Alpha to Omega-mxm

Chapter 13

"He's not... up."

Hmm?

"Did you try... him?"

Marquise was dozing in and out of consciousness like a wave drifting onto a beach in the early hours of the morning only to recede back into a comfortable slumber again and again.

"...this."

He was suddenly pulled out of his oncoming dream as he felt a firm hand quickly but carefully begin to rub his belly through the thick blanket overtop of him.

He immediately stretched out, trying to offer as much area to that hand as he could.

"Told you this would work. No pup can resist a good belly rub," Taru said as his voice became more clear.

Marquise couldn't argue. He was absolutely in love with the attention he was getting. He hadn't had a good belly rub in years, and he was surprisingly happy with his first one as a human.

"Sorry to wake you, sweetheart, but master couldn't seem to manage it. He thought it would be rude of him to touch you, and none of his servants were able to rouse you from the door," Taru said cheerfully as a second hand gave his messy hair a gentle pat, finally spurring him on to open his eye.

As soon as he saw his master looking down at him with that familiar warm smile upon his face Marquise immediately sat up, then leaned forward into his waiting arms.

"Mm, master Taru... are you here for dinner?"

Taru gave him a gentle squeeze before reaching up to play with his hair.

"Of course, hun. I'll be over as much as I can until my staff are retrained and the unprofessional ones are removed," he said, making Marquise smile happily as he finally leaned back a bit.

"Is my master treating you well? You seemed quite content with this big bed," Taru said with a pleasant grin.

"Come on, dinner is going to be cold by the time we finally get downstairs," Vrasje said, making Marquise jump slightly as he looked over his master's shoulders toward the vampire leaning against the wall by the doors.

Frowning, Marquise turned his attention back to Taru.

"Yes, he's been there the whole time," Taru said with a quiet chuckle as he stood from the bed, then turned to face him with an outstretched hand.

Marquise gladly accepted it and stood, testing his legs for a moment before he heard Vrasje walking toward them, making him lift his gaze just in time to see what the man was now holding out to him.

My cane! Now I don't have to ask either of them to let me lean on them or carry me!

Vrasje's expression soured slightly as Marquise took the item and settled it at his side with a relieved smile. When he turned that smile toward the elder vampire and thanked him, however, Vrasje's expression immediately softened again.

"Let's go," he said after a moment of silence as he turned and headed for the open doors.

Marquise hurried after him as quickly as he could, overly-excited that his body was actually working reasonably well at the moment.

Maybe shifting for the first time in a while had helped. The new wolf was perfectly healthy, so maybe it's helping me a bit.

"New wolf?"

Marquise inwardly fidgeted as he noticed Taru matching his pace with a curious smile on his face. He was a bit hesitant to go into details about his past life, but the absolute basics should be alright...