Ben and Jayce took off to get some groceries for the evening, leaving Lukas, Erica, and myself in the apartment.

However, Erica stepped outside momentarily to take some business calls.

"I had a new idea with Rüdiger," Lukas said when we were alone.

"Did you?"

He nodded. "Ben doesn't like it though."

"You spoke to him about it?"

He sighed. "While you were having a shower earlier. He shut it down straight away."

I could already feel my jaw clenching and the anger boiling inside me. "Please don't tell me it involves me."

"It does."

"He's fucking ridiculous," I spewed, getting to my feet.

"Sit down, Ollie. It's okay."

"It's not okay, Lukas. He just said he'd let me make my own decisions and talk with me more but I didn't have any clue about this and he's already shutting it down?"

"Maybe he was going to talk to you about it tonight."

The anger subdued slightly with that thought, but still bubbled underneath. "But he did shut it down."

"He did."

"What's the plan?"

"I promised I wouldn't tell you."

I breathed in deeply, eyes closing before exhaling. "But you're going to?" I reopened my eyes.

Lukas shrugged. "I get why he is reserved. It's risky."

Tight lips, I folded my hands over my lap. "I have an idea."

"What?"

"How about we actually have these conversations in front of me."

"Ollie..."

I shook my head. "I know you don't want to upset Ben. But I deserve to know if it involves me."

He went quiet, so I decided to keep talking.

"How about tomorrow you bring your idea up in front of all of us and we discuss it as one big group. That way you aren't alone with Ben if he decides to get mad about it. Consider it having backup."

"As in... with Erica and Jayce?"

"Exactly."

"Oh boy."

"That way we all get to decide. We can work as a team and I will be included."

"And if Ben rejects it still even if you're on board?"

"Then you three will have some entertainment as I try to rip his head off."

A grin spread across Lukas's face. "I love how feisty you are sometimes, Ollie. You show him who is boss."

"If you're not careful, I'll show you who is boss."

He leaned forward, resting his chin on his hand, a burning fire in his eyes as he bit against his bottom lip before he said, "Maybe I'd like that."

Eyes wide, I got to my feet, backing away from him. My hands were getting sweaty. Why was I nervous suddenly?

"Wait... Ollie... I didn't mean..."

"I'm going to go now." I turned around, away from his alarmed gaze.

"Ollie, I wasn't trying to hit on you," he called out after me as I retreated to the bedroom. "Ollie!"

· · ───── ∘☽༓☾∘ ───── · ·

"Do I look prettier to you?" I asked Ben in bed that night.

"You've always been drop-dead gorgeous to me," he responded nonchalantly, his eyes not lifting from his book.

"Yeah but, my skin is now way better. It's almost glowy. And my lashes will never need mascara again. And I think even my boobs got perkier." I looked down and pushed them up and down, studying them. That certainly got Ben's attention, as, when I looked back up, his eyes were focussed on my chest. When he realised I caught him, he looked back up to my face and gave me a sheepish grin.

"You're as gorgeous as ever."

Sighing, I got out of bed, saying, "Erica will tell me."

After putting some clothes on, I ventured out into the hallway on the search for Erica. 

But as I peeked into the kitchen and living room, a part of me was nervous. Lukas and I avoided eye contact all evening and I ensured at no point that I was alone with him. I don't know why I was behaving like this. He surely wasn't making a pass at me. He was just being his usual, cheeky Lukas self. But I think what unnerved me was the small part of me that wondered if my reaction was not just fear... That I wasn't scared Lukas may have been actually flirting with me or scared Ben would find out. But maybe scared of something else in me I couldn't quite determine and could not bring myself to think further about.

To my relief, it was just Jayce was in the living room, which meant there was a good chance Erica was in her bedroom, meaning Lukas was in his.

With no fear of running into him now, I relaxed as I walked over to her door, giving one gentle knock before swinging the door open.

But what I walked in on had my eyes going wide in shock

Erica had her head tilted to the side, eyes closed with a smile on her face. Behind her was Lukas, arms wrapped around her shoulders, mouth buried into her neck.

Erica was evidently oblivious to my presence but Lukas had noticed as his eyes flickered up to mine, bulging the moment they saw me.

He pulled away from her neck immediately, blood smeared around his mouth as red liquid began to spurt from Erica's neck.

"Shit," he uttered, turning back to her neck, running his tongue over it to seal the wound.

He then brought a hand up to his mouth, wiping the blood from his face.

"Shit, Ollie. I'm so sorry," he said, eyes pleading.

My stomach churned at his words and the sight. A small part of me was... disappointed? But I shook the feeling away as quickly as it came as Erica raised her head, a dazed smile on her face as she met my eyes.

"Ollie!" she exclaimed. "How can we help?" She was clearly delirious from the blood loss.

I was in no right to be upset with Lukas. He needed to feed and Erica had agreed to supply her blood. They were also almost once bonded.

I shook my head, forcing a smile onto my face as I looked between the two of them. "I was just coming to talk to you about something, but it can wait." I briefly met Lukas's embarrassed eyes before turning back to Erica. Wiggling my eyebrows at her, I smirked while I said, "I'll let you two get back to it."

Reluctantly, I let my gaze shift back to Lukas, a part of me wanting to gauge his reaction. 

The apologetic notes to his eyes were gone, replaced with a glare, anger pooling. Eyes locked on me, he lifted one of Erica's wrists to his mouth, running his tongue over her skin before he sunk his teeth through her flesh. Not looking away, I backed out of the room, closing the door gently behind me. Doing my best to not feel the sudden sinking feeling in my heart.

After staring at the door for a few moments longer and allowing myself to overcome that small glimmer of joy that had brewed earlier at the thought Lukas may have been hitting on me, I turned away and began walking back to the bedroom.

I had concluded Lukas did not like me. And the only reason it excited me is because firstly he is attractive and secondly his vibrancy, warmth, and kindness meant that I would find it nice to be liked by him. Because if someone as good and pure as him liked me, then I could feel better about myself. Nonetheless, it was not so. And I had Ben. My true partner. Soulmate. A bonded pair. And that left no room for anyone else.

After getting back in the bedroom, I turned the light out, removed my pants, and climbed back into bed with Benjamin, cuddling up to him.

"How did your chat go?" he asked, kissing my head.

I shook my head. "Did not happen. I walked in on something I should not have walked in on."

He laughed and squeezed me closely in his arms.

"Are you hungry?" I asked him, sensing it in his touch.

He smiled. "A little, but it can wait another day."

I rolled onto my back and pulled up my shirt. "Bite my wings off please."

He laughed and took a playful nibble at my skin, though it wasn't hard enough to do any damage. But he didn't move his mouth from my skin. Instead he kissed along my back. "How do you feel now they're gone?" he mumbled into my skin.

"So sore. But glad that it means I don't have all that weight hanging off me."

"Sore? I suppose that makes sense. Where abouts?"

"Everywhere. But particularly between my shoulder blades."

Suddenly he sat up, climbing on top of me so that his legs straddled my sides. Then his hands began to trail gently over my back.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to give you a massage," he said. And his fingers began to dig into my shoulders muscles, working at the knots with such precision that I could feel the tension ease with each rub.

"You. Don't. Have. To. Do. That," I got out in moans.

He pressed his lips on my exposed cheek. "Based on your reaction, I think I do," he whispered. "Besides, I could do nothing for you all day. This is the least I can do. Especially when you look after me so much."

A part of me was really shocked that he was giving me a back rub and that anyone for that matter was massaging me. It was certainly not something I had ever experienced before. Yet I was not about to comment and ruin the moment as my pain certainly began to evaporate with his purposeful, gentle, and deep touch. As his hands made their way down my back, I did everything I could to remain in the moment and not let my mind wander back to moments ago.

Ben was here. Ben was my now. Ben was my everything.

As he finished up on my back, he went to climb off me but I told him to wait.

"What's wrong? Does it still hurt somewhere?" he asked.

I lifted up my shirt, exposing some of my skin. "I wasn't kidding before about drinking from me."

He climbed off me in response and pulled my shirt back down. "It's okay, Olivia. I'll survive the night."

I bit my lip and blinked at him seductively. "But what if I want you to do it?"

"Oh do you now?"

I nodded.

He leaned in and pressed his lips to my mouth before leaning back slightly and whispering, "Where would you like me to bite, my adorable fairy."

I grabbed his hand, rolled onto my back, and led it down to my inner thigh, as high up as it got. "Right here," I whispered.

He grinned and began to move down. Lips starting at my knee began to kiss upwards as slowly as he could manage. I began to burn for him. "Oh Benjamin," I moaned.

He stopped just before he reached my intimate parts, and began to lick the skin in the area, numbing me.

While his tongue was busy, he let one of his free hands roam upwards over my underwear.

And then finally, after I begged him some more to bite me, he finally sunk his teeth into my flesh.

Yet after one pull of blood, his hand stopped and mouth pulled back from my thigh, his eyes wide.

"What's wrong?" I asked, alarmed. It was the first time he had drank from me since I had changed. I was finding it impossible to stop the intrusive thoughts that began to spiral about me hurting him with my blood. If Lukas said my shocks were worse now that I was a fairy, what if my blood composition had shifted? What if Ben was no longer safe? We should have tested me again after I changed...

"I didn't think it was possible... but you taste even better now," he said, voice low and hoarse.

Before I had a chance to react, his head whipped back down to my thigh as he continued to drink from me.