"Hey."

This was frightening him. Kieran's behavior suddenly changed, listening intently for any unusual sounds in the forest. His irises also narrowed. Something had triggered the predator inside of him. What was Kieran hearing?

Kieran put a finger to his own lips, telling him to be quiet. He slowly stood and helped Teru to his feet without speaking. Teru stiffened when he felt a glob of slick leak out of his bottom, thanks to their, er, intimate moment earlier. He wanted to hide with embarrassment since he wondered if others could smell it-

Teru's limbs grew weak. He was about to puke, and not from the pregnancy. The scent. It was the overpowering scent that poisoned the air.

Arousal. Desire. Stirred. Excited. Conniving. Immoral.

With unnatural speed, Kieran turned around, fangs out to attack whoever dared to come near. Teru barely had time to see him strike forward with his hand, gripping Blaise's throat. He squeezed tightly, drawing blood.

Being next to Blaise in his monstrous form was too much for Teru's declining strength. Though Pride's true face didn't scare him one bit, that was because they were destined mates. Their pasts, scents, and looks were accepted by the other. He had smelled Lust so long ago in the penthouse with Wrath, too, and this time wasn't any different. Led by fear, Teru instinctually wanted to show his throat to the other dominant alpha that could easily challenge Kieran.

Teru lost his balance, feeling like he needed to be on his knees instead.

Thank heavens Kieran wouldn't allow it. His alpha's free arm wrapped around Teru's waist, shielding him while in protection mode. One wrong move by Lust, and Kieran would kill to guard his mate; being brothers didn't matter. Both had found out the hard way that leaving Teru, even for a second, was more dangerous than keeping him by his side.

"I smell a little whore beside you," Lust growled, smiling crazily. His voice wasn't silky like it always was. It was raspy and inhuman. Teru shook. The temperature dropped, cold enough to snow. Why was so freezing now?

"But you," he spat to Kieran, "are more terrible than he is. You wish to spread his legs open and mark his insides with your scent. You want others to smell you within his womb, even though you already tainted it with vermin. Why don't you let me watch, or better yet, join you?" It appalled Teru when the vampire, who helped him decorate his nest with colorful streamers and gave him a cellphone, salivated in the corners of his partly opened lips, like a dog thinking of a raw steak on a platter. But, he was hungry for something that wasn't food.

Kieran pierced his throat, digging deeper in anger, but Lust only moaned. "That feels fucking good." His manicured hands reached up and grabbed Kieran's elbow tenderly, before slowly bending it unnaturally.

"Do you remember how fun you used to be before you became fucked up by those hunters? How I convinced you to join my gangbang event at that royal's house in London? Everyone flocked to you, wanting a taste of your cum, to feel your pounding hips into their wet holes. Have you described to your mate how three omegas sucked your cock all at once? How you fucked one of them mercilessly when she presented her pussy, and you fingered the males laying beside her? One of them went into heat, isn't that right? You fucked him for hours, not noticing I had him suck my cock, too. I wish you would have knotted him, so I could have matched you and knot his pretty throat."

"Stop," Kieran/Pride snarled. Teru pressed into him, to remind Kieran not to change into his sin; there had already been enough bloodshed. Though it upset him terribly to think that he had past partners, that was a long time ago.

Lust leaned near his ear and twisted Kieran's limb harder. Bones cracked loudly. His alpha didn't give any sign it had hurt. He sang creepily, "There were ten in the bed and the little one said, 'Roll over, roll over.' So, they all rolled over and one fell out. Nine! There were nine in the bed-"

He stopped reciting the nursery rhyme, inhaling. "What a nice scent. Fucking despicable. Disgusting. Just my type." Lust let go of the mangled arm from losing interest, but Kieran didn't do the same.

"Lucas, don't come closer," Kieran snapped.

Teru saw Lucas. His best friend was literally ten or so steps away from them!

What is he doing?! Get away from here!

Being the idiotic dense alpha he always was, Lucas didn't listen and remained where he was, staring at Blaise's shifted face. There was no trace of fear anywhere. Rather, Lucas was giving off a slight scent of musk and lavender. Why the hell was he pissed off for? For Teru's sake? Please, this wasn't the time nor the place to fuss over him! He wasn't in any condition to fight, either. Just look at his bandaged neck! It was drenched in red!

"Let go of him," Lucas whispered, but sternly. What did he mean? Who did he refer to? Lust wasn't touching Kieran anymore, and Kieran sure as hell would never let go of Teru with such an immense threat with them.

"No." This answer came from Kieran.

No? Why did he answer Lucas instead of-

Wait. Lucas wanted Kieran to let go? Of Lust? Not the other way around?

The musky pheromones grew stronger, eyeing the blood dripping down Lust's throat. "I said. Let. Go."

Kieran finally turned his attention to Lucas, glaring with shining crimson eyes. Teru would give a million pennies to know exactly what he was thinking. He was enraged, but curious, too. It was an odd combination of emotions that Teru couldn't figure out.

Teru watched him unfurl his hand, removing his nails that were embedded into Lust's neck. Immediately, the youngest deadly sin rushed to Lucas in a millisecond, radiating sexual energy and vanilla. Lucas didn't flinch.

"This smell...you're the worst one out of everyone here," Lust growled in Lucas's face, more serious than when he was taunting the fated pair earlier. "It's been a while to meet such a nasty soul like yours. Vulgar. Dirty. Your experiences with sex as a blood slave made you beyond fucked to the core. Nothing can help you. It ruined your entire image of loving intimacy. You like to pin your prey under you. Order them around until you're satisfied first before tying them up, leaving them high and dry for hours while you go about your day. Hmm? Is that what you want to do with your slut friend over there? Abandonment play? What a kink you have. I'm looking forward to having fun with you...before I drink every drop of your blood and send you to Hell. I'm worse than those demons down there, but I'm sure they'll do the job to torture you like the Zhang's did...but a thousand times more painful. That was their name, correct? The Zhang's? Did you enjoy your time alone while in rut in that shithole of a kennel? Or when they made you breed with those cunts, whom you can't remember their faces? Anyways, after I discard your body, I'll move on to find others like you and-"

Lust stopped talking. Lavender. Musk. It was so strong now. Teru had never felt him emit that many pheromones before. Not when they were captured. Not when he found out Teru had been marked by another. This was an entirely different level, arising from his inner alpha. A switch had been flipped.

He watched in shock as Lust actually took a step back, furrowing the thick muscles between his eyebrows. Was a deadly sin hesitating? Really hesitating? Lucas was not amused by the perverted banter, lifting his head while narrowing his darkened eyes at the vamp.

It was clear that Lucas wasn't terrified, more aggravated than anything else.

Lucas snarled as low as he could despite the neck injury, upper lip curling. His canines were longer, a feature that alphas used for intimidation. "Kneel." Though but a whisper, it was commanding. Authoritative. Utterly angry. Honestly, quite disappointed.

Both Kieran and Teru watched Lust do just that, kneeling on the dirt. Lust rumbled in an erratic tempo, not sure if this was what he should be doing.

"Hmm," Kieran pondered. He shook his arm, uncomfortable when the bones snapped into place.

Teru asked quietly, "What?"

"Blaise is sexually submissive. Regardless, that wouldn't erase his natural instincts as an alpha, especially when clouded by his sin. None of us, including Lust, would ever bow down to another. The only exception would be our mother."

Teru considered what he had just said. "But you listened to me when you were like that."

"That's different. It would not be possible if you weren't my virtue."

Lucas entangled his fingers through the long hair, yanking the blonde locks back roughly so Lust was forced to look up. Lust snarled in warning, his thick fangs dripping spit like a venomous snake. Through the ripped hole in his camouflaged sleeve, the snake tattoo was visible. It hissed and slithered around his forearm.

"I just told Pride to release you because I didn't like him touching you, and that is your tone with me?" Lucas growled back, trying his best to speak louder. The gauze wrapped over his wound had fallen off, blood trickling from the cut. Red stained his shirt. "And the way you speak such fowl things in front of others. It's repulsive. Can't you control yourself? Is that how you want others to perceive you? Not giving a shit about who takes your body?"

Lust couldn't make eye contact with him, as if...ashamed?

Hold the fuck up. Hold the fuck up. This was a deadly sin totally consumed by their real form, and a dominant alpha that was yielding to an average alpha. Why wasn't he destroying Lucas limb by limb? He made it apparent that Lucas was deserving to meet a terrible fate in the afterlife.

"Then," Teru said, "why is Lust 'bowing down' to him if he's not his..."

He couldn't finish the sentence, making a conclusion that was really insane. Kieran must've also thought the same, continuing to watch the two alphas.

There was no way they could be...

They watched Lust under the control of Lucas, not fighting back. Lucas knew exactly how to control the sin into obedience.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Artist: Saint_Vee

Artist: froggie_pocky