the challenge.

"If you want me to pleasure you, then obey me."

Teru slowly pulled them down with shaking hands. Kieran sat up and placed the omega's legs on either side of him into a straddling position. This gave easy access for Teru to smell the scent gland in Kieran's neck, the small organ that produced pheromones. Having someone so close to his throat made him tense since vampires naturally don't want anyone near that area. How ironic.

Yet, why was this erotic? The vampire let himself get drunk from Teru's intoxicating body odor. Those artificial perfumes and soaps truly didn't suit him; his natural fragrance was the best.

He hasn't bathed in a while.

Teru grazed Kieran's scent gland gently with his teeth. The smell of his breath had a hint of sweetened blood, something that made his vampire instincts want to come out. The stimulation made him shudder.

He reached around and touched Teru's hole. It fluttered in response. Slick trickled out, a male omega's natural lubricant.

As much as Kieran wanted to taste it and lick the hole clean, his goal was to relieve Teru's frustrations so the wounds could be treated.

He circled around the hole with one finger and carefully inserted it. The inner walls were tight. It pleased him knowing he was the first person to be inside it. Teru quivered and raised his hips higher to feel more. The omega didn't realize he was purring like a house cat, a sound that meant he was happy or content.

It was like music to Kieran's ears. His own alpha answered with a much deeper rumble - a lion's purr.

Teru released more slick. Pre-cum was also dripping from his swollen member, signifying he'd climax soon.

So sensitive.

Kieran didn't put in a second finger. Since this was a new experience for Teru, he didn't want to make him sore. He pushed the one finger deeper until he found that spot – the spongy area that stimulated any man's prostate.

Teru was about to buckle, but Kieran held him in place as he poked it. While Kieran has never been on the receiving end, touching this soft tissue supposedly made men feel like they were going to urinate.

"Can you come with just this? I bet you can," he whispered in the omega's ear and swirled harder.

Apparently, he could. Without having his dick touched at all, Teru's whole body shook as white cum spilled on Kieran's pants. His back arched from the waves of pleasure. "AH!" he moaned loudly with closed eyes and mouth slightly open. The expression was sexy as hell for Kieran, who wanted to bite the omega's lip with his long fangs.

"Good boy."

His praise made Teru's purr louder. Kieran repositioned him so he was nestled in his arms like a baby. The vampire rocked him back and forth until he fell asleep, the purring slowly subsiding. This would be a good time to heal the chewed-up hands. One by one, Kieran sucked and licked Teru's fingers clean, savoring each one like it was his last feast. The dried blood tasted like fine wine.

He inspected his work after each finger was tended to.

Hmm. They still looked a little red and the nails that were gnawed off would take time to grow. His own alpha purr began to sound anxious. The vibrations were quick and sharp. His omega hurting himself made him uneasy. The feeling was foreign because he never cared about anything other than himself.

And that's how it was supposed to be. Kieran was the worst of the deadly sins. He shouldn't forget that. Cherishing someone went against his nature.

He was Pride.

Knowing that omegas prefer sleeping in their nest during this unstable time, Kieran left him there but covered him with the bedsheet. He shut the door quietly.

The maid was still in the bedroom, listening.

"Why the fuck are you still here?" Kieran seethed. How dare she come close to his omega during nesting!

Her eyes widened at his tone. She trembled. "I-I-"

"LEAVE." He freed his dominant alpha's authoritative pheromones. The scent would force her to go regardless, whether or not she wanted to.

She sped out of there.

It was time for a new maid. This one was nosy. It wouldn't surprise him if she was a mole working for the king or another deadly sin.

Something trickled down his chin. Kieran wiped the clear liquid away with his hand and stared at it, knowing what this was. He went to the bathroom. When he stood in front of the mirror, he opened his mouth to inspect his sore fangs. As suspected, pheromone venom was dripping from them.

All alpha vampires, whether average or dominant, had a gland in their skull, located on the right side above the roof of their mouths. It can be used for several reasons – to calm down an omega during heats or nesting, to subdue their mate into submission, or purely for sexual pleasure since it could act as a mild aphrodisiac.

This was a vampire's pheromone sac.

But once human omegas began disappearing after his species took over society, there was no point in having a pheromone sac. The existing vampire omegas already had mates and there were no new omegas to join the undead. Like the issue with the lack of human omegas, this gender among vampires also stopped being born. It was like evolution wanted to be cruel and force alphas - humans and vampires alike - to go unmated for life. That was why Teru was so special since he could potentially bring back the extinct gender.

Some decades ago, a popular alpha vampire celebrity got her sac surgically removed, creating a new 'fad' to get the same operation. Many followed the trend and some still do it today. Kieran didn't care about such things. A few of his half-siblings got rid of theirs, but not him.

After having a small taste of Teru's blood, his pheromone sac responded by leaking. Oh, how they wanted to sink into any part of that perfect body and inject venom. While fucking like animals, of course. He could practically hear the omega's screaming moans as his venom coursed through those exquisite veins...

The prince slapped himself hard, trying to get rid of the lewd image. His fang accidentally split his bottom lip open, mixing blood and venom in the sink below. With his crimson eyes blazing from excitement, he was more of a mess than he was a second ago.

Shit. I should've gotten the sac removed.