Page 4 of The Princess’s Pet (Soul Match #1)

4. School Can Be Useful

When I woke in the morning to my neck being nuzzled, I wasn’t confused, I recognised the growl that was more of a purr instantly.

“Good morning, pet,” she greeted me before nipping at my neck gently. I couldn’t help the breath that caught in my throat or the way I extended my neck to give her better access. She hummed lightly against my skin.

“Good morning, Ma’am,” I croaked out, my voice gravelly with sleep. A warm tongue trailed along my neck to my ear, before hot air cascaded over the shell. It was the moan that escaped my lips that alerted me to my predicament and seemed to wake me up; as if I had been half asleep until then.

Something in me must have alerted the Princess to my change in demeanour as she laughed against my skin before nipping at my earlobe.

“I’ll be separated from you today, pet. Your servant classes begin, and I want to ensure that every vampire you come across is aware that you belong to me. I want my scent to be so strong that when you enter a room, those with the capability to sense turn expecting to find me,” she said, after she pulled away to look at me, her eyes flashing brightly for a moment .

“And what you’re doing will put your scent on me?” I asked, still tired and confused. “’Cause it feels like you’re just kissing on my neck,” I said unthinking, annoyance in my voice at what sounded like a poor excuse to wake me up and rile me up.

She was upon me before I could recognise my mistake and disrespect. She grabbed my wrists and held them tight above my head on the pillow. I watched as her fangs extended, glistening.

“I’m marking you with my venom,” she hissed, and as my eyes focused on the weapons that were her fangs, I began to see extremely small drops of clear liquid form at the tips. “There are other more pleasurable ways to mark you,” she threatened and leaned down, her nose skimming my neck. “Would you prefer I inject it?” she asked teasingly, but it was cruel.

“No, Ma’am,” I whispered, feeling all the muscles in my neck and chest clench in anticipation of the bite I thought was coming.

“I thought not,” she said, before dipping her head back to my neck and continuing her ministrations for a few more minutes, while I lay there beneath, her trying desperately not to react wantonly and arouse her vampire any further.

The Princess’s reactions to me were becoming concerning. She had said she had control, but it didn’t seem so to me. She eventually pulled herself away and allowed me to get dressed for the day.

I found the Princess across the room sitting at the small kitchen table, watching me as I exited the bedroom, dressed in my blue uniform. She looked pointedly at the seat in front of her and I sat down, pleased to find a hot cup of coffee waiting for me.

I inhaled the coffee smell deeply as I brought the mug to my lips.

“This is wonderful, thank you, Ma’am,” I said as I took a sip of the hot nectar .

“This is your schedule,” she began, handing me a small laminated sheet. “Your classes are highlighted in blue, and mine in red. As you can see there is an overlap between your first class ending and my first class of the day which will have forty-five minutes remaining.” She pointed to the schedule.

My first class was titled ‘Knowing the nature of your master/mistress,’ while the Princess would be in ‘Geopolitics and its impact on the kingdom over the past century,’ which was a much longer class than my own.

It didn’t seem like I had many classes at all, my class was my first and only class of the day. The Princess’s schedule was fuller with a couple of classes each day, all appearing to be on mind-numbingly boring subject matters.

“This means,” she continued as I examined the schedule, “that you’ll be on your own for forty-five minutes, as you can’t well interrupt a lecture by walking in halfway through.” I nodded in understanding. “I want you to go to the café we went to yesterday and wait for me. You are free to order food, all catering is part of our tuition. I will find you there,” she explained.

“I understand, Ma’am,” I said between sips of my coffee. It was so good or maybe it just tasted like the best coffee ever because I had gone two whole days without any, I hummed my satisfaction all the same.

“Good. Drink up, we’ll be leaving in five,” she instructed, standing from the table.

?

As we stood in the entrance hall of the main school building, the Princess pointed to the signs hanging from the ceiling that I hadn’t noticed before. “These will help guide you around the building. You want to head down that corridor on the left and up the stairs. Follow the signs until you reach auditorium 2.01, as on your schedule,” she stated, before taking hold of my blazer and pulling me towards her. Her head dipped and she sniffed near my neck. She must have been happy with her scent marking from the morning, as she held a satisfied grin when she pulled back and released me. “Remember to wait for me at the same café as yesterday,” she instructed once more, before walking away, leaving me standing, without waiting for a response.

I found the auditorium with a group of other students in varying styles of uniforms, waiting outside.

“Are you looking for ‘Knowing the Nature of Your master?’” A girl about my height with bright, clearly dyed, red hair asked. Her uniform was pale brown with yellow stitching, a bit garish for my tastes, but her smile was bright and inviting.

“Yeah, I am,” I answered, walking towards her.

“You’re in the right place,” she said, pushing herself from the wall she leaned on. Her eyes were a pale blue, nothing supernatural there and I guessed she must be a witch or human. “I’m Ana,” she said, sticking her hand out towards me.

“Percy,” I replied, shaking her hand.

“You’re new around here, right? I haven’t seen you before,” she asked, and I nodded. “Well, servant classes are mostly boring, depending on what you’re signed up for. But my older brother tells me this is the most useful class he ever took. Which of course could also mean it’s the most useless class he ever took, never can tell if he’s being serious or not,” she went on and I found that I quite liked her easygoing-ness. After being stuck with the Princess who didn’t speak much for the past couple of days, it was nice to listen to another person chatter on carefree.

“Who do we have here, Ana?” A tall boy with the pale yellow eyes of a shifter asked, wearing a green uniform himself. He slung his arm over Ana’s shoulder and looked at me with a slightly crooked grin on his lips. He was tall, but not quite as tall as full-blooded shifters, nor did he have the stereotypical bulky, muscular build. He was lean with brown carefully kept curls .

“Harris, this is Percy. Percy, this is Harris,” Ana introduced us. “Percy is new,” she added.

“It’s nice to meet you, Percy. You’ll love it here, Sanguis Academy is pretty cool; stick with us, we’ll show you around,” he said happily, genuinely, his grin growing.

“Thanks,” I said a little awkward.

It was nice to meet other people around my age that seemed so happy, but it was also odd. Did they not have masters or mistresses, with mood swings that they found difficult to keep up with? Was no one chomping down on their necks or making them feel all kinds of ways they shouldn’t?

The group of students started to move into the small auditorium; there couldn’t have been more than 50 students once everyone was inside.

“I don’t mean to be rude, Percy, but what are you?” Harris asked, looking at me curiously. “It’s the eyes, I just can’t tell,” he explained.

“I’m half-witch from the Flores coven and almost half-beast shifter,” I explained awkwardly.

“I wondered, your yellow eye is all beast shifter, brighter than mine,” he said cheerily. “So, plants, that’s your thing in some way, right, that’s what Flores does?” he asked, as if he thought he was right but open to the possibility he was wrong. I nodded smiling. “Cool, cool. So, how long have you served the Borealis family?”

“What’s your beast, Harris, a fucking dolphin?” A loud voice playfully interrupted, before I could answer and a much larger young man with bright yellow eyes and a mop of blonde hair hopped over the desks in front of us and shoved Harris. They both wore the same green uniform. “She doesn’t serve the Borealis family; she’s a personal servant. Don’t you have a nose? Can’t you smell Her Royal Highness the Princess Selene Borealis all over the poor girl? I almost shat myself when I walked in thinking the evil witch was here,” the man continued before looking at Ana and then me. “No offence to witches,” he added sheepishly.

“Dylan, can’t you at least try to make a good impression?” Ana gasped dramatically, before turning to me. “Percy, this is Dylan, the hot idiot of our group,” she said, and although it might have been taken as a compliment her voice was all derision.

“Watch your tongue, boy and how you speak of our Princess before I cut it out,” hissed a voice from behind me.

I turned to see a young man with black hair, bright green eyes, and the same midnight blue uniform I wore.

“Calm down, Dickward. There’s no one to impress here. We’re all servants,” Dylan replied, unfazed by the threat.

“The name is Edward, dog, and we may be servants, but some of us hold our masters with the respect they deserve. You disgrace Viridis,” Edward snarled.

“Sit down, class, so we can begin today’s lecture,” the voice of a woman called from the front before the confrontation could continue.

The lecturer introduced herself while she set up her computer and screen.

“My name is Dr. Phears. That’s Phears with a P, H and not an F,” she began. “I will be taking you through a series of lectures on knowing the nature of your master or mistress. This will be highly important knowledge for some of you, so I suggest you pay attention. You may believe yourself familiar with vampires, beast shifters, and witches, but not one of you is a pureblood, and you have no innate knowledge of the nature of a pureblood,” she paused, switching screen.

“Today, we will start with the nature of pureblood vampires, my favourite topic, being a pureblood myself,” she began. “The most important nature of a pureblood vampire is the drive to feed,” she switched to a slide titled ‘Blood, sources, and blood that sings.’

“Not all blood is of equal quality, and what one vampire may find appealing another may find revolting. Personal taste is highly important. Blood is our lifesource. While we consume other nutrition in small quantities, it is blood that satiates our appetite. It is not uncommon for purebloods to acquire specific sources of blood. A source is an individual that provides blood to a vampire, willingly or unwillingly. In particular, vampires search for sources with blood that sings. What does this mean?” she paused to ask the class. “Yes, you at the back,” she pointed to someone I couldn’t see.

“It means a source that a vampire finds more pleasing than others,” a girl answered.

“That’s a partly correct answer, well done,” Dr. Phears praised before continuing. “Blood that sings is more than simply pleasing. It doesn’t just taste good or better than others. Blood that sings produces what is known as a bloodhigh. A bloodhigh is a state of euphoria created when a vampire feeds from a source that sings. It is rather similar to being high from other substances. The bloodhigh and its effects are what we crave. The better the source, the longer the bloodhigh lasts,” Dr. Phears explained. She switched slides.

“Possessiveness,” she read the slide title. “We’ve just covered the very basics of blood, now we’ll look at the basics of vampire possessiveness. Undoubtedly, some of you will have been affected by this innate trait,” she paused again and her eyes flashed up to me briefly. “When a vampire finds a source with blood that sings or that they may simply enjoy, they feel an extremely strong need to mark what their instinct has declared belonging to them. Now, this serves two purposes. The first is that when done correctly, marking (something we’ll discuss soon) is a very clear way of informing other vampires and supernaturals, that a source belongs to someone else and exactly who that source belongs to. The second purpose is to calm the vampire’s instinct. The need to own and possess can become overwhelming, and an overwhelmed vampire lost to instinct could easily kill the source they want to protect and keep,” she paused and switched slides.

“Marking, now marking can take a few forms and usually involves venom—vampire venom and its known effects will be discussed in another series of lectures. Venom scent is strong and unique to each vampire. A vampire will aim to either cover or insert their venom into whoever they are trying to claim, whether that be a source or mate. Sources are usually marked by the vampire injecting their venom during feeding. The smell lingers on the source for usually a day, perhaps two, and cannot be washed away. If a vampire cannot feed, perhaps in concern for the health of the source, they may cover the source in their venom, usually via their saliva. Marking a mate can also be done in this way, but a mate can also be marked sexually. The sexual fluids of a vampire also contain venom, and if sexual fluids from the vampire enter the chosen mate similarly to feeding, the chosen mate will be marked with the scent of the vampire for a day, perhaps two. Marking is, therefore, an act that must be regularly repeated if the vampire is to ensure that whoever they wish to mark remains so.”

“What can we do to help ourselves if a vampire shows possessiveness over us?” a voice called. Dr. Phears looked perturbed at the interruption, but paused to think of an answer.

“Do as you’re told,” she said simply. “If you try to fight a marking, for example, instinct will likely take over and the vampire will force the marking or kill the source to avoid others potentially stealing it from them. I assume you all want to live. And a vampire that has become possessive wishes for you to live too. Don’t tempt those protective instincts; as well as they might keep you safe from others that would try to harm you, they might also destroy you to stop others from having you,” Dr. Phears answered soberly.

I couldn’t help thinking that Ana’s brother was right, this was probably the most useful class, for me anyway. The Princess had said that I sang to her yesterday and mentioned being bloodhigh. She was also marking me which made sense if I was her new favourite source. Would she also feel possessive over me because I was her soul match? Were her protective instincts also working with her possessive instincts? The only reason she chose to keep me close after all was to stop others from having me and using the soul match against her. Thinking of it, the future queen having a known soul match didn’t sound like a very safe thing. But no one knew about the soul match. The Princess didn’t mention it to her friends yesterday, they were surprised to see me there, and I sure wasn’t going to say anything and put a target on my back. Was the soul match a secret? This was something I’d need to speak with the Princess about.

My mind wandered more as Dr. Phears introduced the nature of Beast Shifters.

When the lecture ended, Ana wrapped her arm in mine so we were walking side by side.

“I think that was quite an interesting lecture. I’ve never had Dr. Phears before. I think she’s part of the medical faculty, usually giving lectures on anatomy or something,” Ana rambled.

“Do they teach such subjects here?” I asked. It seemed that all of the Princess’s classes were on history, politics, or war.

“Oh yes, they teach many subjects here. It all depends on what role the Royal or noble is destined for. Classes are chosen to best prepare them for their future duties,” Ana explained.

“Are we going to eat? I’m starving,” I was startled when Dylan interrupted and took my other arm.

“We’re walking like characters from a storybook,” I laughed.

“Only if we start skipping,” Harris added, taking Ana’s free arm.

“Let’s not, yeah, you two embarrass me enough,” Ana deadpanned .

“Speaking of food, I need to make my way to the café on the ground floor, the one with the flower beds. I’m to wait there,” I explained.

“In that case,” Dylan began before swinging us all around in the opposite direction. “We’d best head in this direction.” I laughed as Harris lost his footing in turning and stumbled ahead, letting go of Ana’s arm.

“What’s wrong with you Dylan?” Harris yelled, though I could tell he was teasing. Dylan let go of my arm and pounded his chest.

“Do you want to fight, Harris?” he challenged. And Harris met the challenge by lunging forward and pushing Dylan, who fell to the ground with a surprised smile on his face before bouncing up and chasing after Harris, who had turned and bolted down the hall.

“Are those two always so… loud?” I asked Ana.

“Oh yes, they never shut up, always making a scene. Honestly, I’m surprised Dylan hasn’t upset the wrong person yet; all the worst things someone could say seem to fall from his mouth,” Ana answered.

We made our way to the café and by the time we arrived, Harris and Dylan were at a table waving us over.

“What took you so long?” Harris asked, still catching his breath.

Ana simply looked at him and then turned back to me. “What are you getting Percy?” she asked picking up a menu, and the boys began to bicker again.

I looked over the menu. “Maybe the chicken club sandwich,” I answered after a few moments.

“I love the veggie curry here,” she said .

“Like it spicy,” Dylan yelled, and Harris cracked up beside him.

“I don’t know why we sat down beside you two fools,” Ana replied, her cheeks tinted red.

It wasn’t long before a waiter had taken our orders and we had finished our food and were chatting amongst ourselves.

“So, you guys have been servants, all your lives?” I asked, confused by the thought of such a thing. I had no idea that people were born servants. I grew up in a mixed community and while we had to pay taxes to house Maria, that was where our interaction with the house system ended.

“Yeah, we come from lines that have served the same Royal or noble family for generations,” Dylan explained. “All servants are sent to an Academy for at least two years of classes once we reach our eighteenth year, so we’re prepared for our duties when we return home.”

“How old are you guys?” I asked curiously.

“I’m in my twentieth year and last year here at Sanguis Academy. So is Dylan, but he’s in his twenty-first year—got held back for being stupid,” Harris answered.

“Did not, where do you get off telling pretty girls I’m stupid?” Dylan replied.

“You forgot your own age, Dylan, and missed the enrolment for what should have been your first year of classes,” Harris argued.

“I wasn’t ready to be older.”

“That’s not how aging works!”

“I’m in my nineteenth year, and this is my first year here.” Ana turned to answer me, ignoring Harris and Dylan, who were getting steadily louder in their argument now on what qualified as aging. “What about you?” she asked.

“My nineteenth birthday is in a few months,” I answered. “I didn’t know that there was more compulsory education for so many people past your sixteenth year. I’ve been working the last couple of years.”

“How did you come to be the personal servant of the Princess of all people?” she questioned.

“Yeah, Percy, what’s the deal with that?” Harris asked leaning forward interested, having heard Ana’s questions.

“I purchased her.” The smooth, cold voice of the Princess answered behind me.

Everyone at the table rose as if on cue, bowing their heads in the direction of the Princess. I stood also, slower, awkward, was that how I was meant to greet her too? I looked to the Princess for guidance and her silver eyes met mine in a steely stare that said I had done something wrong, but I didn’t know what.

“Have you eaten, pet?” she asked me, ignoring my new friends who stayed stood heads bowed silently.

“Yes, Ma’am,” I answered, not liking the tension that I could practically feel buzz around me.

“Come along now, say goodbye to your classmates,” she instructed, and at her words, my new friends all stood up straight and looked at me with small smiles.

“Bye guys, Ana,” I said, wrapping the bubbly girl in a quick hug.

“See you later,” she spoke as I pulled away .

“Bye, Percy,” the boys sang in unison and I’m sure they didn’t mean it, embarrassment reddening their cheeks.

I followed the Princess from the café along corridors, struggling to keep pace with her long strides. Eventually, she slowed down her pace as we entered a library. I followed her as she walked through rows of old books further and further into what seemed a maze of shelves.

When she stopped in what appeared to be a forgotten corner, where the books held visible dust, she spun to look at me. Her eyes flashed for a moment and she closed the space between us, her head ducking to sniff me.

“Why do I smell that boy on you?” she questioned through clenched teeth. I didn’t know what she was talking about.

“What boy, Ma’am?” I asked, confused. She stood up to her full height.

“The larger one, part beast shifter,” she spat out slowly, her eyes steadily growing brighter.

“Uh, he held my arm briefly as we walked to the café.” How on earth could she smell that briefest of interactions? “You have incredible senses,” I blurted out, unthinking, not noticing the angry twist to her lips.

“Why was he holding your arm?” she questioned, ignoring my comment.

“I’m not sure, Ma’am. It was innocent fun. I was walking arm in arm with Ana and Dylan joined with my arm, and Harris with Ana’s….” I trailed off. What had I done wrong?

“Do you want to have fun with that beast shifter?” she questioned. Was she even listening to me? What was she hearing?

“No, Ma’am,” I answered her .

“Then why did you let him put his stench all over you?” she asked, her eyes brighter still. Was this possessiveness? Were other smells not allowed to be on me? Surely the scent of Ana was stronger, did Ana not count? A growl rumbled from her chest when I didn’t answer quick enough.

Scents were to do with marking, and I had just sat through a lesson on the topic. Don’t resist the vampire’s instincts, and this line of questioning had to be all instinct because it made no sense whatsoever.

I stepped forward towards the Princess. “I’m sorry, Ma’am, I didn’t know his scent was on me,” I spoke softly as calmly as I could. “I don’t want his scent on me, or anyone else’s, only yours,” I told her, looking up to meet glowing silver.

She reached for me. Her arms snaked around me, holding my arms tight to my sides and crushing my front to hers. The Princess bent her head, rubbing her cheek against mine and dipping her head further, she ran her tongue from the base of my neck to my ear, repeating the action on the other side. And she began to nip the flesh of my neck with her teeth almost frantically.

“You’re mine,” she hissed in my ear.

“I know,” I replied, not resisting whatever this was.

“He wants you,” she said, her voice sounding less strained. “His arousal is what I sense,” she continued, lower against my neck.

“He can’t have me,” I reassured, and was rewarded with that growl that was more of a purr as she nibbled gently on my ear.