Selena’s POV
The way Ian yelled, I couldn’t believe it.
Even I myself was shaking.
His full Alpha aura came out, and I wondered if I had gone too far.
I decided that maybe I had, because as I gradually stood up, I saw him looking at the chef with murderous intent.
To make sure that no blood was shed, I shoved past the chef and rushed over to Ian.
“Good morning, Grand Alpha.”
Normally I would just call him by his name, but I was referring to him this way because we were amongst other people and they didn’t need to know how close we were just yet.
For them, they should just see me as a pitiful slave.
For anyone that was also vying for the position, they shouldn’t see me as a threat, or else they might choose to get rid of me before I even have the chance to claim what is meant to be mine.
His hand was reaching up to touch my cheek, and I signaled for him not to with a small shake of my head.
Those fingers curled into a tight fist, and he looked at the chef again.
Still looking at me, he told the chef, “Pack up all your things. I want you gone from here in the next hour, or you will be to blame for what you will face.”
I looked over my shoulder and the chef was darting his eyes between me and Ian.
Suddenly, all of his cockiness had dissipated and he looked close to tears.
“Alpha, please don’t do this! I have been working here for several decades. I worked here when you were still a little boy.”
Ian, without missing a beat, responded to him, “Then it seems like you have overstayed your welcome and mistook your place.”
The chef, still desperate to argue his case, pointed an accusatory finger at me.
“Grand Alpha, she provoked me first! I didn’t want to respond to her, but she was acting cocky and bossing me around when she is nothing but a slave! I was just trying to show her her place. Everyone here can bear witness to what I’m saying…” Read the latest chapters at g.com.
With eyes dripping with desperation, he looked around the kitchen to see who would come up to defend his words.
Each person he made eye contact with quickly looked away.
I wasn’t surprised; everyone there was smart enough to recognize a sinking ship when they saw it, and none of them wanted to drown along with him.
Now his face looked red, and he appeared to have aged within the minutes that he tried to argue his case.
“You have fifty-five minutes left. Don’t push me to do something that all of us will regret,” Ian said.
He then looked down at me.
“Come with me.”
I followed him.
He took me to his personal lounge; it had a fireplace and polished furniture.
After gesturing for me to sit down, he went over to the cabinet and came back with dried mango slices and almonds.
“Eat this first… I’ll go and sort out our meal in the kitchen,” he said.
I knew he was also checking if the head chef had already left, and I nodded quickly, not wanting him to drag his feet.
After he was gone, I still couldn’t believe that he had dismissed someone who had worked here longer than he had even been alive for my sake.
The best I had expected was for him to just scold the chef and tell him to quietly hand me the ingredients; I didn’t think that he would be stripped of his position altogether.
Lightly, I brushed over the bruise on my cheek, thinking of how he had stood up for me.
Clearly he wanted me, but he was resisting it because of all the silly reasons he gave before.
If he would just forget all of that for a moment and decide to trust me, we would be unstoppable.
But now, with the offer that his brother gave me, I had to—
Before I could finish that thought, I heard footsteps.
Normally I would have just thought it was Ian returning back to his lounge, but he had just left and the steps were far too careful… Get faster updates on g.com.
too slow, like somebody that did not want their presence to be known.
If it had been anyone else in that lounge, they would have probably not noticed, but when you spend most of your life preparing for the next punch or kick, you learn to be hyper-aware of things like this, even without wanting to.
Quickly, I rushed over to a large decorative plant with leaves that fluttered out like wings and completely covered me, then I hid my scent.
A man snuck in.
He looked like he was in his late fifties with a long, jagged scar stretched across his face.
He looked around suspiciously, as if he was expecting somebody to jump out.
“He’s up to no good,” my wolf, Razor, growled within me.
I agreed.
Everything about the way he was acting was incredibly suspicious, but I didn’t want to jump out of where I was hiding just yet.
Whatever he was planning to do, I wanted him to finish with it so I could uncover what he had planned.
He moved around, shuffling through Ian’s shelves and cabinets, constantly checking over his shoulder and radiating pure anxiety and tension.
He left after a few minutes, rushing out.
And less than thirty seconds later, Ian returned with a full plate of food.
“Did something happen?” he said, looking at my face and reading me like a book.
I glanced briefly at the shelves and cabinets, intrigue perking up inside me as I pictured the middle-aged man that had sneaked in here and left just before he came in.
I was probably going to tell Ian about that.
But he said he wanted someone who could be useful.
There was no issue there; I intended to be completely useful to him.
“It’s nothing,” I responded, “…absolutely nothing.”