Behold! A promise of another chapter!

Beta'ed by the lovely woman, Dragonian Master! Give an applaud to her and her wonderful job making this story smooth as possible! :)

Enjoy~

-Vlad's Point of View-

The pair of warm arms wrapped around my abdominal area and the sound was random from a moving screen picture. There was no focus as much oblivious for me and isolated for temporarily. I was rather staggered by my overtaken behaviour, especially directly to my loyal employee, and often, I would have let Skulker does his routine obsession. Daniel always defeats him…it was something to be taken lightly, but a side of me viewed it as a threat.

What changed? It is not my responsibilities to protect Daniel. Despite of the fact I did against Skulker. He knew how powerful I am, but what happened?

Meow~

My body jerked over and saw the fine white feline walking up to me. She always knew when to visit me and she leapt onto the couch to land onto my lap. Her head nudged against the bump as my daughter fluttering inside of me. My hand slid on the small head and I sighed miserably.

"Ah, hello Maddie. It has been a couple of days since I have seen you." I hummed dreadfully.

Her meow was gentle to greet me. She leaned in and licked my clothes to reach contact with my daughter inside of me. Maddie does this quite often since I got pregnant. It's quite hilarious that our motherly instincts are not so different.

"Of course…I had forced you to give up your litters and partner. Now I understand," She threw a hissy fit when she saw me kicking them out of the house. Well, I had them up for an adoption. "I'm sorry, Maddie. Is this how you feel?"

Could have I reacted on an emotional state of defence towards my partner? There was a difficult grasp to form for me due to his behaviour this morning. He has admitted about the dreams and there weren't lies. Is he beginning to realize something between us?

"Do you think he loves me, Maddie?" Her golden eyes with a hint of ruby pupils glanced up at me and tilted her head as she meowed at me, "You are right." Why would he love me? "No one loves me anyway, so he is simply doing this to keep running the castle business. He is better off to chain me to bed and force me to give birth on his term." I can simply imagine his doing to keep me in place.

The cat meowed loudly and decided to go feed her in her usual cat room. I was rather surprised Daniel hasn't commented about the cat. I forced myself up from the cat while I adjust to the weight against my back. Maddie followed me down the hallway and I opened the door. Her room isn't large or small, but it would have been a study office. Daniel preferred an office upstairs rather than downstairs.

It's ridiculous how I haven't been alone for so long with Maddie. A world where I was confined to and barely others held care for me. Jack could not count because of his inability of reading people. Madeline, on the other hand, can read half of me. Jasmine is much on top of her people reading skill; aside from the team members of hers. Daniel, however, can read me too easily and not easily fooled.

Why did he leave me alone? Isn't he supposed to be keeping me happy no matter what? Although, he did display respect and understanding for me in the past month. Up until now, Daniel has become rather interested in me and pursuing in me as well. His charming has definitely found hope for me.

Maddie meowed her thank you to me and moved forward to the food bowl. She likes to have her bowl separately at least a foot apart. I sat down on her guest's chair and grown to her company for a change.

"I do not understand, Maddie, why that had happened to me," I curiously wondered.

Loud footstep comes in, "Vlad? Are you talking to my mom on the phone?" He found the room I was in, yet, I wondered how he knew where I was.

Daniel froze at the sight of this room while holding a bag in his grip. He saw the cat and stared at me to question. Obviously, I knew having the cat on a diet was wise because she was moody when it came to being overweight. If he had seen her then, he'd probably assume she is evil. She is now a delicate looking for her size and healthy too.

"No, Daniel, I was talking to Maddie," I gestured towards the feline.

His head nodded, "I didn't know we have a cat…or even planned on adopting one."

I chuckled, "No, no. I had the cat for years now, since about seven years ago."

He was surprised, "You took my advice?" He muttered something, "Guess I can't stop you from having a pet. So you named this one after my mom?"

I nodded, "Yes, but she's quite a company."

"How come I haven't seen her around?"He gave me a look.

How I have wonder why they haven't notice each other, but Maddie knew who he was. She walked up to him in her respectful manner and sat in front of him. Her head lowered to sniff his sneakers and recognize his scent. She moved closely to him and greeted him by rubbing her body against his leg.

"She likes you, Daniel. And I suppose you haven't noticed, I guess. She tends to hide often in here than around the house." I shrugged.

He seems to adore her already, "So, is there something you would like to talk about?" He offered.

Curse my emotions, he knew what I feeling currently. I was rather glad he could not read mind or such ability to exist. He bent down and allowed the cat sniff his hand before he chose to pet her. She was licking his hand and he giggled lightly.

"Do I must?"

His head picked up at me with those robin blue eyes, "You don't have to…but, you're probably confused about the sudden reaction to Skulker. It doesn't have to be me, Karian can answer anything for you, Jazz, Sam, or anyone in the ghost zone you trust and know about this stuff." He stood up while rubbing his neck, showing me that he's nervous.

Daniel was patient with me and too understanding for me. Most of all, he trusts me well enough. This has amazed me to his decency around me was proof indicting he is someone to trust about this. In a sense, how I could feel almost ashamed for avoiding my problem without trusting him. His face expressed no reasons to worry about this. For now, my head nodded and he left a gentle smile for me to see.

"I'll be in the kitchen making us dinner. If you need me, I'll be there for you." He commented.

Maddie rubbed against my leg for my attention and he left me alone for now. Daniel wasn't expecting me to talk, yet, showing there was not a nary thing from me as expected. I sat down on the guest chair in this room and Maddie leapt up onto my lap. She purred to show her comfort towards me, but I grew guilty in my own thoughts.

My partner seems to understand my position and proving his uphold promises. He trusted me and believes I am capable of handling this on my own. He barely sees the different between the man he knew to who I am today. The difference was how he treats me today.

"Maddie, he does keep his promise too well." I sighed, "Do you think he understands what was going on?" My fingers slipped through her white thick fur.

Meow~

She made her point on my question. Often, she rarely trusts others to be close to her beside myself. Daniel was the second lucky one to be within her reach and trusts. I picked her up and set her down on the ground. My body struggled for balance due to extra weigh against my spinal cord by the growing baby inside of me.

She flutters when she's happy. However, she punches hard when she is angry. I had to learn little by little to understand her personality, especially when she gets excited when the father is talking to her.

The father of my daughter has never punished me horribly, so why should I fear him?

Then, it clicked. Inside of me was furious at myself for not fearing him or showing my place of loyalty towards him. Everything had confused me since I no longer control the simple things. Daniel had mention before about his king side takes over…

Did he suspect something would happen in me? He has answers already from the way he offered to talk. Perhaps learning would help in my case and prevent that from happening or repeating another aggressive attack towards my loyal employee. It does not bold well for my reputation nor Daniel's…I doubt he'd want to put up with the ghosts' harsh words because of failing mate standard.

I headed out of the room and found myself into the kitchen, where I saw pizza dough being brushed on with olive oil by my partner. He was spreading the olive oil through the whole pizza dough.

"Daniel…are you busy," I asked.

His head shook, "No. What's up, Vlad," He set the brush aside and grabbed some shredded cheese and vegetables to lay out on the pizza.

My eyes drew down to the pizza, "About my…behaviour."

He gestured towards the chair, "Okay, tell me what I need to know." Simple…he knew what I was going through.

Of course, standing on my feet was a bit achy and sitting down helps lessen things up a bit. I sat down and watched him make pizza.

"Skulker mentions of hunting you to be his pelt and I snapped at him that don't you dare touch him saying. I turned into a beast against him. I do not possibly understand why that happens?"

Daniel nodded as he placed the pizza into the oven, "That's because you are known as a king's mate. Your role is to protect me, so your mate side overrules you and make sure to those who backs off or understands the warning."

My hand was soothed the bump and connects some ideal point he had. My partner made it simple for me to understand and he was prepared for this for the past five years almost. I must admit, he knew what he was facing, and rather pleased to see he stayed calm about everything.

"Isn't it your responsibility to be protecting me?"

"Vice versa," He shrugged, "It's sort of a balance. Each king needs a mate, not because of spawns necessity, but to keep things fresh as possible." His elbows rest on the counter and smiled at me, "The ghost zone needs a way to keep going without stopping, but if a king doesn't have a mate, there's nothing going or happening. Although, Pariah Dark doesn't count since he's more of a dictator."

My hand stroked the bump and recalled how the ghost zone changed when Daniel took over. There were several changes throughout the ghost zone due to Daniel's impact on his followers and enemies.

"Why do I seem to reside by your side immediately?" I needed to know, despite of how horrible the truth can be.

Daniel walked up to my side and side hugged me, "It is a reminder that you belong to and with me. It enforces you to remain loyal to and for me." He explained, "But I will not dare to put a finger on you to hurt you. All mates go through this after the marking and it takes time to adjust." He kissed my cheek.

My head turned to him, "Thank you, Daniel."

I needed what was necessary to hear and he had given me what I must know. In a way, he kept his words and stood by for me.

Did you like the change of scenery?

The next chapter will be released tomorrow! :D I promise!

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