A/N: As an apology for being so incredibly late with the update (even a week later than I said, but I had exams, and parties, sorry :s), this chapter is extra long, and I'm already working on the following chapter. 

Now, the chapter you've all been waiting for:

Chapter 18: Sniffing the wolf out

Time is a vicious and cruel thing. When it needs not go fast, it seems to pass at the speed of light. When it needs to go fast though, it takes forever for a second to pass.

She watched the time pass on the grandfather's clock in the dining room. Her eyes were slits as she glared at it.

"My love, do you mind not staring at the clock like you're going to eat it? It kind of gives me the creeps," a masculine, smooth voice suddenly whispered in her ear. Shivers ran down her spine.

"If it freaks you out, then why don't you go and hide under the bed, huh?" she snapped at him.

A gentle, soft chuckle filled her ears. "No can do, my dear. You know how much I enjoy staring at you, Christina."

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," she replied dryly.

"I doubt it, a picture fades in time, whereas I shall never allow you to do so."

"Whatever, Alexander. And you should stop talking like some kind of evil maniac in a horror movie who's about to kill his victim."

"You make such amazing comparisons, dear. Now... Mind explaining why you're glaring at the clock in the first place?"

"I'm waiting for my friends to come over, if it wasn't bloody obvious before!" Christina snapped.

"That might take a while, Christina, I already told you they will be here around 3 o'clock, and it's only one o'clock now."

"Then what do you suggest I do?"

"You could... Watch a movie with me?"

"Which one? And if you suggest Dracula, I'm going to hit you."

"Dracula? I might be one very cliché vampire, but I'm not a big fan of Dracula. The story is good, the book is too old-fashioned for me."

"You know what's too old-fashioned for me?" she asked, trying to stop herself from grinning.

He took the bait. "No, what?"

"You!" she exclaimed. He tackled her to the floor and started tickling her.

"Take it back! Take that comment back!" he screamed, laughing.

"Never!" she replied.

"Do it!"

"No! No! No!" she screamed, but her other words were smothered by an intense kiss that went straight to her core. She moaned at the warm, tingling feeling of pure and utter happiness that filled her. His lips went to her ear, leaving a trail of kisses on the side of her face.

"Please take it back?" he whispered, while his tongue flicked out to lick her ear.

"Okay, okay, I take it back," she huffed out between her gasps for breath. Just like that, he pulled away. Stunned, she looked up to see him do the least manly victory dance ever.

"I win, you lose!" he laughed. "Is that modern and young enough for you, dear?" he asked, raising his brow.

"Sure, toddler. Now let's put you in your bed for a nap," she replied, before rolling her eyes.

"Didn't realize you're into role playing, my dear," he chuckled. She whacked his head.

"So, movie? Maybe we could watch "If I stay"? I've been told it's an amazing movie."

"What is it about?" Christina asked in a bored tone.

"A girl who plays cello, loves Adam the guitarist, wants to go to Juilliard... And has to decide between life and death."

"Wow, you should totally write summaries," she laughed and then shrugged. "What the hell. Let's just watch it."

An hour later they were cuddled up on the sofa, both sniffling while watching the movie. "Why can't she just pick Adam?" Alexander grumbled. "It's obvious they adore each other."

"Be quiet," Christina hissed, hitting his arm, causing him to smirk and raise an eyebrow at her. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him.

Just as the credits came on, the bell rang. They both jumped, surprised to find out there was still an outside world.

Christina dried her tears, looked at the clock and smiled. "If it's not them, I'm going to scream," she joked. Alec chuckled.

"I'm sure it's them, no need to ruin your vocal chords, dear," he replied, walking towards the doors to welcome their guests.

"Nice tomb, bloodsucker," Christina heard Danny joke a moment later. She ran towards the hall and jumped in his arms. He laughed his warm, rich laugh and returned her hug. When she retracted, she noticed something horrifying.

"What have you done?" she brought out with wide eyes, staring at his once blonde hair that now contained red streaks. Behind him, Rachel and Addy hit Adrian's head. "Ask Mister Innocent, here."

Danny huffed and looked back to glare at Adrian, who was snickering, while Simon grinned widely.

"Those two always do such things. As I said before, Simon's the brain, but Adrian's to blame," Addy said.

Christina laughed. "Why red?"

"Because Danny's hot and red's the colour of hotness!" Adrian yelled out, storming forward and tackling Danny, before jumping up and hugging Christina. "Hey, Angel!"

"Hey, joker. How's it hanging?"

"Everything's great, just a little down because you weren't in school," he pouted. Out of nowhere, Simon appeared and he too engulfed her in a hug. "Hi," he said calmly.

"Our turn!" Rachel and Addy yelled, pushing the guys out of the way. They both grabbed one of Christina's arms.

"You have to give us a tour, like right now," Rachel said. "You don't want us getting lost in this huge place and suddenly jumping out of your underwear drawer in a couple of days!" she teased.

Alec was following with the guys, probably having some kind of alien talk - boy talk, that is.

"So... How's being mates going for you guys?" Simon asked, looking around as if he were taking in every detail of the house.

Alexander started muttering incoherent words, but Christina cut him off. "It's going great! Well, at first I was really upset because he was a complete asshole, I even threw a vase or two at his head, but now we have lots of fun together. He's my best buddy, and I love him."

She smiled at him, but then she heard someone starting to whine. "I thought I was your best buddy!" Danny said, pouting.

"You're my best werewolf buddy, okay?"

He huffed and turned his head to look at a painting of a man and woman sitting on two thrones. Honestly, she never noticed it hanging there before. She stepped forward to observe it more closely.

The colours were still bright, obviously high quality paint was used. The people on the painting had a certain resemblance to Alexander; the woman had his wavy, golden hair, and perfect semi-high cheekbones, and the man had his amazingly blue eyes and strong jaw line.

They both wore medieval attire, and hints of red were woven through the fabric of their clothes. Judging by the romantic style it was painted in and the Ionic pillars in the background, she'd say it was painted during the Renaissance period.

A hand fell on her shoulder. She turned her head and smiled at Alexander. "Are they your...?"

"Yes, they are my parents."

"They're beautiful," Christina said in awe.

"I know, it runs in the family," he answered, wiggling his eyebrows.

"It sure does," she muttered under her breath, turning back to her friends and continuing with the tour.

"Is there any more food?" Adam asked, rubbing his belly. "I'm still kind of hungry," he said, grinning.

"Yeah, me too," Danny said, and Simon nodded enthusiastically.

The girls had stopped eating a while ago, mumbling things about "their diet". Alexander sighed. "You already ate everything I had! Tomorrow I'll send for enough food to feed an army - or five werewolves. Okay?"

"Sure, sure, but that doesn't change the fact that we're hungry now!" Danny exclaimed dramatically.

Christina laughed. "I hope you'll get so fat you won't be able to ever see your favourite body part again."

"My big toe? I won't get to see my big toe anymore?!" he shouted.

"Sure, why not?" she said, rolling her eyes.

A few minutes of silence later, Simon started talking. "So how's life going for you, Alexander?"

"Great, now that I have this beautiful maiden right next to me," Alexander answered, throwing his arm around Christina's shoulders and pulling her into a hug, before placing a kiss on her forehead.

"I bet it is. I didn't see any security when we came in?"

"Ah, I have seven "security guards" every night and day. They work in pairs of two, patrolling around the perimeter. The seventh one walks around randomly. They're all vampires, so it's hard to get past them."

"So do they have certain shifts?"

"Yes, they do, actually. There's a day-team and a night-team. The team that's working only leaves when the other team has fully arrived."

"Oh, they're not live-in guards?"

"No, I find it quite annoying to have a lot of people around the house. This is the place I come to when I want some peace, because the palace is so busy."

"Aha, so any live-in maids, then?"

"Yeah, I have three live-in maids. An elderly lady, Maude, her middle age daughter, Sarah and then a young girl named Sophia. Sophia is the one who does the shopping, and delivers messages and such. She's out most of the time."

"Oh, cool. I suppose it's handy when you have your own maids," Simon concluded, turning his attention back to Rachel, who was nagging about nail polish.

Christina leaned more towards Adeline. "Say... You guys aren't the best of friends, are you?"

Surprised, Adeline whipped her head towards Christina. "What do you mean?"

"Well... I had to find out from my vampire boyfriend that you guys are werewolves!" Christina exclaimed.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that, but it's not like we can go around and tell everyone about it, right?" Rachel budded in.

"Sure, I get that. But Alexander only said that you guys are werewolves, and something about you guys 'mating' and he mentioned alphas and betas and stuff. Furthermore, I'm really uneducated about werewolves," Christina spoke, pouting.

"What do you want to know, Angel?" Adrian asked.

"How about... everything?"

"Everything? Then we'd have to stay here for months," Simon pointed out.

"Just tell me random shit, then, is that okay for you?"

"Random shit? Sure!" spoke Danny. "There's about two hundred-fifty wolves in our pack. The social structure is very special; at the top of our "social pyramid", there's the Alpha. If you've watched documentaries on wolves, you know that that is the strongest wolf of the pack. Alphas can be challenged, and in case of emergencies, elected. The alpha position can also be passed on from parent to child. It's not necessary for the person to be of a certain gender.

Next are the Beta, and the Delta, or the second and third in command. There's not really a distinct difference between the two, only that the Beta is physically and or intellectually stronger than the Delta. Underneath them are the Omegas, regular wolves who have just that tad more; be it a special power, unusual strength or extreme intelligence.

Then there's the regulars. We also have weaker pack members, kappas, those who need protection. Unlike some books on werewolves mention, they are not used as slaves or servants. They are cherished and protected; they all turn out to be mates to stronger wolves. Wolves of higher rank than the kappas can have wolf or human mates.

I know, I know, in some stories 'Gammas' are the gifted regular wolves, and omegas are the weaker, but it's all just Greek letters, so it doesn't really matter which one you use for which rank."

"Okay, nice, you guys have a social structure that resembles a pyramid," Christina concluded. "What rank are you guys in the pack?"

Adam continued the story where Danny left off. "Danny is the future alpha of the pack, Simon is the future Beta and Adeline is the future Delta. Rachel and I are both Omegas."

"Oh, great. This entire group of friends exists solely of superior people, great!" Christina exclaimed, rolling her eyes and throwing her hands in the air.

"Well, now that you've turned out to be Alexander's soul mate, you've become the future queen of vampires, so yeah, we are a group of socially superior people." Addy said. The others nodded. Alec proudly pulled her closer to his chest and grinned widely.

"I like the sound of that. The future Queen of vampires," he sighed.

"A royal vampire pair that actually befriended werewolves. That should be good for the relationship between vampires and werewolves," Rachel pondered.

"Yes, right now the tension between the two species is becoming almost unbearable," Adam said. "Vampires and werewolves seem to become more and more incapable of cooperating."

"I disagree, actually. I feel that a vampire and a werewolf can cooperate very well on certain occasions," Simon slowly said.

"What do you mean exactly?" Christina asked curiously.

"Nothing, don't mind me, please. I say the most random things these days."

Alexander gazed at him with narrowed eyes, but said nothing of it.

Simon then looked at his watch, frowned and then spoke again: "I'm sorry, Christina, I have to go. I seem to have lost track of time. I've something to do."

"Ah, that's too bad! Let me see you out then, at least," she responded.

They both stood up and Christina led him towards the front door, where they paused.

"Take care, Christina. I honestly wish I could stay with you today."

"It's okay, it's okay. You've got something to do, I understand," she reassured him, smiling.

He engulfed her in a tight hug, held her for a moment and then reluctantly let go. "You're a good person, Angel. I'm honoured to call myself your friend." He patted her head, opened the door and left the house without waiting for a reaction.

She stood there, smiling as she watched her friend walk away.

He stopped once, turned back to her and gave her a smile that seemed sad for some reason. "Goodbye, Christina!"

"Bye, Simon!"

She honestly had no idea what this goodbye truly meant.

He saw eyes light up in the dark as his Master checked if everything was going according to plan. He shivered at the sight of those eyes, those deadly beautiful eyes.

A hand touched his hair, stroking it, before soft fabric was pulled over his eyes, blocking his vision - something his Master often did, for reasons unknown to him. "Relax, my pet. You mustn't cower away from me."

Obediently, he stiffened, allowing his Master to do whatever he wanted, and obeying his command.

"Come closer."

He shifted in the dark, using the small movements he heard and his Master's scent to navigate towards him. Not that it was that hard, his Master was practically sitting next to him.

He knew his Master could see every detail in the dark, his vision was perhaps even better in a dark room than in a lit room. But he himself could not see through the blindfold, causing him to be at an even bigger disadvantage.

Claw-like hands pulled him into his Master's lap, making him yelp. Deprived of his vision, and his hands still tied together, he helplessly lay in his Master's arms. Unsure of what to do, he spoke up carefully: "Master...?"

"Hush. I'm trying to think. Just lay with me for a while. Everything is going according to plan, my pet. Soon enough, I will have what I deserve. Then I probably won't have so much use for you anymore, though."

He felt his heart break at the thought alone. Crazy thoughts tumbled through his head and he desperately tried to suppress them. A hand was yet again placed on his head and his mind became clear immediately.

"Just a couple of weeks. It's so close. I will be King, no matter the cost."