The tea party was not at all what Armin had imagined.
He had expected to meet at a cafe with the other girls so they could brag about their wealth and their slaves.
He had already prepared himself for the public embarrassment, but things turned out to be different—scratch that, a whole lot different than what he had pictured.
They had shut down an entire five-star hotel for the afternoon just to use the lounge for their elaborate show-off.
Armin deemed their behavior an absolute nuisance.
Armin wore maroon tailored pants and a matching shirt, paired with high-end, handcrafted white sandals.
His hair had been styled into a sleek all-back look by Alicia’s hairstylist.
He accompanied the bratty princess, who looked the part in her custom-made pink tweed jacket set and pretty heels.
The top section of her long hair was tied back and finished with a ribbon bow that matched her outfit.
They were dropped off by her private chauffeur in her favorite pink Maybach.
The other girls at the party were no less dressed.
There were three of them in total, all expensively attired and arriving in costly cars.
They were already seated at a single large table, where tall glasses of rosé champagne and colorful macarons were displayed exclusively on a three-tiered cake stand alongside other delicate pastries and petit fours.
They were chatting away while waiting for Alicia.
Beside each girl, a male omega or beta sat timidly on the floor at her feet.
Alicia and her friends exchanged pleasant greetings and kisses.
Armin pulled out a seat for her.
She sat down elegantly and tapped the seat next to her, signaling for him to sit as well.
Armin sat right beside her, and she smiled sweetly at him.
Her friends looked struck, their faces expressing deep disapproval.
“You don’t…” Becky started.
“A slave sitting with us?” Penelope cut in.
“Get that thing in his position,” Annie fired, pointing directly to the ground next to Alicia.
The unbothered princess simply smiled, completely ignoring their displeasure.
She grabbed a glass of champagne and passed it to Armin, picked up one for herself, clinked his glass, and took a sip.
Then she faced the furious girls, whose faces were burning red with perceived disrespect.
“Licia, did you ask us to meet so you can disrespect us in front of his lowly thing?” Annie asked again.
She simply was not going to give up easily.
“What do you want?” Alicia asked, throwing a piece of pink macaron into her mouth.
Her face still clearly showed complete nonchalance toward their fuss and fury.
“Put him in his place,” Annie replied, her eyes getting wider by the second.
“Annie,” Alicia began, using that usual tone whenever she was determined to win an argument and shut her opponents up.
“Your slaves are obviously low grades, they don’t qualify to sit on seats.
We can all agree they belong just where they are—at your feets.”
She took a sip of her drink and continued.
“However, you can see for yourselves that my kitten is a top tier grade omega.
Not one bought from a hopeless auction.”
Then, raising her hand from the macarons she had been breaking to pieces with her fingers, she looked Annie straight in the face.
“No, no, no,” she waved her index finger in the angry girl’s face.
With an amused expression, she picked up a piece of macaron and fed it to Armin.
He chewed it while searching her face, noting the sweet smile plastered on her beautiful glossy lips.
He picked up her right hand and kissed her knuckles respectfully.
Since she had refused her friends’ requests to degrade and humiliate him, he was going to make sure she won this argument against them.
“Thank you, my princess,” he beamed, keeping his head low in courtesy.
The girls gasped loudly in absolute irritation. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
“Alicia!” Becky scolded, refusing to accept what was happening right before her eyes.
“Why are you yelling?” Alicia retorted, still maintaining her cool demeanor.
She was obviously enjoying this way too much.
“Let me guess, it’s either you hate me being a princess or you are jealous of my kitten, you want to switch place with him.” She had finally broken the last straw that held the camel’s back.
Annie flared up from her seat, picked up the napkin from her thighs, and flung it onto the table.
She marched angrily around the table, her kitten heels threatening to tear up the ground.
“Say that to me one more time,” she spat.
She was now standing directly behind Alicia, her nostrils breathing out fire.
Alicia didn’t even bother turning around to look at her.
“Back off, sister.” She calmly refilled her glass.
Armin noted that she was quite the drinker.
She then pointed at Annie’s toy, who was still sitting put at the foot of her chair.
“Get up,” she commanded.
Her sweet, tingly voice suddenly became thick with raw power.
Armin looked at her in shock, suddenly realizing why her brother and father always avoided arguments with her.
Indeed, there was another side to her—a side that wasn’t pink and girly.
The slave obediently stood up from the ground immediately.
“Come take your mistress away from me.”
The slave walked over to his mistress and dropped to his knees in front of her, his head facing the ground.
Mistress?
Armin thought to himself.
Why didn’t Alicia demand that he address her as his mistress?
The argument was heating up, and he was getting thoroughly invested.
He grabbed his glass of champagne and spun his chair around to face the scene unfolding behind him.
Leaning back into his chair, he crossed his right leg over his left.
He sipped his drink, casting curious glances from Annie to Alicia, then to the slave, and back to Annie.
Annie looked at him at that same moment.
Their eyes made contact, and a wave of pure fury flushed out her remaining restraint.
She marched forward and violently yanked him off his seat.
“Don’t look me in the eye, you lowly animal.” Her fingers buried into his hair, tugging forcefully at the roots.
Armin shrieked in pain.
The glass fell from his hand, shattering, and the chair stumbled backward until it fell under the table.
Alicia jumped up from her seat instantly and grabbed Annie’s brunette hair, which was styled in perm curls.
The other girls yelled in fright.
The slave on the ground scrambled away to safety.
Annie pulled Armin’s hair even harder.
Armin shrieked louder.
Alicia yanked Annie’s hair harder in response, making Annie shriek in a high-pitched tone.
The sound of frantic, running feet and the conflicted, shouting voices of the girls filled the room.
The other slaves watched their mistresses while remaining rooted in their positions, kneeling on the floor.
More running steps echoed through the lounge as the waiters and the butler rushed toward the girls in a bid to separate the hair-pulling tug-of-war and calm the chaos.
“My ladies,” the butler called out, standing just inches away while the waiters flanked behind him.
“Let’s not go on with this embarrassing scene.” He paused as the girls finally let go, backing away from each other with loud, ragged breaths. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
“If you may take your individual seats, my ladies,” he continued.
The girls all walked back to their seats and sat down, throwing death stares across the table, though it was now evidently a three-to-one match.
The butler faced Armin and pulled the fallen chair out from under the table, pushing it aside to create space for him to crouch down beside his mistress.
“My princess,” Armin called out, catching Alicia’s attention and pointing to the chair currently in the butler’s hands.
Alicia glared at the butler with stern, icy eyes.
Suddenly realizing his ignorance, the butler quickly replaced the seat for Armin, pulling it back so he could sit.
He bowed his head in a deep apology and briskly walked away, the waiters tailing right behind him.
Armin sat down and gently picked up Alicia’s hands.
She turned to look at him and noticed that his styled hair was now completely disheveled.
She raised her fingers to his head and gently tried fixing the stray strands.
“Even the butler knows the right thing to do and you don’t?” Annie threw at Alicia again.
She looked like a battered crazy lady after the fight.
Alicia opened her mouth to retort, but Becky cut her off just in time.
“Stop!
Enough of this.” She looked at both of them and continued, “We came here for tea time, not a boxing match.”
“We haven’t even made our orders yet and the mood has been ruined by that thing,” Penelope, who had been quiet all this while, chirped in, pointing at Armin with clear irritation.
“And I’m not a fan of boxing.”
“Say something else, Penny, I dare you,” Alicia charged at her fiercely.
“For how long are you going to defend a slave?” Penelope shot back.
“For as long as he is mine.” And then, pointing her finger at them one after the other, she declared the line of war to be drawn.
“If you have a problem with my kitten or how I choose to treat him, you can say it now.”
When they all chose to remain completely mute, she added, “Then, forever hold your peace.”
“You’ve been intimate with him, haven’t you?” Becky threw at Alicia, completely taking everyone unawares.
Alicia stared back at her, her lips fuming, but she did not answer the question.
“You do this all the time.
You get a new toy, you turn him into your sex slave, and then, when you get tired, you discard him off and get a new one.”
“That’s none of your business,” Alicia defended hotly.
“Why then are you fighting us for a toy you will auction off soon enough for a new bag?”
A new bag?
Armin’s mind instantly flashed back to the bag she had handled with such immense care.
He just realized she hadn’t brought it with her today; she had picked a different one.
“Becky, shut your mouth.”
“They only keep getting better, Alicia.”
“Shut up.”
“He isn’t worth your dignity.”
“I said shut it!”
“An even more finer one will come after him, and you know that.”
“Didn’t I ask you to shut up?” Alicia roared.
She was really getting angry now.
“It’s been a dozen slaves already, save some dignity for your future prince charming.”
“A dozen?” Armin questioned Alicia, his eyes instantly filling with judgment, his voice laced with pure disgust.
He pouted his lips at her repulsively.
Alicia looked back at him, her highly expressive eyes suddenly turning completely unreadable.
She stood up quietly, walked slowly and gracefully toward Becky, and without a single word of warning, she raised her hand high and sent the girl flying straight off her seat with a thunderous slap.
Turning on her heel, she walked back over to Armin, grabbed him firmly by the wrist, and led him straight out to the car.