Chapter 34: Chapter 34

~ NYSSA

When the knock on my door came, I knew it was Aria.

After all, Rowan would rather chew off his own leg that follow me and apologize for the bullshit he just pulled.

I stared at the contact in disbelief, willing the words to disappear, but they didn’t.

I suppose it was my fault. I should have known that the lycan King was not someone to enter a deal with unprovoked. I overestimated my own wisdom and it was biting me in the ass.

I was stuck with him indefinitely. I couldn’t call it off when I wanted. No, he had to release me.

I’m so fucking stupid!

Aria knocked again, a bit louder this time. With a sigh, I pulled the door open. “Look, I really don’t want to talk-”

“Good, so you can listen,” she cut me off, walking into the room like she owned it.

Technically, she did, the palace belonged to her family.

“You probably feel like you could have gotten out of this. I want to let you know that you couldn’t have. Rowan is smarter than anyone gives him credit for. If he wanted that clause in there, there is no way he wouldn’t have gotten it.”

I scoffed, crossing my arms across my chest. “Is this your way of telling me to just go with it?”

“Hell no!” she exclaimed with a small laugh. “I want you to make him pay for it. My brother’s an ass, but he’s a good person underneath. If you let him, he will walk all over you. Prove to him that he can’t.”

I stared at her for a long minute.

I searched her face for any sign of deception or mischief, something that would tell me what her underlying motivation was, but she kept her face carefully devoid of all emotion.

She’d been kind to me recently and although that was weird, I chose to believe that it was out of her own benevolence and pity, but this was something else entirely.

No one turned on their family for a stranger they just met, especially not a stranger that they’d been vocal about not caring for.

“What’s in it for you?” I asked finally. “Why not be on his side?”

“I’m always on his side. No matter how big of a prick he is, he is still my brother, and he raised me. But I’m not going to sit here and watch him hurt someone else.”

I scoffed. “What are you? Some kind of justice and freedom fighter?”

She shrugged. “You can call it whatever you want, and I don’t expect you to trust me, but what’s done is done. You have over a week left here. I don’t presume you want to spend it locked up in here.”

As much as I was pissed, she was right.

If I had to spend the rest of my two weeks here locked in my bedroom, I’d lose my damn mind. At home I at least had work. Here, I had nothing.

I sighed. “Rowan is right about one thing. I can’t keep following you around. You’re not my babysitter.”

“True, so how about you join me for work?”

“But he said-”

“My brother says a lot of things, but I don’t listen to most of it,” she shrugged, waving me off.

“Are you coming or not?”

Excluding the fact that it was a good excuse to get out of here, it was also a good chance to piss Rowan off. “Let me change into something nicer.”

She drove me to a large building in the middle of town. It had three floors with massive glass walls. As the sun rays bounced off the walls, it cast an almost iridescent glow. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before.

“Welcome to my office!” she exclaimed with a smile. “Do you like it?”

I nodded dumbly, my mouth falling open in shock as we walked inside.

The interior was somehow more perfect. The floors were tiled, the furniture was made of marble and there was a glass chandelier that hung in the middle of the lobby.

Men and women walked around doing their business in casual wear. I’d expected suits and skirts, but I was seeing jeans, shorts and sweats.

I shouldn’t have been surprised considering that Aria herself was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans and a white top that she tied around her waist.

“We co-ordinate with the human side of the business,” she explained, leading me towards the elevators. “Working with humans helps generate more money for the palace.”

“Isn’t it more dangerous?” I asked.

Our pack had debated it once, but the fear of being outed by the humans had made us rethink the decision. Humans are curious by nature, and there was no guarantee that one of them wouldn’t come snooping.

“Not really,” she shrugged. “We have an office in a human town. We only send some of our oldest lycans and wolves who can’t shift. They tend to integrate well into human society.”

“And what happens when they age slower?” I asked. “Don’t the humans ever get suspicious?”

“We move them around too much for that. Humans don’t see anything beyond what’s in front of their nose.”

The elevator doors opened and she gestured for me to follow her.

She led me down a long hallway towards what I presumed to be her office. It looked… different from the rest of the building.

It had the same marble furniture and tiled floors, but it looked more personal. There were pictures on her desk as well as charms that hung from her ceiling and on the bookshelf at the far corner of the room.

I’d learned more about her simply by stepping into this office than I had since I got to the pack.

“Your pack says you’re good at negotiation right?” she asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I shrugged. “I’m decent.”

Her lips curved into a wicked smile. “Let’s see just how decent you are. I have a call with an investor in a few minutes. Let’s put your skills to good use.”

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