The softest of rustling sounds caught Sam’s attention, drawing his eyes up from the sudsy water and the dishes he was scrubbing. A figure stood partly concealed by the branches, holding their body taught and unnervingly still. Sam mimicked them, freezing on the spot with his hands still under the water, and watched silently. A man slid along the boundary line of the forest, as though he were shadowing someone on patrol… Except there was no one patrolling… Sam realised with a cold feeling spreading up his neck that he hadn’t seen anyone walk the perimeter of the forest since he began washing up. He was transfixed, trying to take in every detail of this strange figure as he crept through the leaves. The man was slightly above average height, lanky build, closely shaved hair and wearing all camo clothing. He disappeared momentarily and reappeared five trees down with a phone out, held it up for a few seconds as if to take a photo and then vaporised again.

Sam pulled his hands out and dried them slowly on a tea towel, he needed to peek, he had to know if the man was still on the property. The back door that led from the kitchen to the garden had frosted glass panels but he couldn’t see any shadows on the other side, he slowly turned the handle and slipped out, peering cautiously around the hedges that lined the walls of the pack house. Not a soul could be seen or heard on that side of the house. Sam followed the wall round, sticking close to the bushes, until he reached the side the kitchen window faced but even there there was no sign of anything living but bugs. He decided to suck up all the courage inside of him (it didn’t amount to much) and walk towards the boundary line where the forest that surrounded their home began.

As he reached the first tree, an awful feeling crept over his skin and he hesitated, his wolf howling at him not to go any further, he was being watched… and he could smell a vampire. A couple of leaves dropped in a clump and Sam’s head snapped up so fast his neck cracked. Perched on a branch a foot above him was the man. A vampire man. A vampire man with a gun holstered to his hip and a look of surprised anger plastered over his face. The two males stared at each other for a couple of heartbeats, Sam’s heartbeats, the only heartbeats to be heard in the chilling silence around them. Sam drew in a huge breath and the vampire’s eyes widened, he realised he thought Sam was going to scream for help, maybe he would… He began to let out a high scream and the man disappeared before his eyes in a flutter of leaves and a gust of wind. Sam didn’t wait for him to come back and bolted back to the back door, slamming it shut and locking it before backing up until he felt the small of his back hit the island in the centre of the room.

“Sam?” The omega leapt half a foot in the air. “Are you okay?” He spun, bracing his hands on the island. Charles blinked a few times, Sam assumed out of confusion rather than a need to actually clear grit from his eyes. He was holding a book in one hand and a white paper bag in the other.

“I- Yeah.” He breathed, his legs were trembling.

“You sure?”

“Can… Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.” He slid onto one of the stools and placed his book and bag onto the island.

“Are there any other vampires… Here?” He asked hesitantly.

“What do you mean?” Charles eyebrows pulled together. “The other three ambassadors?”

“No, I mean… Any more… that we don’t know about?” Sam felt sick to his stomach as he waited for Charles’ answer. The older man pulled a face,

“No, why? That’s a weird thing to ask out of the blue.”

“It’s just… I… There was a man, a vampire… Not one of you guys.” Charles’ eyes flashed and he darted forward.

“Where?” His tone was much sharper and more serious than Sam had ever heard.

“Outside, he was in the trees and I went out to look and suddenly he was there and he was so close and he was looking at me-” Charles launched forward again and grabbed Sam’s forearms,

“Is he still out there?” he stared into Sam’s eyes with an expression of seriousness that Sam had never seen before.

“He disappeared.” Sam squeaked. Charles’ eyebrows pulled together.

“That doesn’t make any sense…”

“I think he thought I was going to scream, there was a moment when we both stared at each other and then I took a big breath and he vanished… Then I ran back here.” He tilted his head towards the back door and Charles darted over, pulling the door open a sliver and taking peek, his body stone still as he took in the garden with his hawk-like eyes.

“What did he look like?”

“Tallish, skinny, buzzcut…” Sam waved his hands around, a little unsure of what else to say. “Camouflage clothes… Big belt… Gun…”

“A GUN?!” Charles spun round, slamming the door behind him.

“Ye-yes…” Sam paused, scrunching his face up in confusion. “Why do you sound so worried, I thought vampire skin was too strong to be harmed by bullets?”

“I’m bulletproof but you’re not!” Charles exclaimed, his honey eyes wide and his eyebrows high. Sam blinked and fiddled with his top nervously.

“Oh.”

“I’ll let the other reps know, you tell Markus and make sure he informs his dad.”

“Right, yeah.” He nodded, already dreading even entering Markus’ office, let alone trying to have a conversation with him. Markus did not like to be interrupted when he was working… Actually, Markus didn’t like to be interrupted ever…

“And don’t go outside, not until we know what’s going on.”

“Yes, sir.” It popped out of his mouth instinctively and he immediately regretted it, stupid omega reflexes..

“I- Hey, don’t…” If Charles could blush, there would have been a pink tinge adorning his cheeks to match his expression of mortification. Sam blushed on his behalf.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t worry, It’s fine.” He gave a small smile and vanished through the door that lead back up to the rest of the house.

~

“Sir, I saw something in the forest today.”

“Trees?” Markus asked, keeping his eyes on the laptop screen in front of him.

“Within our boundary line, sir.” Sam continued, undeterred by his mate’s lack of attention. Markus’ mood swung back and forth with no clear rhythm but Sam at least knew that he was most likely to get a sour reaction from him and could prepare himself for that.

“Trees with initials carved into them?”

“A vampire.” Sam added. Markus looked up now, but only to give Sam a biting look of annoyance.

“Could it be, just maybe, that this vampire was one of those staying in our house?”

“It wasn’t, sir. I had never seen him before, I even described him to Charles and he said he didn’t think it was someone from their coven.” Sam insisted, begging with his eyes for Markus to take him seriously. The alpha snorted.

“Their covens are huge, I doubt he knows every member.”

“Vampires have incredible memories, sir.” Said Sam.

“Did he tell you that?”

“Who?”

“Ambassador Charles, your new bff.” He made sure to double dip the word ‘ambassador’ in a thick layer of contempt.

“He-”

“He is only pretending to be your friend, you know.” Sam stiffened, that stung.

“He’s a good man.” Was all he replied. Markus looked satisfyingly uncomfortable as he stalked out of the office, closing the door behind him.

~

Cassie was at Karliah’s pack house that day, but Sam called to let her know what had happened. He couldn’t bear it if something happened to her because she wasn’t warned. Karliah, of course, was far more concerned than Cassie was and had Sam run through every moment of the encounter, firing questions at him with rapid succession while Cassie whined in the background about the alpha ‘interrogating’ her friend.

She then had Sam pass the phone to Charles who also had to answer ten thousand questions before promising he would speak to Markus afterwards since Sam’s attempt at warning him had gone so expectedly badly.

They both wished the girls a lovely evening, promised to see them in the morning and hung up.

~

“Come on, babe.” Cassie whined. “We’ve finally got a finished guest list, it’s time to pick out the invitations and get the names sent off to the printers.”

“Are we sure it’s absolutely complete this time though? No more changes or last minute additions?” Karliah huffed, shrugging on her leather jacket.

“You say that like it’s been my pack that has been the source of all the chopping and changing!” Cassie laughed, pulling gently on Karliah’s plaits. Her alpha tilted her head down to kiss her forehead.

“I know, I’m just getting so exasperated with all the little details… I’m more worried about my vows than which suck-up wannabe-diplomats sit three rows back and clap politely at the end of the ceremony - we are going to say the exact same sentence to fifty percent of our guests: ‘thank you so much for coming, we look forward to building stronger bonds between our packs in the future’ and that’s it, that’s literally all we will say to those self-important dominants.” She sighed, “And now with this rogue vampire business… I just feel like there are so many serious issues that are pulling at my attention and yet my mother is pestering me relentlessly about what table the alpha of Moon Shadow will be sitting on and whether or not we remembered to invite the alpha-mate of Blood Fang.” Cassie pulled herself up on her tip-toes to pop a kiss on Karliah’s nose before sliding on her thick wool cardigan. “I know these things are important but in the grand scheme of things they just don’t feel that important in comparison to a wild vampire roaming about.” Karliah grabbed her keys as they approached the front door with another sigh. “But, for now, let’s enjoy our date night.” Cassie beamed up at her, pulling the door open and standing back to let her mate through.

“I agree, let’s enjoy ourselves.” She took her mate’s hand as they walked to the car. “Plus, we should be celebrating finishing the list!”

“Champagne all around.” Karliah chuckled, unlocking her car and opening the passenger door for Cassie to hop in.

“And while we are there we can start short-listing paper types, fonts, envelopes and design styles.” Cassie announced, her bright smile never fading. Karliah paused, staring at her for a moment before groaning and throwing the door closed and stomping round to her side of the car.

~

Most of the work Markus’ father had assigned to him was finished and he was ready to wind down for the night when the vampire knocked on the office door.

“Come in.” He called. As soon as the door opened he wished he hadn’t. Charles. That cocky, laid-back, arrogant vampire that was always hanging around Sam like a fly buzzes around a horse’s backside.

“Afternoon.” He greeted. Markus grunted back. He was unperturbed and took a seat in front of him, clearly unfazed by Markus’ alpha aura as he relaxed into the chair as though he owned it. “I’m sure Sam has already told you but I wanted to inform you that I have given my fellow ambassadors a full report on this morning’s events with the rogue vampire and we have a contact back home looking into the matter. Until then, we will be avoiding leaving the pack house.” Markus took a moment to process his words - Sam had been serious. He had assumed the omega was looking for attention with his tale of a wild vampire in the woods. He sat up straighter and raised an eyebrow at his unwanted visitor.

“Scared of one rogue vampire?” He snarled. He wanted to hurt Charles. He had hurt Sam with his harsh words and that had felt good for a moment, to get back at him for letting this creep weasel into his life… But now he knew the person he really wanted to bring pain to was Charles, not Sam. This man was the problem.

“Worried about your pack, as I’m sure you are too.” Always such a saint, Markus thought bitterly. He even looked like one, like an angel in a renaissance painting… Golden brown hair that curled around a deceivingly innocent looking face and a slim-but-toned body that a common human might find attractive.

“Exactly, I’m worrying for them. So my pack don’t need you to worry about them, stay in your own business.”

“I care about the people in this pack.”

“You care about getting balls deep in my omega.” Markus growled.

“His name is Sam.” What a pretentious git, Markus thought. Names aren’t what’s important. Power was important, reputation, strength, pack size, wolf presence…

“Oh, you know his name? Wow, is that what makes you Mr Perfect? Is that how low his standards are that he’ll jump into the bed of someone who knows his name?”

“Sam and I have never been intimate.” Charles held his calm composure. “As his...” He paused, considering his words. “alpha… you would know if we had, wouldn’t you?” Markus squinted angrily, what the hell did that pause mean? What was he implying?

“Alphas are not interested in the love lives of omega.” He snapped defensively.

“And yet, here you sit making accusations.”

“And there you sit sticking your nose in pack business.”

“Looks like we’ll have to move on or we won’t make any progress in the far more serious problem of a rogue vampire wandering your territory.” Markus grumbled under his breath. Even though he knew damn well Charles could hear him.

“Fine, what do you want me to do about it. Since it sounds as though your people have already started looking into it.”

“Just make sure everyone in the pack knows not to go out alone and even then, the bigger the group the better.”

“Great, will do.” He said sarcastically. “Is that everything?”

“Yes, thank you for your time, Markus.” He stood and walked to the door but paused with his hand on the metal knob. “I know you like to pretend that you don’t care about Sam, but… I feel like it would be wrong of me not to say…”

“What?” Markus snapped.

“I have a feeling that the vampire was… targeting Sam, like Sam was the reason he was there.”

“Why would you think that?” His heart squeezed despite his brain repeating over and over ‘it’s not true, he’s trying to rile you up, it’s not true, he’s trying to rile you up’.

“Sam came face to face with him and the vampire froze and fled, I doubt he is gone for good.” Said Charles. “I am almost certain he will return but I also think next time he may do more than watch and take photos on his phone.”

“Okay, thanks.” Markus grunted, nodding at the door to give the firm hint that it was time for the vampire to leave. Charles sighed softly and left without another word.