Prince of Gluttony: Born from Betrayal

After the weird bed talk (?) with Jayden, she suddenly sat up, her hair falling messily over her shoulders. She placed a hand on her stomach. Cain suddenly had a look on a panic on his face.

No, it couldn't be right?!

His thoughts spiraled.

Had he missed something? Had something happened last night that he wasn't aware of? He hadn't even—

"I'm hungry," Jayden said flatly.

Cain nearly collapsed on the spot.

He didn't trip, didn't stumble, but somehow, just standing still, he looked like he was about to faint from the sheer whiplash of it all.

Jayden gave him a confused look, her brow slightly furrowed. "What's with that face?"

Cain pointed at her accusingly. "You can't just say something like that out of nowhere! You scared the life out of me!"

She blinked. "I said I was hungry."

"Yeah, but you said it like you were about to drop some kind of life-altering bomb on me."

Jayden tilted her head in confusion. She had no idea what he was talking about until she looked down at herself. A man's shirt and her panties in said man's bed. Slept in the same bed....

Then it clicked.

Her face immediately went red with a puff of smoke escaping her body from the embarrassment. She lowered her head and grumbled.

"No... We haven't done that yet... I am not ready yet."

Cain's soul almost left his body on the spot.

"Yet?!" he choked, voice cracking like a dying tree branch. "What do you mean yet?"

Jayden didn't lift her head. Her voice was muffled, but he could still hear the stubborn tremble in it. "You heard me."

Cain staggered back a step like he'd been physically struck. "Jayden, you can't just— That's not something you just casually drop into a conversation right after saying you're hungry!"

Jayden peeked up at him through her hair, her cheeks still burning. "Well, you were the one acting like something happened. I was just clarifying that nothing did. Yet"

Cain ran a hand down his face, equal parts exasperated and overwhelmed. "Jayden. You're killing me here."

She pouted slightly, still red-faced. "What? I was being honest."

"You terrified me, then embarrassed me, and now you're just casually throwing around loaded words like it's no big deal."

Jayden sat back down on the bed, pulling her knees up to her chest. She rested her chin on them and gave him a small glance.

"You're mine though. It's only natural that it happens eventually, right?"

"That's what you meant when you said that?!"

Jayden nodded slowly, her eyes peeking out from behind her knees. "Obviously. What else could I have meant?"

Cain let out a strangled noise and paced toward the other side of the room, his hands flying up in disbelief. "You say these things like they're normal. Like claiming people and talking about eventual stuff is just a casual conversation topic!"

"It is," Jayden said softly.

"It's not," Cain shot back, spinning around to face her. "Not here. Not with me. I didn't grow up wherever you came from, where people claim each other and sleep half-naked in someone else's bed just because they won a fight."

Jayden frowned, shrinking back slightly. "You make it sound like I did something wrong…"

Cain stopped, inhaling sharply. Her voice wasn't defensive anymore. It was uncertain. Hesitant. That was new.

He rubbed the back of his neck and exhaled. "I didn't say you did something wrong. Just... surprising. You keep catching me off guard."

Jayden looked down at the sheets, fiddling with the hem of the shirt she had borrowed. "I'm not trying to confuse you."

"I know," he said, softer now. "It's just a lot. All at once."

Cain stared at her for a long moment, words caught in his throat. Then he finally asked the question that had been nagging at the back of his mind since he'd woken up with her tangled around him.

"Jayden... why were you even in my bed in the first place?"

Jayden blinked at him. "Because I wanted to be."

Cain gave her a flat look. "You could have just taken the bed for yourself. You could have just left me on the couch or anything, but climbing in next to me? That's a choice."

Jayden tilted her head slightly like she didn't understand why he was even questioning it. "I was scenting you."

Cain paused. "You were what?"

"Scenting you," she repeated, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "I wanted my scent on you. So others know."

He stared at her, utterly speechless.

Jayden looked back at him earnestly. "You're mine. It's only natural."

Cain opened his mouth. Closed it. Then opened it again, but no words came out.

Scenting? Her scent?

It finally clicked.

She was a Wolf Demi-human. Despite her fiery red hair and striking beauty, that truth had always been just beneath the surface.

His eyes drifted to her messy hair falling over her shoulders. There, tangled in the wild strands, was the faint glimmer of a magical hair tie, the artifact she used to hide her wolf ears and tail.

He fixed his gaze on the charm, realizing how small and delicate it looked, yet how important it was.

If he had not accidentally discovered her secret, odds were they would never have interacted like this. Their worlds would have stayed separate, like two lines that never crossed.

Jayden caught the way he was looking at her hair tie. She raised an eyebrow and tilted her head.

"Want a better look?" she asked, her voice low and teasing. "At the real me."

Cain blinked. His heart pounded. This was more than he had expected.

She reached up and slowly pulled the magical hair tie free. His eyes widened as a pair of soft, pointed wolf ears emerged, twitching slightly as if sensing the air around them.

Then, with a subtle movement, her long, fiery tail flicked out from beneath the shirt, swaying gently behind her.

Cain swallowed hard. The fierce girl beside him was even more wild and beautiful than he had imagined.

She averted her gaze as her ears flattened against her head. She didn't know why but having him look at her like this was so embarrassing.

Cain cleared his throat and looked away, not wanting to make her uncomfortable. The air between them shifted, charged with something new. If Gaius had a body, he probably would have started puking sugar.

The spirit was slowly getting annoyed and wanted some drama to cleanse his pallet. The sound of the front door opening with a click was almost like god had answered his prayers.

Cain and Jayden jolted at the soft sound as if a gunshot had rang out. Someone was here?!