Page 73 of House of Vampires and Flame

“Foolish boy. He’s your alpha!” Dixie said as she moved to step between her prince and me, taking a knee. “Your Highness, Little Bob doesn’t understand any rules. He has no education or any training. Even his grammar is terrible at times. His accent also tells me that he came from the streets in the slum. He’s incredibly and stupidly rude, but he’s that way with everyone. He might be an insufferable, insolent urchin, but he’s our urchin.”

Wow, should I stay here and continue to listen to more insults? I thought that the shifter house could provide me with temporary shelter, but I was getting abused again.

“I’m not a shifter,” I said, turning with a shrug. “I don’t belong to your house, sir. Sorry for the bother. I’ll see myself out.”

“You’re a shifter, boy,” the prince said. “I scented the animal in you; whether it’s a mouse or a chihuahua is anyone’s guess though.”

He flicked two fingers, and the wind shut the door.

Interesting. All supernaturals possessed one elemental magic, but all the prince heirs were gifted with two or possibly more.

“You’re going nowhere, Little Bob,” Silas said. “You’ll learn to behave in record time as my new squire. If there’s any issue in the future, you’ll report to me right away instead of seeking out heirs from other houses.”

That was what this was all about. I’d overstepped my boundaries by asking for help from the mage prince.

“Should you look wrong or step wrong, I won’t just punish you; I’ll punish Dixie. So think twice before you act. And this time, you’ll still get your share of punishment for stepping out of line.”

My heart sank. I didn’t want shit to drop on Dixie. I clenched my jaw and looked down at the ground, showing my submissiveness.

“Are you going to whip me for punishment, sir?” I asked. “Just keep Dixie out of this. She has nothing to do with my shit.”

“I’m not a barbarian, unlike your former master,” he growled.

Well, hadn’t the fucker backhanded me a minute ago?

“You’ll join the construction team and do manual labor work for a month when you aren’t attending to me as my squire,” he said.

Maybe it was time I built up some muscles. I could always use Sy’s strength to handle the heavy lifting. Sy rolled her eyes at my scheming.

“Now beat it,” Silas said, wrinkling his nose. “You stink, Little Bob. You need to take a bath.”

“Before carrying the rocks or after carrying the rocks, sir?” I deadpanned and sniffed my armpit noisily for show.

“Quit it, boy,” Dixie warned, but she muffled a chortle and dragged me toward the door before Silas could come to punch me. “Let’s get you to the bath chamber and wash off the odor of your sweat.”

“It’s not that bad,” I protested. “You’re exaggerating. I could go a week or two without a bath in the past.”

~

“You need to learn to keep your big mouth shut and your eyes down in front of your betters if you know what’s good for you, boy!” Dixie barked at me as she towed me down the corridor with her hand on my elbow, away from Silas’s suite.

“They might have more money than me and be in a powerful position,” I said, smirking at her, “but they aren’t my betters.”

“I’ll have to drill more rules into your thick knucklehead on a daily basis then,” she sighed. “I’m determined to turn you into a proper shifter. At least you won’t run your mouth like there’re no consequences.”

We approached the shifters’ bath chamber that was like a large chicken coop. It didn’t even have stalls.

Truth be told, I’d never taken a bath here.

Lower-ranking shifters didn’t have their own bathrooms, but no one seemed to care about being nude in public, except me. Well, they were shifters. They were used to being naked since they were little.

I’d bathed in the icy lake in Underhill once. Other times, I’d snuck into Dixie and other higher ranking shifters’ private bathrooms to have a quick shower when they went for a run or were in a class. I watched everyone’s schedules closely.

No wards or spells could stop me, and neither could their locks. A lot of shifters didn’t even lock their doors.

“Off you go.” Dixie pushed me ahead. “Scrub yourself good and hard. I don’t want to hear the prince complaining about your smell again. Understand?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, my shoulders slouched.

---