Amaryllis wandered into the kitchen to toast an English Muffin. It was late at night, but she was hungry and bread was her weakness. After toasting and buttering the muffin, she decided to do something nice for Ulric.

She reached in the refrigerator and grabbed one of the blood bags. Opening it up, she carefully poured her blood into a glass. She walked into the living room where Ulric was sitting and handed him the glass before sitting down next to him.

He looked at her with a quizzical expression as he fingered the glass. She shrugged, "I thought you might be thirsty."

Ulric took a sip from the glass and groaned in delight. A light pink misted across Amaryllis's cheeks at his reaction.

"Thank you," he said, leaning down and tucking a piece of stray hair behind her ear. She watched as he brought the glass up to his lips and took another drink. His eyes began to almost sparkle, shining with lust.

He reached out and gently grabbed the girl's neck, tilting it sideways to allow him better access. The sound of her increasing heartbeat filled Ulric's head; she was nervous especially after what happened last time.

"Shhhh," he cooed. He wasn't going to bite her, not yet anyway.

He brought the glass up to his mate's neck and slightly tipped the glass sideways allowing a trickle of dark crimson to flow down her creamy colored skin. He wasn't going to bite her yet, so this would have to suffice for now.

He bent down to her neck and licked the trail of blood that had trickled down to the base of her neck. His mate was the most beautiful specimen he had ever seen, but this, with her deep red blood racing across her skin presented Amaryllis in a light he had never seen before. And he fucking loved it. His primal beast desired this almost more than anything. The only thing that would make this better was if the blood was actually flowing from her body, not from a blood bag.

"Oh," she gasped as Ulric's tongue caressed her neck. She leaned her head back a little more against Ulric's hand to allow his tongue even more access. She was enjoying this far more than any normal girl should. But if this was wrong, she didn't exactly want to be right.

Ulric repeated his actions twice more before moving on. He leaned Amaryllis against the armrest of the couch and crawled on top of her, making sure he didn't put any of his weight on her.

He downed the glass of blood before placing it down on the coffee table. "Your blood is absolutely divine," he huskily whispered into her ear. Chills arose on her skin and she shuddered at his sensual voice.

A drop of the blood slowly dribbled from his mouth but before he could lick it away, Amaryllis swiped her thumb across his chin and gathered the drop onto her finger. She brought her thumb is to his mouth and placed it against his lips.

Ulric opened his mouth and wrapped his lips around her finger, both sucking the blood off as well as teasing her. He could feel his mate's delectable body squirming under him.

He kept her finger trapped between his lips for longer than necessary, but she didn't mind, not at all. He pulled his head back which allowed her thumb to slip passed his lips. He maintained eye contact with her the whole time.

Leaning in he pressed his lips against hers, his warm mouth caressing her own. She lived for moments like these any more. They were so passionate and absolutely amazing. Amaryllis loved the sensation of her mate against her.

Gripping her thighs in his big hands, he wrapped her legs around his hips so he could increase their contact. Amaryllis wrapped her hands around his neck, anchoring herself to him. This time, he didn't pull away.

Amaryllis spread her hands out across the King's back and loved the feeling of his strong muscles rippling below her fingertips. Amaryllis knew any normal human girl in her situation would be afraid. Obviously, Ulric was much stronger than her and could kill her in no time at all, but she wasn't afraid. She knew that Ulric wouldn't ever hurt her intentionally. She knew she was safe with him.

Amaryllis pulled back once she could no longer breathe and took a much-needed breath. His eyes were turning flecks of silver, telling her hat he was lustful. She knew that he was lusting after her and had to squeeze her legs together at the thought.

"What are you doing to me," she whispered as she trailed her fingers over his lats.

"What do you mean?"

"I've never felt like this before," she tried explaining. "I've never had a boyfriend before, but I know that I wouldn't just give myself to them like I am you. I'm a conservative type of girl, and now I'm acting like some wild child who can't control her hormones," she said.

Ulric shifted above Amaryllis so that more of his body was pressed into the couch. "This isn't a bad thing, Amaryllis. I know it's different, but it's okay. You've never acted like this before because you had no drive to. Now that we have found each other, it is your natural instinct to crave me," he explained as he lightly brushed his hand through her strawberry blonde locks.

"I know, I just thought I would be able to control myself better. It seems that the mate bond isn't that easy to fight," she chucked.

"No, no it's not."

"I like it though. What you do to me. I like the way it feels. Even though I know that I should be disgusted by my behavior of willingly letting you touch me, I'm not upset about it. I enjoy it, like a lot," Amaryllis reveals with a blush.

"That's a good thing, Amaryllis. You should crave my touch," he said.

Ulric pulled away from her body and went to the kitchen to clean out the glass. Looking into the fridge, he saw he still had a decent supply of Amaryllis's blood left, but it was dwindling.

When he walked back into the living room, Amaryllis was sitting up with her elbows resting on her knees. He noticed she had a longing look on her face as if she were thinking about something she missed.

"What is wrong, Amaryllis?" Ulric questioned when he sat down on the couch next to her.

She looked up at him, plastering a semi fake smile on her face. "Nothing's wrong," she replied.

"I don't like being lied to, Amaryllis."

Sighing, she slouched back down and her smile disappeared. "I miss my family," was all she said. She missed them greatly. They didn't even know if she was alive and that upset her the most. She wished they knew she was alive and doing well.

"Oh, I see. Will you... tell me about them?" Ulric realized this was a big step for him to take in their matehood which was taking an interest in her old life outside of the castle and getting to know her family.

"I love my family. We are very close. There's me, my older brother Luca, my mom Lucinda, and my dad Joseph. Me and my brother we like best friends. I know my other friends didn't get along well with their sibling, but Luca and I told each other everything. And we never really got into fights either.

My family was happy before everything. Well at least from what I remember. I don't think there were any problems with my parent's marriage. And they were always nice to everybody. They always tried to help people whenever they could and their professions portrayed that. My mom was a nurse practitioner, and my father was a high school teacher. So they both had a lot of patience.

My brother always wanted to be an aerospace engineer when he was little. He was always building model planes and making up his own designs for things." Amaryllis reminisced. She hadn't thought of her family much for two reasons. For one, it was too painful, so she did her best to not think about them. And the second reason was that she was actually enjoying her time with Ulric, so her mind didn't wander back to her family as much.

"And what about you. What did you want to be when you grew up?" Ulric inquired, genuinely interested in his little mate.

"I wanted to be an endocrinologist or something like that. My mother had some endocrine issues that prevented her from having more than two children, so I guess that's why I was interested in it. The science behind everything is just interesting to me," she explained.

"You have a very healing nature about yourself. You would be good in a profession like that," he acknowledged.

"Thank you," she said and felt a little flustered. She wasn't exactly sure how to act with all of the interest Ulric was showing. "What did ah- what did you want to be when you were little. Other than being the next King."

He thought about it for a second before answer. "I used to want to be a contractor or an engineer. Build things with my hands and design structures, like your brother. I also wanted to be a rancher. Which, I am. And I build my own stables and barns, mend my own fences, so I guess I got what I've always wanted," he said with a shrug.

"You have your own ranch? Where is it?" She asked. She hadn't seen a ranch anywhere during her stay here, just fields and woods.

"I'll take you sometime soon," he said.

"What about tomorrow morning?"

Ulric stared at her for a moment before nodding. "Tomorrow. It's time for you to go to sleep, little girl," Ulric said. It was just about 12 am and Amaryllis was obviously struggling to stay awake.

Amaryllis nodded and lazily stood up. She wasn't sure why she was so tired, but she was glad to be going to sleep. She stumbled a little bit as she walked toward the bedroom, tripping over her own two feet. As she began to realize her face would soon meet the floor, she was wrenched back into a hard chest.

All of a sudden her head was laying on Ulric's shoulder and his arm was wrapped under her knees.

"Thank you," She said after she got her breath back.

Ulric grumbled in response and continued walking toward their bedroom. He sat Amaryllis down on the bed and grabbed her a shirt to sleep in as well as a pair of shorts. He stripped himself out of his clothes and crawled into his bed once Amaryllis had gotten dressed.

"Goodnight Ulric," Amaryllis said softly as she turned to face him.

"Goodnight little mate," Ulric replied as he reached over to turn the bedside lamp off.

Waking up the next morning, Amaryllis shrugged some warm clothes on. It was the beginning of October, so it was pretty chilly outside. Ulric put on a gray t-shirt and a pair of jeans, not even bothering with a sweatshirt or hoodie.

Today he was taking her to his ranch, which she never knew existed. Where was it, she wondered. She knew they had animals around as some (a very scarce portion) of vampires choose to live off of animal blood rather than humans', but she had never seen Ulric's personal ranch before.

"Come here," he said and took Amaryllis to the end of the hallway. He pushed open the door at the end of the hallway, which was a surprise to her because she always thought it was a wall.

They walked through the door and came to a room with a private elevator.

"I never knew this was here," Amaryllis said.

"Well, I never really use it that much. Follow me," he said.

They stepped into the elevator, and she saw it had 3 floors on it. She knew there was an upstairs to Ulric's suite because she had seen the staircase, but he told her not to go up there so she never had. But she didn't know there was a ground floor.

She stepped slightly closer to Ulric whilst in the elevator. He smelled delicious. She breathed in the air around him, trying to leave a mark of him within herself. She looked up and noticed Ulric was staring down at her as she practically sniffed him. A light smiled outlined his lips.

"Sorry," she said shyly and tried to step away from the man, but he quickly grabbed her by the hips and pulled her into him. Brushing the hair away from her neck, he lowered his face to it and heavily breathed her scent in.

"Don't be," he stated before pulling back. The elevator doors opened and they walked out into a car garage. The floor was cobblestone but looked to have a glossy finish like epoxy on it. It was amazing down there.

Part of this floor was the garage for the vehicles where old fashioned muscle cars line the walls. He also had some other things like old trucks and Jeeps. But she could also see a door across from where she was standing. She wondered what was on the other side.

"Wow," she said in awe as she stared all around her. Every vehicle was in pristine condition.

"I didn't drive them much. I don't leave the Kingdom that often and I usually walk most places. I thought you might want to see this though," he said. He wrapped his arm around her waist and began walking down the line of vehicles.

Once they got to the last vehicle, he asked her which one she wanted to take a ride in.

"Take a ride in? To where?"

"To my ranch. Pick one."

Amaryllis ended up picking a 1969 Dodge Charger.

Ulric walked over to a wall where all of his keys were hanging up and pulled down the ones for the Charger. He opened the car door for Amaryllis and then sat down before clicking the garage door opener that was hanging on the sun visor.

The garage door opened to reveal a tunnel. He flicked another button and lights lining the tunnel walls all flicked on. "I thought you could see in the dark," Amaryllis commented. Why did he flick the light on?

"I can. You can't," he stated.

After a few minutes, the tunnel ended and they were on a dirt road, or more like dirt path, that led through woods until they came to an open field a few minutes later.

Ulric parked the car right next to a two-story farmhouse. The house was absolutely stunning. It was colored a very pale green shade, with a wrap-around porch and a grand front door.

"What is this place?" Amaryllis asked. They were about a ten-minute drive from the castle. She had never heard of this place before.

"This is my ranch." He said. They both got out of the vehicle and Ulric walked toward the house. He opened up the door and it was magnificent on the inside. Everything seemed to be wooden or stone. There were wooden walls and rafters, wooden floors, and some stone walls scattered around. The stone fireplace was beautiful.

The doors to rooms were old barn doors, and all of the furniture was stunning. "Ulric, this place is beautiful," she said.

"Thierry and some of my close friends helped me build it." He then grabbed Amaryllis's hand and led her outside toward a barn.

He opened the doors and Amaryllis saw multiple horses in the stalls. He opened up their stalls to let them roam in the fenced-in pasture.

"Have you ridden a horse before?" He asked. Amaryllis nodded. When she younger, before the vampires, her mother's father had a few horses and her parents would always take her up to ride them.

"I didn't know all about the upkeep, but I know how to ride them," she answered. She wanted to ride one so badly. Ulric's horses were all such beautiful animals and it was very obvious that they were well taken care of.

"Well I can take you riding later," he said as he filled up the watering troughs with clean fresh water.

"Okay," Amaryllis smiled. That would almost be like a first date. She blushed and looked away from Ulric because she didn't want him to see. It was exciting thinking about going on a date though, she hadn't ever been on one.

"I spend a lot of my time here. I'm not always in the castle or roaming the towns or in my office doing work. I'm here a lot, tending to the animals," Ulric said as he leaned against the fence.

"Why don't you live out here?"

Ulric shrugged. "I have my own space in the castle. And I'm always right there if something were to happen." What he didn't tell her was that there was no point in living in this house without a mate, so he chooses to live in the castle instead.

Yes, he enjoys his space from people, but he never wanted to live in this house without his mate. And before Amaryllis, he thought that living in this house - which was meant to be his and his mate's home - would be too painful. It would bring back too many dark memories of his past.

"Oh, I see."

"This house has been in my family for generations. A few years ago, my parents had it remodeled." This house was considered to be the house that the King and Queen would first live in if they decide to live outside of the castle, but he didn't tell her that.

"Well it looks amazing," Amaryllis said as she turned back to look at the beautiful structure.

They spent the next few hours going around and tending to the animals when all of a sudden Amaryllis felt a weird sensation in her nether regions.

She hadn't gotten her period during her stay here, she assumed it was because of stress because there was absolutely no way she was pregnant. She was almost positive though that she had just gotten her period.

Great, she thought.

Now blood is going to pour out of me while I'm standing right next to a vampire, who happens to love my blood.

Within microseconds, Ulric whipped his head around and was looking for any sign of injury on Amaryllis. He saw no viable marks of blood, but he did smell blood, her blood.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Uhh, nothing."

"Don't lie to me Amaryllis. What's wrong."

Heck, I didn't think he would notice yet. I thought I had time to figure out what to do.

"Nothing, Ulric, I don't know what you're talking about," she lied.

"Amaryllis. I'm only going to say this once more. What is wrong," he commanded.

She took in a deep breath as he began to walk around her, looking for injuries of any kind.

"I-I uh, I'm on my..." she stopped. She couldn't get the rest of her sentence out. It was too humiliating.

"On your what?" Ulric asked, but she couldn't tell if he actually didn't know, or if he was just trying to embarrass her even further. If he was, it was working.

"On my-my... period," she answered and her face grew cherry red. She had never been so mortified in all of her life.

"Hmm. You haven't had it since you've been here. And I never realized that you weren't having it monthly until now," Ulric assessed.

"I know. It was probably because of stress," she responded.

"You're less stressed now?"

Amaryllis nodded. She was far less stressed now and she didn't fear for her life every day like she used to.

Ulric felt joy inside and relief that his mate felt more comfortable around him. He felt slightly uneasy about it as well, but he knew he had to push those feelings away. He couldn't live without Amaryllis. A mate bond was too strong to fight, and he had to stop trying to.

"Come here, Amaryllis," Ulric said and held his arm out of her. He took them back into the house where he led her to one of his bathrooms.

When she returned to the kitchen, Ulric told her that he was going into town to get her somethings and that he would be back soon.

"What do you use?"

"I use- uh... Ulric this is humiliating. I can't tell you this," she said as she covered her face with her hands. She just wanted to curl up in fetal position on the hardwood floor and rock back and forth.

"It's not humiliating Amaryllis. It's a natural part of life for female humans. Don't be embarrassed. Now, tell me what you use. Pads, tampons...?"