When the first sun rays came through the window and Samira woke up she felt confused, then she saw Ju and she remembered the night before.

She concluded Ju was a sweet girl after all, but for a to her unintelligible reason, she had that very bizarre relationship with Kiril.

He most likely was blackmailing her somehow, using compulsion on her, or she was so deeply traumatized that she thought that was a good idea. In any case, Samira decided she would see that that changed.

"Are you okay?" she asked and Ju nodded smiling.

"Yes, lady Samira stayed with Ju, just like master."

"Stop calling him master. He is not your master, nobody is. You can run off now and be free. Or can he find you? Are you under some spell? If yes, tell me and I can help," said Samira grabbing Ju's hands and looking into her eyes."I promised I will help you and I intend to keep that promise."

Ju was slender and graceful, with long black hair cropped with a fringe in front that was suiting her doll face with almond-shaped black eyes really well. She was really pretty, and 'plaything' was somehow a fitting term, even if demeaning.

"No. Ju loves master. Master freed Ju and said he would always protect her. And he did, all the time, even came for Ju now when everyone thought he was dead."

This is worse than expected.

"But don't you have wishes of your own? You don't have to cater and submit to all his stupid whims. And you most certainly must not sleep with him, even less in that way," said Samira pointing at the bruises on Ju's neck that were fading now.

"Ju can do everything she wants, almost everything, master forbids sometimes things, but rarely. Master is also the best lover Ju had, even if master sleeps with other girls too even if he does not love them."

"I doubt Kiril knows what love is," said Samira disdainful rolling her eyes.

This discussion doesn't make sense anymore right now. It must be some compulsion spell. How did the idiot do it?

"Let's go have breakfast. What do you like to eat?"

"Ju likes gua bao and boef burgeoning most of all."

"These are two very different things. You are a funny girl. Common," said Samira smiling.

After they brushed their teeth and got dressed they went to the kitchen where Dasha was sitting alone at the cooking island sipping coffee.

"Where is your master?" she asked Ju, with a cranky expression.

"Not business of Daria," snapped Ju back.

"It most certainly is my business," she answered and couldn't hide a little smirk.

Samira felt the pang of bloodlust in the air.

Not again.

"We are going to kill this thing off before it lays eggs," growled Samira with shining eyes and fangs to show that she was meaning it. "You know who is paying for this fine house, your food, and the clothes you bought at the mall that have labeled starting with A and D? That's right. Me. Not Kiril. Me. I am pregnant, cranky, and haven't eaten properly in days, not even mentioning the very weird situation we are all in. So you two are going to behave, treat each other decently and I don't want to hear his name again, it might be that I cannot kill him as I want to, but I sure as hell can kill you two, just as I promised. Now let's have breakfast. Understood?"

Ju and Dasha looked at each other, then sunk their gazes to the floor, muttering something along the lines of "yes ma'am".

Halfway satisfied Samira proceeded to open the fridge and start making eggs with bacon and pancakes. She felt so damn hungry it made her dizzy, and the two managed to annoy the hell out of her again, for the same stupid reason. But speaking of the devil, where was he, and where was Angel? She hoped he didn't kill the poor boy for his power, then she would never forgive herself. She shouldn't have let them just run off together.

"Lady Samira can cook very well, almost as good as master," said Ju.

"Kiril can cook?" asked Dasha genuinely wondering.

"Yes, but doesn't do it often. Master loves french pastry most of all."

"How very mundane for a magic, murderous asshole," said Dasha laughing and Samira was agreeing with the wording for the first time.

Ju put her plate in the dishwasher and walked away, seemingly trying to avoid another conflict.

Good girl.

"Why are we having all this circus here if you don't even like him?" Samira found herself asking.

"Oh well, the little she-wolf is annoying and entitled and well, sex with Kiril is really great. You should try it, will make you less cranky, it's probably the pregnancy hormones," threw Dasha in with another evil smirk.

Samira felt her eyes shining up unwillingly. That girl really had a very rude way about her. She flinched seeing that and moved her hands up defensively. Suited her right.

"No need to get all aggressive. Just saying... I was there for all of my sister's pregnancies so I know a bit about this stuff and back in Ukraine, I worked in the gynecology section. For example, that one has mood swings and feet can hurt like hell."

"I don't have mood swings," snapped Samira. "But my feet really hurt, goddamn it."

"Come on, I will give you a foot massage, so you see I am not a total bitch," said Dasha and smiled genuinely.

Samira lifted her eyebrow in response.

"What? I know it's hard to be pregnant and, well Angel told me your husband died. That's quite shitty mostly if you really loved the guy," said Dasha sitting down on the couch and signaling Samira to sit beside her.

Samira sat down a bit confused and Dasha proceeded to ask her to lift her feet up onto her lap. In the end, she had to admit a foot rub felt just divine.

"How was he? I mean your husband, mate or however you people call each other?"

"Amazing," answers Samira smiling sadly.

"Common' show me a picture. You must have one. You, wolf people, look all like models. When I met your cousin for the first time I could barely keep the bitchy attitude because he was so so hot and kinda nice too, it confused my senses," laughed Dasha.

Samira scrolled through her phone to find a photo and stumbled upon one taken right after they had found out she was pregnant, they had been so grossly happy.

Dasha smiled at the photo.

"He is smoking. Well was, sorry. Does he not happen to have a brother just as hot and into humans? Asking for a friend," she said mischievously and Samira concluded that that girl wasn't so bad after all, she just had a hard shell.

"Actually he had, but Akin died too, rather recent," she remembered sadly, thinking that Saraunyia was indeed the last one of the Nnama lineage.

"This is sad. I am sorry. You know, Mila is my only friend. I kind off suck at making friends but she liked me for whatever reason. I really don't want her to die."

"I believe you, you wouldn't bring yourself voluntarily into such a dangerous situation if you didn't care. And I understand, I am also bad at making friends."

"Well, you are intimidating."

"Am I?"

"Obviously. You seem super confident and are really, really hot, plus you can fight. I don't know about wolf males, but you would intimidate the hell out of most human ones."

"Actually, the same goes for you if I think about it, Daria, except the fighting. Unless you want me to teach you."

"Thanks but no thanks, I prefer to be a princess and don't break my nails, plus I am hopelessly bad at sports. When all this is over I plan to marry rich. Are wolf people rich?"

Samira laughed. Dasha was actually funny in her own way.

"Well it depends, we live longer than humans, so it's a longer time to acquire wealth, and most of us come from old families, like my husband, Erik, or the bitch from the basement, so yes it's likely."

"What about his infernal majesty? By the way, can you maybe call him, I am a bit concerned he died and I am back at square one?"

"Kiril? Well, Kiril is quite a mystery. We only suspect who his parents were. He just came out of nowhere and made himself alpha. And no, I cannot call, not sure if you noticed but we aren't quite friends but the thing is actually more practical, it's quite difficult to carry a phone with you while in wolf form. I have emailed Angel though, and he will hopefully answer soon."

"Now that you say it..."

"I will go feed the beast in the basement. Please behave and don't upset Ju. Ok?"

Dasha nodes and Samira descended to the basement room where Katharina was tied to her bed, still feeling kind of dizzy and with a headache building up. Katharina was as cranky as ever and complained about inhuman treatment.

It wasn't a delight to be tied to a bed, Samira knew that firsthand but Katharina would just wander off and murder someone. The merciful Samira won and she let Katharina walk around the room for half an hour, her constant complaints and low-key insults didn't help with the dead ache though.

In the end, the very pregnant she-wolf decided to take a nap in her room in the silent hope that Dasha and Ju would not kill each other in the meantime after the sermon from last morning.

There were some screams that woke her, luckily not pain or fear screams, just people fighting and movement around the house. It was dark already. How long did she sleep? She felt still dizzy and the headache wasn't gone but became worse.

The door to her room opened unexpectedly and Kiril walked in smelling slightly of blood and shower gel, and let himself sink on the other side of the bed.

"What in the name of all holly are you doing? Get out of my room!" She noticed her voice didn't sound as angry as she felt just kind of sleepy and weak, but he sure as hell made her headache increase in intensity in seconds.

"Sleeping. I need to sleep and think."

"Go do that somewhere else. Obnoxious jerk."

"I can't. I wanted to but I can't. They won't let me. Buuut, they seem to be afraid of you, which is very convenient in the given situation, so they won't come in here. Excellent job, witch."

Samira felt weird, kind of weak, and strange, despite the annoyance.

"Could you not have settled the issue in a characteristic jerkish manner? With a threesome or so..." she said sarcastically, but her voice sounded foreign in a way.

"Generally that would have been a good idea, but not today. Today I need to actually sleep and think."

"Is Angel okay?" asked Samira remembering. "Have you been mean to him?"

"As ok as he can be. Mean? No... I am never mean."

"Good. Mean is your natural state. Now go away..."

"Common, I am just here minding my own business."

"You never mind your own business. I am tired. I want to sleep and have a migraine. Go away," she said and her voice sounded a bit better, maybe it was just the drowsiness after all.

He must have moved because their arms touched slightly.

"Samira, you are really hot," he said sitting up and moving closer.

"What?! Eww. Stay the hell away from me. I would never do anything with you, regardless of what Dasha says. You are disgusting. Just go away."

"Not like that, temperature vise," he answered and did the total opposite, placing a palm on her face.

It felt so pleasantly cool and smooth.

"That feels good," she muttered.

"Hmm... Does it now? As amusing as this might be, you seem to indeed not feel well if there is no punch or insult thrown at me. Do you want me to use my other hand too? Say... Lower?" he asked and Samira could hear the annoying grin in his voice.

"I would rather die..."

"Sorry, I couldn't help it. All fun and games but we might have an actual issue here. Another one. Gods... and me that only wanted to sleep. Do you still have open wounds, witch?"

"I don't think so..." she said faintly.

"Think? Seriously? Don't make me check."

"No. I don't know what's happening."

"You cannot get sick, so it can only be injury induced or spellbound. But you are the only damn mage so..." then Kiril said something in Russian that Samira didn't understand and shortly after she saw a blinding white light.

____________________________________

Like always, let me know what's on your mind.

And I am really indecisive who's pov should be next. Hmm. 🤔