((The updates are going to hit a brick wall now that school is going to be back in session for me tomorrow. I'm going to do the best I can to update, but until soccer season is over I'm at school until at least 4, usually 5. And with home games I don't get back until 7. Away games are even worse, sometimes I don't even get back until the next morning. Not to mention I'll have homework to do. So yeah.))

"You. Did. WHAT?" I stood there, dumbstruck. "You took her out of safety, out of her home, into the world of monsters that she has learned to hate all her life…WHAT THE FUCK WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR HEAD?"

"Roza, wait-" I kicked him hard between the legs before he could finish.

"And you had the nerve to touch me after that? Doing the worst possible thing to my best friend, who I had been connected to like another body part…"

"Roza, ple-" He was crying out to me. I ignored him by landing a punch to his chest.

"And then you fuck me like nothing happened."

I kicked him in the face and he lie on the floor, trying to recover. I put my foot over his chest and crushed down hard. Curse me for not wearing those heels. They would've been very handy right now.

That's why he had acted so guilty. He knew he was going to do this before I left. I had trusted him. He had betrayed that trust.

"I trusted you," I repeated. My body moved close to his so that we were within breathing distance. "And you betrayed that trust." I spat in his face. "You betrayed me."

In a fit of pure rage, I threw the ring at him and stood over his body.

"No, Roza! The ri-"

Tired of his constant interruptions and pleas, I threw him against the window. Unfortunately, the windows were tough. He bounced right off and I heard something crack as he hit the floor.

But I had forgotten he was Strigoi, creatures of the night who healed quickly. He picked up the ring and pressed it against my cheek.

I punched him in the face.

He stumbled, clearly surprised by this. My rage transcended the powers of the ring.

Dimitri recovered quickly and pressed his mouth against mine for a kiss. I knocked him back, but this time he'd been expecting it and threw me against the wall. I heard something crack, but pain was muffled by anger…and fear.

He strode like a dark lord towards me, and fear consumed me. It held me in place, but I made my face appear fearless and full of hatred.

"You will not listen to reason, to calm words. You will not listen to your heart." He picked my chin up and made me look into his cold, dark brown eyes. "So I must make you listen to pain."

He punched me in the gut. "In the hours before you were awakened, I learned that Christian Ozera became Strigoi." I received a hard punch to the face. "Not only that, but he had taken Vasilisa off-campus against her will. Somehow, she managed to get away from him."

He put a foot on my body, crushing it as I had done to him before. "There were Strigoi ordered to hunt her down and kill her, Roza. From our ranks. Instead of death or awakening, I changed the orders to delivering her to us." He returned to soft, kind Dimitri and knelt to cup my face in his hands. "Do you understand now, my love?" He slid the ring back on my hand. "My wife?"

Silence enveloped the two of us. All I could hear was our breathing…

"I'm not your wife yet." I batted him away. "Why couldn't you have just sent her back to St. Vlad's?"

He groaned, releasing his hands from my face. "Yes, because clearly I want to send useful tracker Strigoi carrying a valuable commodity to a highly-guarded area where they will almost certainly be killed. And didn't you mention something being wrong with Lissa since you had left?"

I gasped. I had completely forgotten about her alcohol abuse. He was absolutely right and yet…

I avoided admitting he was right. "But how do you know they won't slip up and awaken or kill her? The alcohol abuse could've been fixed. And when did I tell you something was wrong with Lissa?"

He gave a dark and scary grin. "Oh they won't. Trust me." The grin turned to a grimace. "Once after a bite. You didn't remember…" He still didn't like the fact that he had, in essence, turned me into a blood whore. I didn't either. Anger began to flow into my veins again, but a quick comment stopped him.

"Anyways, all of our things have been moved to the penthouse. You want to go see it?" He had released me and now towered over me, outstretching a hand for me to grab.

I tossed him the book and hopped up. With Strigoi speed, I picked him up and raced up the stairs with him in my arms. When we had reached the top, I dropped him hard on the floor of the hallway.

"That's for calling Lissa a 'valuable commodity'."

He had patiently waited through being carried like a child, but after being dropped on the floor, evil Dimitri broke through again. He threw me against the wall and kept me there with his body.

"You think that you are the alpha here. And you are. The alpha female. I am the alpha male. You remember which of the two is more dominant, don't you?" His voice was scary, like an icicle snake crawling up my back.

"The male," I begrudgingly admitted.

"Correct…" His hand slid through my hair, and our mouths met.

Although I kissed back, I pushed him onto the next wall and pinned him there, continuing the kissing. I broke off for a second to say, "But when the male is in a weak position compared to the female, he is prey and she is predator." I continued the kiss before he could say anything. He attempted to break away several times, but I stopped him.

Someone came up the stairs while we were making out. A Strigoi. He began speaking Russian, which kindled my anger. We broke off again. "Dima, could you please tell him about our new policy of Russian speaking in front of me?" He turned to the Strigoi and did so. He became enraged and said some choice words in Russian. I knew they were choice, because Dimitri had used them on occasion.

"Hey Dima, I have an idea." My smile became evil and sexy at the same time. "First one to kill him is alpha for the day."

"You're on, Roza."