"Smug little bitch!" Ben grumbled under his teeth while he was sitting inside the living room. TV was on, but his attention was somewhere else.

"The lunch is ready!" Jesse called out, standing at the door. "I thought you were hungry."

"I'm hungry," Ben murmured. "Has your friends gone?"

"No, she is in the kitchen."

"I'll eat later, then." He sighed.

"Okay." Jesse curled her lip as she turned around.

Lying on the settee, Ben changed the channels with the remote aimlessly. His stomach started rumbling.

"Are you waiting for an invitation card to come to lunch?" asked Aurah, walking into the room with a trayin her hands.

Ben sat up in his place with a bewildered expression on his bitter face. Aurah smiled and put the trayon his lap. Ben was at a loss as to what to say. He couldn't believe that he was stultified by a twelve-year old. Aurah took the remote from his hand and switched to HBO.

"True Blood's new season is starting tonight," she said, gazing at the TV.

Ben raised his hand from his meal. "Are you a little too young to watch a TV show like that?"

Aurah shrugged. "Well… I'd have been 18 years old by now if I hadn't…"

Ben raised one eyebrow. "If you hadn't what?"

"Nevermind!" She sighed

Although Ben was curious for her unfinished sentence, he didn't press her. He almost felt like he couldn't even if he had wanted to. She was like more powerful than him in some way.

"Where is Jesse?" He asked instead.

"On the phone… With her boyfriend, I guess."

After two minutes passed in silence, Aurah looked at him from the corner of her eyes.

"Jesse says you don't like women. Is that true?" She innocently asked.

Ben thought for a moment before he replied. Then, "Whatever she said, it's true," he replied callously. Then he took a sip of his orange juice.

Aurah's self-confident smile got widened. "Lucky that I'm not a woman… Yet!"

Ben's orange juice gushed out of his nose. He coughed so hard to breathe again. Aurah didn't seem to give up so easily. She kept on driving him to the corner.

"Do you have a mate? I mean, have you ever had a mate?"

This time, it was the food which stuck in Ben's throat. He drank the orange juice in one fell swoop. Aurah was enjoying it while he was suffering with her unexpected questions. No one had asked Ben such questions before.

"It's none of your business," he replied.

"I know it's not. But I wanna know."

"Can you just leave me alone?" Ben said harshly.

"Why don't you like me? I said I'm not a woman!" Aurah laughed.

"I don't want to hear one more thing about this," said Ben, looking at the little chubby girl who was sitting next to him.

"I take this as a 'No'," she tittered.

Ben threw his head back. "Oh, Lord! Show mercy on me!" He said, looking at the ceiling.

"Aurah, help me make some desert!" Jesse's voice came from the kitchen.

"I guess, God has heard your call," Aurah said to Ben, grinning.

Then she bounced out the room while Ben was looking behind her as dazed and confused…

Three Days Later

It was 7 a.m. when Ben's phone started ringing. Grumbling, he jumped out of bed and looked at the name on the phone screen. He was surprised. It was someone there who had never called him before; Dr. Samuel Cornick.

Ben pushed the answer button: "Hello?"

"This is Dr. Samuel Cornick," the voice said from the other side of the line.

"I know," Ben murmured. "Your number was in my phone records. How could I help you at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning, Dr. Cornick?" He wasn't giving up being arrogant even towards Marrok's son.

Samuel sighed. "I'm gonna ask you for a favor."

"Okay. What is it?"

"I have to be at the hospital all day long. And Jesse has gone to her mother yesterday. Mercy is so busy with her cars… Well, Aurah doesn't want to spend the day all by herself."

Ben swallowed. "Are you asking me to take care of that little b…baby?" He managed to change the word with a sudden stratagem before he called the girl a rude name. Cause, Heaven Forbid, Samuel could have ripped his head off easily if he had said so.

Samuel understood and yet overlooked what he had said – because it wasn't personal. This was Ben's usual attitude towards every woman.-

"I told her that Honey or Arielle might stay with her, but she insisted on YOU," he replied unhappily.

Ben put his hand on his forehead. "I'm sorry but I'm kinda busy today." He lied.

"I understand." Samuel smiled. He knew very well that Ben just lied. But he didn't care. All of a sudden, Aurah –who had been listening to the conversation from the beginning- cut in:

"This is Sunday! And you don't have a girlfriend!" She yelled to the phone. "And I don't think that you go to church on Sundays!"

Ben started sweating and stuttering: "I… I… I was going to run some errands."

"Good, I can help him to run some errands," Aurah said to Samuel smugly.

Samuel took a deep breath before he talked again. "Ben, seemingly we've got no choice. I'm not your Alpha, so I can't order you. But I can call Adam and ask him to order you for this. Understand?"

Ben wiped away the tears on his forehead and surrendered. "Okay. Bring her here."

"I'll be there in 10 minutes," Samuel replied before he hung up.

"Where has this sudden interest for Ben come from?" Samuel asked Aurah inside the car as he drove along to Ben's place.

"What interest?" Aurah said, playing it cool. "I just met him three days ago."

"All right…" Samuel assumed on a serious air. "Maybe I should tell you a few things about him."

Aurah's eyebrows flew. "Like what?"

"Well, he was exiled from London pack."

"Uh, I know that. Warren told me."

"Did he tell you why he was exiled?"

"Hmm… well, no he didn't."

"He had become a suspect for a serial murder…"

Aurah's mouth fell open. She was at a loss as to what to say. She just waited for her father to continue. But Samuel said no more. He preferred to enjoy Aurah's silent reaction. He definitely knew that Ben was not guilty. But he was ready to make Aurah believe this if it would change her idea about spending time with Ben. Guilty or not, Ben was not a man to trifle with…

However, his plan didn't work! After a minute of thinking, Aurah took a breath and smiled cherubically:

"I think I'm gonna figure this out on my own," she said calmly.

Samuel swore under his teeth. He was giving his baby girl to a potential psycho with his own hands. But he had no choice. Because Aurah had already told him sharply that an "absent father" had no right to manipulate her in her own decisions! Soon as she heard the words "No, you can't!" she was going to pack her bags and fly back to New York. Therefore, Samuel had to switch from dominant to submissive to make Aurah stay with him longer.

When the car approached to the building, Samuel called Ben again: "We've arrived!"

Ben got out of the door while Samuel was kissing his daughter's forehead. Then he turned his direction to Ben for a browbeating.

"Aurah, can you go inside? I need to talk to Ben for a second in private."

"Sure," Aurah replied, throwing Ben a "poor thing" look as she was passing by.

Ben and Samuel stood against each other. Samuel's head was above:

"She is here as a result of her own will, not mine! But this doesn't mean that I won't rip your head off if she gets hurt at the end of the day. Are we clear?"

"Clear." Ben nodded.

"Good. I'm going to hospital. Since you know my mobile number, you can call me for anything about her," said Samuel before he got in the car and went away.

Ben looked at the door to his house hopelessly. "Bloody hell! Babysitting… That's all I need right now!" He grumbled to himself.