The temperature in the study room dropped a few notches. The harsh chill in the air was contradictory to the warm weather outside. There was pin-drop silence. Dima's dad did not risk breaking the silence. He was sure if he tried, then the words would slice through Dima's tensed form and he would snap. Lance Putin decided to keep his mouth sealed.

The stillness spread in the room was pricking at Dimitri like the bite of paper cuts over and over. He deemed it better to eradicate the silence, to voice his feelings, and to get away from the foul creature present in the room as soon as possible.

"What is she doing in our home?" Dima spoke with clenched teeth as he uttered the pronoun 'she' with disdain. He hated werewolves but he hated the vile one in front of him the most. Dousing her in silver would be too little of a punishment for her. For what she did.

"Excuse me, please!" The very cause of Dimitri's anguish intervened before she scampered out. She had no desire to get caught in the crossfire between the son and the father.

Even after her departure, Lance kept mum, assuming speaking would make Dimitri angrier. However, his silence had the opposite effect. To Dimitri, it felt like his father was pushing all his buttons.

Never had he raised his voice at his father except for this one time when his rebellious phase as a teenager was at its mast. The memory was fresh in his mind; his backside took a belt for it. His mother took it upon herself to teach him a lesson. He didn't think there would be a second time, but he was wrong apparently.

In a raised voice, he spoke - "First, you asked me to stay away from Chris - a werewolf - and now you are inviting them to our house, what is wrong with you? And her? Are you crazy? You know I hate her. Hate seems like a weak word, loathe will do my feelings towards her more justice."

Lance's face was the picture of ‘relaxed’ while replying to his son - "Are you upset about werewolves being here or particularly her?"

This will go nowhere, it was the only conclusion Dimitri arrived at after hearing his dad.

Pissed off, he stormed out of the room. The sound of his name being called repeatedly can be heard echoing in the hallway. Rage drove Dimitri. He was blinded by that emotion and resentment so much that he failed to notice Chris standing in the foyer.

Chris was conversing with one of the werewolves from his neighboring pack when he saw Dimitri walk by. Walk by was an understatement, moving with intent was more like it. The intent did not appear to be meager. The intent was to murder someone in cold blood, to be specific.

Chris decided to go with his instincts and follow the raging bull. The rational part of him knew not to follow a seething vampire who hated his kind, but Chris was one inquisitive individual. Sue me, he thought. His little game of 'I spy' guided him to a door that he saw Dimitri close shut with a bang before disappearing inside.

Standing outside the door, he took a profound sniff. Dimitri's bedroom. I was right. Delivering himself a pep talk, he pushed open the door and let himself in.

"Dimitri..." Chris called out slowly. He did not receive a response despite Dimitri sitting right in front of him, staring at him intensely. "Are you going for a dark, mysterious, and sexy persona today? If yes, then congratulations! I am extremely turned on. And you look sexy." Flirting was another tactic Chris used which he thought may work on Dimitri. Unfortunately, it failed. "What happened to you? Why are you so angry? I mean it would have been a plausible reason if you knew I was here, but you didn't." Joking - yet another tactic - failed miserably.

Chris was an observant person, always had been. Sure he is goofy and a clown most of the time, but he wasn't an Alpha just in name. A good Alpha always keeps all his senses on the lookout and that was the sole reason he was able to detect the transitions that were slowly taking over Dimitri physically and emotionally.

It started with Dimitri's hands - they balled into fists. Next came the locked jaw. Then there were emotional signs like wild eyes and waves of hurt and distress that were emitting from Dimitri's body. Chris managed to keep his cool until then.

The final straw that made his calm vanish was when red started overtaking the vampire's eyes.