"Look! He's so hot, Amaryllis. And he's staring at me!" Cameron whispered. Amaryllis looked up from what she was doing and saw a royal standing in the back of the dining room with a group of other higher-up vampires.

He was indeed looking at Cameron, but soon glared at Amaryllis when she looked up, causing her to look away. Those vampires really didn't seem to like her. Probably because they all knew about what happened at the Harvest. The only vampire who didn't seem to hate her was Theirry.

The man Cameron was talking about was good looking. He was tall and built, but he still had nothing on the being that Amaryllis was currently living with. No one would ever be able to beat Ulric.

"He can probably hear you, Cameron," Amaryllis said. Cameron shrugged her shoulders, playing it off like she wasn't bothered by that fact, but Amaryllis saw the light pink spread over her cheeks.

Thierry, who was standing in the group of Royals, broke off from the group and approached her. "Hey, what are you doing here?" He asked.

Cameron and Amaryllis were preparing the dining room for the big feast that night. Once every few months, a large feast was held for the vampires of the castle.

"Setting up for dinner tonight," Amaryllis replied like it was completely obvious.

"Yeah, but you shouldn't be doing anything. Your wrist is broken," Thierry said, glancing down at the girl's wrist.

Amaryllis rolled her eyes. "Quit worrying about me Thierry. King Ulric is giving me light tasks to do for the next few weeks."

"He shouldn't be giving you anything to do," he said and then mumbled something under his breath that she couldn't hear.

"Hello, Cameron," Thierry greeted. She smiled up at him, "Hi!" Thierry wasn't like the rest of these brooding vampires in this castle. He was warm and friendly and didn't despise humans like the rest of them.

"I see you looking at Sayer," Thierry said and waggled his eyebrows at her. Cameron blushed and turned away. "No I wasn't," she said as she walked away from us.

"She definitely was," I said.

After Cameron and Amaryllis finished setting up the tables, there was an hour left before the dinner. Amaryllis walked back to Ulric's quarters.

Ulric was standing in the middle of the living room when she walked in. He wasn't ready for the dinner yet as he was wearing a black T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. He still looked so, so handsome.

"Hello," she said. She felt awkward to not greet him when he clearly knew she was there.

The King didn't look up from his phone, it looked like he was texting somebody. Amaryllis lingered a few moments longer to see if he would respond, but she walked away toward her room when he didn't.

She entered her room and closed the door. All she wanted to do was change out of her work clothes and fall asleep even though it was only six o'clock.

After she got dressed into her night shirt and pants, there was a loud banging on her door. She walked out of the bathroom from where she had just brushed her teeth and opened the door.

Ulric was standing there, clad in a suit and tie, looking amazing as always. His entire body took up the doorway.

"I'm leaving now. There are leftovers for you in the kitchen since you didn't eat dinner. Come back here immediately after you eat, you aren't to walk around the castle," he said.

Amaryllis nodded, "okay."

Ulric stared at her for a second longer before walking away. A few minutes later she heard the front door open and close.

She brushed her hair and slipped a pair of shoes on before heading out. She was starving. Ulric didn't have any snack food for humans, so she hadn't eaten since lunch.

Amaryllis walked into the kitchen, it was empty. Only one light was on in the back, but she did hear something shuffling around. She walked hesitantly toward the noise, not sure if she should turn back or not. It could be a bloodthirsty vampire for all she knew like the one that tried to take a chunk out of her when she first arrived there.

After taking a few more quite steps, she saw a boy with his back facing her leaning over the counter. He was eating something that looked to be a sandwich.

He had wavy blonde hair and was around 6 feet tall. He still hadn't noticed that someone else was in the kitchen with him yet, so he must not be a vampire.

Then it clicked, that was the same boy she saw walking down the hallway a few weeks ago. It was her friend Travis.

"Travis?" Amaryllis said aloud.

The boy turned around and met her gaze. He was indeed her old childhood best friend. Just now he was a lot older.

"Amaryllis. It's been a while," he said as a huge smile took over his face.

Amaryllis stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the boy, he returned the hug. It was nice to see her old friend again, especially because she thought he died a long time ago.

"I heard you got picked at the Harvest," Travis said when they pulled away. "Yeah, I don't really know why though. But how are you here Travis? I thought you were dead."

Travis shook his head. "Nope, not dead. After they took mom and me back here, I was a stable boy for a few years. It was pretty rough being a human and all. Especially being a guy, the vampires thought it was fun to beat the shit of me. When I turned 16 though, I found my mate and that pretty much gave me amnesty from all the shit the other guys gave me. I've been living with her here in the castle ever since." Travis said, smiling at the thought of his mate.

When he was younger, he used to have a crush on Amaryllis and always imagined being her boyfriend when they got older, but all of that changed when he was taken to live at the castle. He thought about Amaryllis every day and even thought he was in love with her, but then he met his mate and realized what love truly was.

He was really just in love with the idea of love with Amaryllis, the little girl he used to be friends with. But, when he met Addison, his mate, he realized what loving someone was really like. Yeah, he still missed Amaryllis and worried about her, and would always love and care for her as a friend, but he no longer had that boyish crush on her.

Amaryllis listened to his story, so thankful that everything worked out for him, but one thing confused her. "What is a mate?"

Travis looked shocked like he was surprised she didn't know. "You don't know what a mate is?" He asked in disbelief. Amaryllis shook her head.

"A mate is like your other half, or actually, they are your other half. They are a vampire that was made specifically for you, to complete you. What you lack, they are strong in. They love you and would do anything to love and protect you."

"That seems kind of like dating, but just a little bit more intense," Amaryllis said.

Travis shook his head. "It's not just dating, Amaryllis. It's so much more than that. You can't stand to be away from your mate for even a minute because it kills you when they're gone. Whenever they're around all you feel is a constant tingle rushing up your body, and whenever they touch you it's like you want to explode. They get very possessive and territorial over their mate, especially males, especially royal males. It's the most amazing thing in the world to be mated to someone. A mate bond is the strongest form of romance and love in the entire universe," Travis explained.

"So you have a vampire mate? And you feel all of this about her the same way she feels the same about you?" Amaryllis asked.

"Yes, we are both very in love. We couldn't live without each other. She is what makes me complete. Addie means everything to me," he said with a smile. Amaryllis could tell he was being honest, she saw his love for her gleaming through his eyes.

"Wow, you must be lucky," she said. A lot of people now don't seem to fall in love like this.

"Does everyone have a mate?" Amaryllis asked.

"Every vampire does, but not humans. There are some rare cases, me and Addie being one of them, where a vampire is mated to a human, but it doesn't happen a lot. Believe it or not, even after all I told you about how special a mate is, some vampires will reject their human mates." Travis said.

Amaryllis gasped. "Why would they do that?"

If this mate thing was as wonderful and strong as Travis described, why would someone want to ruin it?

"They think humans are inferior and don't want to be with such a weak species. I've only ever heard of it happening once though. There was this vampire in some town a few hours west of here and he was one of the rare cases- he was mated to a human girl. He rejected her, but their bond was still there. A mate bond never fully goes away, unless of course, a partner was unfaithful, then when the other half rejects them the bond can fully dissipate, though it still takes years to happen.

But anyway, he saw his mate having sex with another human man through the window of her house. He went on a rampage and killed the man she had sex with. Then he forced himself on her. He reversed his rejection and took the girl back. He then took her back to his house and raped her every day to get the "essence" of the other man out of her. She finally had enough of his torture though and killed herself. He couldn't take the heartache of her death and killed himself two days later." Travis said.

Amaryllis's mouth fell open with shock. That poor girl. That could've been the love of her life that the vampire killed and then he had the nerve to kidnap and rape her.

"Yeah, it's crazy. But thankfully my mate accepted me." Amaryllis smiled at him, she was happy that Addison accepted him too. Travis was a good kid.

"How's your mother?" Amaryllis asked. Hopefully, since Travis was alive, his mother Anne was still alive, too.

"Ah, she's dead. She died last year actually. She was climbing an apple tree out in the orchard to get apples for apple pies. She worked in the kitchen and 100 apple pies were requested for some dinner or something. Well, she fell out of the tree and broke her neck, she died instantly." He said, he looked heartbroken talking about it, but he didn't cry.

"Oh my, Travis. I'm so sorry." Amaryllis was very upset. That woman was like a second mother to her when she was younger.

He nodded, but quickly changed topics. "So what are you doing down here," he asked referring to the kitchen.

"Oh, I missed dinner since I was setting up for the feast tonight. King Ulric told me to come down here to get leftovers if I was hungry."

"Well, the leftovers are in any of the fridges. There was chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, and stuffing tonight."

Amaryllis grinned. "Sounds good." She pulled the food out of the fridge and heated everything up in the microwave.

"Why aren't you at the feast then, since you're mated to a vampire?" Amaryllis asked as she and Travis sat together at the kitchen counter.

Shouldn't he be with her at the feast? It was open to any vampire in the castle, no matter their status.

"She went out with her friends tonight to a restaurant and then they were having a sleepover, so I couldn't go by myself." He replied.

"Oh, I see. What is she like? You talk about her like she is an angel," Amaryllis said with a giggle.

Travis smiled back at her, "She is. Ah, she is amazing. I love her, Amaryllis. When I met her, I was 16 and in humans years she would've been 23. She was actually born in 1853, so she was actually about 165 years old.

We managed to spend years living so close together, but we never met until two years ago. She came into the stables to visit the animals and we met. She kissed me right there on the spot. She said that was her first kiss and she had been waiting her whole life to finally meet me and have her first kiss with her mate.

She is gentle and sweet, not like the other vampires here. She lived in the castle with her family, so they and King Ulric allowed me to move into the castle with them instead of staying in the human quarters. The king hates humans, but he won't prevent a vampire from being with their mate." Travis replied. Amaryllis could hear his passion and love for his mate through his voice, it was pleasing to know love like this still existed in a world like this.

"That's nice Travis. You deserve a love like this after everything you have been through." Amaryllis replied before digging into her food. The cooks here really knew what they were doing. She hadn't tasted something she didn't like yet.

Finally, Amaryllis looked up at the clock on the wall. It was almost 11 o'clock. Ulric will be so pissed if he is home already and I'm not there, Amaryllis thought.

She gasped and shot up out of her seat. "What's wrong?" Travis exclaimed, he thought she was in pain or something.

"It's so late! I didn't know how long I spent down here! King Ulric is gonna kill me if he's back at his quarters already!" Amaryllis practically yelled.

"Do you want me to walk you back?" Travis asked. He was worried for his friend to walk back by herself surrounded by male vampires.

"No, it'll only make things worse if he's there. I don't want you to get in trouble," Amaryllis said.

She hugged Travis one last time before practically running out of the kitchen. She didn't realize how much time she had spent catching up with Travis. On her jog back to his quarters, she thought of her and Travis's talk about mates, how you felt tingles when they were near you and how you would feel intense pleasure when they touched you. Amaryllis felt that with Ulric. She also hated it when she wasn't near him, and she felt very possessive over him.

Could Ulric be my mate?

She quickly pushed that thought to the back of her mind. There was just no way, he would've told her if they were mates and he wouldn't be so rude to her all of the time.

Thankfully she made it to Ulric's quarters in good time, and it appeared that he still wasn't home yet. She let out a relieved sigh, realizing she dodged a major bullet. Amaryllis walked back to her bedroom, ready to pass out. She walked in, and turned on the light, wanting to brush her teeth and hop in bed.

When she flicked on the light though, what she saw made her jump and let out a scream. Ulric was sitting on the plush chair in the corner of the room, looking as if he was just waiting to catch her doing something she knew she should not have been doing.

Amaryllis stood by the door staring at Ulric in fear as he continued to sit in the chair staring back at her. He could hear heart rate quickening, she was getting nervous.

"I thought I told you to come right back after eating, did I not?" Ulric questioned, though it was more of a statement.

Amaryllis nodded, "Yes, you did."

"So why didn't you fucking listen to me?" he demanded, standing up from his seat and walking toward Amaryllis. "And why do you smell like some fucking male human?" He asked as he stood toe-to-toe with the girl.

"I-I saw my old friend in the kitchen, and we just got caught up talking. I'm s-sorry King Ulric," Amaryllis said.

When Urlic came home an hour and a half ago, Amaryllis wasn't there. He knew she wasn't in trouble because he would be able to sense if she was. He also knew she was in the kitchen because he could smell her there, so he didn't storm the palace trying to find her. Instead, he waited for her to come to him.

However, he could smell the scent of another human on her, specifically a male human when she entered his quarters. He basically felt his blood boiling because he was so angry. Not only did she not come straight back to the house after eating her dinner, but she also hung around another male.

"So you think that is a good excuse for disobeying me," Ulric growled. He was livid. His mate shouldn't be screwing around with random boys.

"No, but I'm really sorry," she replied. The girl's excuses did not help to calm Ulric's rage. The girl had been getting on his nerves ever since she go there and it was finally catching up to him.

"Do you know how absolutely infuriating you are? You don't listen to me, you fucking stutter every time you open your mouth, and you can't seem to go a day without hurting yourself or getting in some type of trouble," he growled as he ran his nose up and down the girl's neck. He could see and hear the pulse in her veins.

It was pulling him in. The anger along with the built-up tension of holding himself back from his mate for so long caused him to snap. He couldn't hold himself back any longer and finally succumbed to his innermost desires.

He bit down on Amaryllis's neck, tasting her sweet, seductive, delicious blood. He knew how amazing her blood tasted from the blood drives, but it coming directly from the source was even better than he ever thought it could be.

Ulric had blood from other sources since he tasted Amaryllis's, but he absolutely despised it. He only did it to preserve Amaryllis's for when he really needed it. However, he would never drink another's blood ever again since his mate and the direct source of his favorite drink was living with him.

He groaned as her sweetness met his tongue, completely ignoring his mate's screams. The bloodthirsty vampire didn't even realize it because he was so mesmerized by the taste of her, that he was pumping venom into her veins.

Vampires pump venom into one's veins to change them into a vampire. Most vampires were born naturally, but some started as humans who were changed.

After a few moments, Ulric pulled away. He took enough to satisfy his cravings without making the girl pass out from blood loss. Only then did he realize the pain he had put the girl through.

Shit.

Ulric hadn't meant to pump his venom into her. In fact, the bite was supposed to be pleasurable. A mate's bite was automatically a pleasurable feeling and a vampire could even pump a sort of pleasure serum into their mate's veins to make it feel even better.

However, he was too distracted to realize that he almost killed his mate with his venom instead. He didn't put enough into her to change her, but she would definitely be in pain for the next few hours.

Amaryllis was in so much pain she would have collapsed if Urlic wasn't holding her. All she could hear was her own screaming. The pain was so intense that she could barely even see. She had never felt such a red, searing hot pain shoot through her entire body before.

Ulric knew there was nothing he could do to stop her pain besides hold her and comfort her, and there was no possible way he was doing that. He fell to temptation enough for a lifetime already. He shouldn't have done what he did, now he will never be able to go without taking blood directly from her. He would never be able to quit thinking about his mate and her sweet taste.

He knew he had to get away from the girl, he already fucked up enough. He felt guilty for causing her pain, but he couldn't comfort her. Ulric needed to get away from her before he did something he would regret. Comforting her would only make things worse as she would probably hate him for what he did, which was for the best. He couldn't get close to the girl, he refused to be hurt by a woman again.