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“The ward is still up. No one tampered with it,” she said. “Everything is normal.”

Silas still scowled at me. I didn’t know what his deal was.

“The house let Little Bob in,” Dixie offered. “It means he belongs to our house, cousin. It’s unprecedented, but the house has decided to accept him. Little Bob is a shifter, though his animal is dormant. He might be a wolf pup.”

Silas sniffed, his nostrils flaring. Lust rolled off him with a heady scent, and heat fogged his eyes that glowed violent amber now.

A growl and a grunt tore out of his throat.

Shit!

Sy was emitting pheromones to lure the prince and manipulate him into letting us stay in his house. That was her version of a sex worker! She understood a male’s primal need and knew how to use it against him, but this was the wrong place, and she was targeting the wrong dude!

The shifter prince, who was said to be the most ambitious heir, wouldn’t appreciate being seen having the hots for a servant boy. He might even think that I’d bespelled him. He was already a little paranoid since I’d gotten into his house without being initiated by him, and he parked atop the pyramid of power.

Drop it, Sy, I hissed inwardly. We aren’t in the wilderness. This is a civilized magical world!

If you say so. But men are all the same. They’re beasts. She pouted and retreated.

A magical wind flitted across the room, thinning the scent of lust in the air. The house magic somehow diluted the sexual tension in the hall.

“I didn’t mean to intrude, sir,” I offered. “I didn’t mess up your ward either. If you don’t want me here, I can leave now. No hard feelings.”

I rose from the sofa on my wobbly legs.

“Cousin!” Dixie called. “The vampires are after the boy! He’s one of us. We can’t just throw him out.”

“I’m not throwing out this damned boy!” Silas snarled, but his amber eyes no longer glowed aggressively. “I was trying to find out how he snuck into my house!”

“But I didn’t sneak in,” I said.

The shifters bristled. Right, as a low servant boy, I shouldn’t speak unless spoken to. Academy rules.

These shifters were sticklers for rules and hierarchy. I wasn’t supposed to hold the prince’s stare, so I cast my eyes downward, even though I could hold his alpha stare as long as I wanted.

But there was no need to get into a pissing match. I didn’t even have a cock.

Silas narrowed his eyes on me. “Stay here, Little Bob. When I return, I’ll get to the bottom of this!”

I widened my eyes. “You aren’t going to give me back to the vampires?”

Both Silas and Dixie hissed. “No!”

Speaking of which, commotion had broken out outside. The vampires had arrived at the scene.

“They’re here,” I called. “They won’t leave until they have me.”

Silas nodded at Dixie. “Get me only if the vamp prince comes.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” Dixie jogged out of the door.

Silas strolled closer to the door to monitor the situation, and I followed him at a safe distance, peeking out through the side window.

Gunnar was in the lead, arguing with the shifters. Prince Louis wasn’t here. Even though I’d wounded him, the powerful vampire prince would have recovered, especially with the perk of having taken a large amount of my blood. But as a prince, he wouldn’t come to the shifters’ house in person to demand the return of a servant. Then again, I wasn’t just any servant. I was the servant.

“We tracked Prince Louis’s squire here,” Gunnar said. “We’re sure that Little Bob is hiding in your house. He’s a criminal. Give him to us, and we’ll walk away without any trouble. And you’ll have Prince Louis’s gratitude.”

“Little Bob is a shifter,” Dixie said, taking up the position as a beta and a main negotiator. “Your house had no business taking him hostage in the first place. Now he’s finally returned to his rightful house after all the abuse. Your prince no longer has jurisdiction over Little Bob, now that he’s under the protection of Prince Silas.”