Blaise leaned against the wall with crossed arms, watching everything unfold in the dusty, abandoned hallway that was rarely used.

There was Zhang's body in the closet.

Two guards who responded to the commotion were inspecting the corpse. They talked in their radios, spreading the news of a gruesome murder of an important guest.

His brother was completely lost in an alpha's wrath.

The little omega yanked on Kieran's suit blazer to stop him from marching towards the other human dangling out the window. Teru's strength was no match to hold a vampire in place. Pride went closer and closer to tear apart the person who dared kidnap their fated mate.

This insane outcome was much better than Blaise anticipated.

He was drunk in the beautiful blend of pheromones. Blaise studied the scents. Unbeknownst to everyone else, seeing pheromones in various colors was one of his many talents. Traces of pigmented scents could last years. It helped him find people who didn't want to be found. Once upon a time, he had a successful career as a bounty hunter thanks to his cursed gift.

His brother's green sparkles swirled with agitation. Teru's emerald hue was darker than usual, for which there could be several reasons. Perhaps a hormonal imbalance, about to cross into the afterlife, or a significant physical change like a pregnancy.

But the latter was impossible.

Anyway, Blaise was more interested in the lilac purple pheromones belonging to the human he assumed was Lasagna, aka Lucas. Black speckles dotted the light-hearted color, something he saw occasionally when someone had just underwent an extremely distressing and emotionally damaging event. For example, Kieran's emerald color had the same phenomenon when he suddenly reappeared after being tortured by Van Helsing. The spots disappeared eventually, like a temporary disease.

This is fun.

"You came just in time to witness the excitement," Blaise said aloud.

Charles arrived, looking frazzled from rushing here. He wasn't even wearing formal attire. He observed the chaotic scene and covered his nose with a handkerchief. "It stinks in here."

Blaise knew what he meant. Wrath must be overwhelmed by the atmosphere, just like the sex-themed event was for Lust. "I would be, too, if I were Kieran."

"Kieran is furious, yes, but I honestly sense more wrath from the other one."

"Who?" Surely not Teru.

"The blood slave about to jump to their death. It's unhealthy for a mortal to have that much inner anger. It's a one-way road to madness."

Lucas was inching further over the edge because he couldn't get a good grip to hoist himself up. He was growling loudly in desperation.

"Hmm," Blaise hummed curiously. "I suppose I might as well see what he looks like before he dies."

Charles had his sight focused on Teru, whose heels dug into the floor to stop a raging Kieran. He was failing miserably. "And I have my own matters to attend to."

The two siblings separated to go on their personal missions. Passing Kieran until he was at the wide window, Blaise grabbed the frame and slid over the broken glass. He hung there with one arm, feet on the building. Blaise yawned. His demeanor was casual as if he dangled fifty stories up on a daily basis.

Lust's eyes followed the alpha's body lines, from his cute ass to his defined shoulders. With that lewd BDSM outfit, most of the recent scars were visible on his skin. Bruises discolored his throat. Besides the amateur bites, Zhang clearly enjoyed pulling on the now-missing collar. Lucas was likely choked every day given the black and blue lines. The obsidian spots in his pheromones were more prominent around his scent gland, polluting the pretty purple color. The Duke's blood added more charm. Red was nice on him.

Because of the dangerous, upside-down position, Lasagna's hair covered his bloodied face. The injury was caused by being thrown through thick glass.

"Well, aren't you in a pickle?" Blaise commented nonchalantly.

The sudden appearance of a vampire startled Lucas. He gasped and almost fell over completely to kiss the icy cement with his body.

"What the hell!" he seethed and lifted his head. The winter wind blew his hair away. Blaise's heart skipped when Lucas's blue eyes switched from terrified to hatred. The musky pheromones aimed at him stimulated his sin. Even when in this situation, his disgust with seeing Blaise's fangs was stronger than fear.

"Get the fuck away from me! Fucking bloodsucker."

Interesting. Wouldn't a normal human beg to be saved? Instead, this boy would prefer to die. Blaise could feel the animosity, the brokenness in his soul, and the despair that plagued his face; a face that was as close to his type of alpha as it could get.

Except Blaise wasn't a psychologist. He had no time to talk it out with a suicidal person. It wasn't his method. He'd rather improve someone's mentality through a good fuck session in bed. What a shame.

"Alright. I'll tell the clean-up crew to scrape the pieces of your carcass off the road and send the ashes to that friend of yours. Which, by the way, is crying for his mate to not rip you in half. A quick fall will be much painless." Blaise began to lift himself back inside.

He was almost there when he heard, "Wait."

Blaise smiled victoriously and lowered again, securing his feet on the frozen wall. "Yes?"

"Is...Teru really mated to Pride?"

What a stupid question. "Did you not see the mark? He's undoubtedly off the bachelor market. Just move on. You can't separate a destined pair."

"Destined pair?!" Lucas moved to stare heatedly at Blaise, making him slither out further. His hands pushed on the building, to no avail. "I wanted him to be mine since we were pups! Do you know how hard it was to watch another alpha make a claiming announcement, see him get sold, and then lose Teru again to a deadly sin? I just...I love him," he cried. Teardrops mixed with the blood.

Blaise rolled his eyes. Yeah, such sentiments weren't his forte. Besides, he had this naïve alpha all figured out, another skill of his. Pheromones were like truth serum. It had a mind of its own, wanting to reveal everything to Lust. The blonde vamp was also an expert at reading people. Once you understood their libido and kink preferences, figuring out how they tick was a piece of cake. It was what made him so talented in politics. He basically ran this forsaken country behind closed doors when Abaddon was too busy with his omega toys.

"More like," he concluded, "you lust after him like a mutt sniffing for some tail in the breeding season." Blaise closed his eyes and inhaled the purple pheromones. There was a lot going on. He rearranged the complicated code. The scent had multiple stories that wanted to be kept secret: Lucas's dark hunger, rut-induced fantasies, and possessiveness. "You desire to grasp Teru by the nape. Squeeze your fingers. Leave bruises for others to see what is yours. You don't care about the mark and how forcing him to accept you would be agonizing-"

"Don't! Don't you dare talk about Teru like that!"

Lust went on, rambling about the perverted yearning that Lucas needed to suppress. Oh? Did he not know about his sexual taste? "You want to sink your teeth over the marking and make a new one. You want to erase any remnants of another alpha. You want to mount and slip your cock into him despite his whimpers. After you pound him repeatedly and indulge in his tight hole trying to reject you, you want to bury yourself deep and knot for hours. Whore omega, whore omega, whore, whore, whore-"

"STOP!" Lucas covered his ears. Blaise was slightly dizzy from the black-tinted, lilac pheromones telling him what to admit to their owner.

There was nothing to hold Lucas's weight after removing both supporting hands. His hips and legs slid over. Blaise cursed and grabbed his bare ankle at the last second. The momentum accidentally slammed Lucas against the skyscraper.

Shit, I went overboard. This is the type of sinner I would've eliminated in the past.

"Is that love? What you crave to inflict on your innocent friend isn't love. That's abuse. You like control. Isn't it too cruel to subject him to such a relationship? Trust me, he would not be able to handle it."

Lucas was dead weight, hanging there lifelessly at his words.

Looks like he realized the truth in what I said.

"I do love him, or did. I don't know. This city fucked me up. Or was I always that way? There's no hope for me. I'm just too fucked up. So fucked up," he kept saying and wept silently.

Blaise crawled into the room, bringing Lucas with him. He let go of his ankle. More guards filled the hallway, patiently waiting to arrest the culprit in the Duke's slaying. Kieran and Teru stood aside. Charles seemed to have calmed Kieran down a few notches.

An officer stepped forward with handcuffs and a metal, anti-pulling collar. It was the standard collar for criminals, similar to how dogs were trained not to walk ahead of their master. The spikes on the inner side would puncture their skin if they resisted. Unlike dog training collars, these had hallucinogenic poison on the sharp tips.

Blaise was a hundred steps forward than these fools. He released his dominant pheromones to force them to stop approaching. "You will not be arresting him."

"My Lord," the left guard objected, "that slave has to be taken in for questioning-"

Blaise hissed and snapped in his most authoritative voice. It was the voice of a high-ruling dominant alpha talking down on low-life plebeians. "Quite the contrary. Duke Zhang put this alpha up for sale when they arrived hours prior. I saw the for-sale form on the board of available blood slaves, so I did the liberty of buying him myself. Given the current state of Zhang's freshly bleeding body, the human rightfully belonged to me at the time of the attack. That would make this not only a self-defense case but a serious offense against Zhang, too, would it not? It's punishable by death to steal anything from the royal family. Legally, his death is justified."

He pulled out a crinkled paper from his pocket and showed the police. It was the bill of sale, with signatures from both parties of the transaction. Zhang had already signed earlier before posting it. What an unwise thing, not to be present to see who would buy Lucas.

They bowed to him and apologized. "We deeply regret our mistake. Duke Zhang will be cremated tomorrow." After exiting to resume their event duties, only three vampires and two humans remained.

"We need to talk about Teru," Blaise heard Charles say to Kieran. "Now. There's no time to wait."

There was something off about Charles. Really off. It took both of them by surprise. The urgency was enough for Kieran to agree.

"Make it quick."

"But Lucas-," Teru protested.

"He'll be fine. Let's go." The man's red eyes were livid at his distrustful mate. Teru gulped and visibly showed his shame. Blaise saw his neck muscles twitch from instinctively wanting to expose his throat in submission. What typical omega behavior!

Oooh, big brother is mad. Godspeed, Cinderella.

Once alone, Blaise looked at the new blood slave he bought on impulse while searching for Teru. He expected Lucas to be in the same, empty trance he was in at the revelation that he wasn't actually in love. Their eyes met. Lucas glared at him with crazed hostility, lips curled to show his white canines. Tiny shards of glass glistened in his wavy hair, giving a sort of feral, angelic vibe. What would it feel like for those teeth to mock mark Blaise's nape? Would his pheromones overtake Blaise's vanilla scent when conquering a dominant alpha? Can this newcomer display pure, male aggression as he fucked Lust hard enough to make the power bottom cry?

He shuddered at the thought. His spine shivered. Could Lucas be the one to finally subdue the gender Blaise wished he wasn't born as?

No. No one had ever been able to achieve his ultimate dream. Today was not that day. That moment would never come.

Right?

Blaise saw Lucas's heartbeat pulsing in his scar-littered neck where the jugular was, beating wildly with lethal adrenaline.

Lucas still had the fight in him to survive.

I think I'm in love.

My alpha.

The clock struck 11:45.