Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Arsenial
Violetta doesn’t react to my name. She really didn’t know it. I don’t know what stings more. The fact that she knows I’m an alpha but nothing else or the fact that her shit-brained brother never told her who the fuck I am. He didn’t warn her of what could be the end of her alone on the wrong side of the city.
“I’m going to be honest, Alpha Barnes. It feels very disrespectful to call you by anything other than your title,” she says without looking up at me.
No. There’s no way she’s submissive. That look in her eyes doesn’t fit the way she’s acting. I take her in once again, thinking maybe I’m missing something. She looks like the daughter of an alpha. She’s wearing Daddy’s money just like the other two Wolfe bitches. But that ice-cold look in her eyes is alarming. Those two other Wolfe girls don’t have that. They’re princesses through and through.
Alondra comes over to us with our drinks, breaking the tension.
“Back already, Arsen?” she smiles.
Little omegas are my favorite, and this one is all kinds of nasty. Maybe after I rip this bitch to shreds I’ll come back for her. I smile at her and wave her off.
“Oh, shit,” Violetta catches my attention. She starts reaching for her things, which are sprawled out on the table.
“You okay?” I ask.
“I’m sorry,” she says humorlessly while tucking the purse under her arm, probably worth more than everything I have on, multiplied by ten. Jewelry is more my expertise. “I didn’t know this place was for unmated wolves. I seem to have given you the wrong impression, Alpha Barnes. I should go.”
Rage floods my body, and I reach out for her.
“Wait,” I’m able to grab her wrist before she can run off.
A spark bursts through me from the skin-to-skin contact. Her eyes go wide, and she rips her arm out of my hold. I let her go, staring back at her, equally shocked.
“I’m sorry,” she says, spinning around and running for the exit.
I stand here frozen for a split second, and it’s all I need to go after her. She reaches the exit corridor, and I know I won’t find her again if she gets to the door. I reach her just in time and reach for her mouth and waist. She screams and tries to get out of my hold.
“You need to calm down,” I growl, pressing my body against her so she has no room to get away.
Fuck. This is not happening to me. Moments ago, I was thinking of all the ways I could torture her
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before ending her life. Even sending her to him in pieces crossed my mind. One touch is all it took for those plans to fall apart.
I turn her around, needing her to look back at me with those big, confusing eyes. My wolf is responding to her and coaxing him out. From under the perfume, her animal’s scent is starting to break through. She’s an expert at masking it. It’s why I couldn’t pick up on it before.
What the fuck are you?
“Okay, we panicked.” I can’t get enough of the dark rogue scent coming off her. “You know exactly what’s happening, Violetta. You know I can’t just let you walk out that door.”
The coldness in her eyes vanishes, and it’s replaced with a whole lot of emotions. She’s freaking out. My wolf hates that because she’s not looking at us as her mate. She’s looking at us with pity.
“I can’t deal with this,” she growls, placing her hand on my chest. “Not tonight. I’m not ready. This isn’t happening.”
Her words strike a chord, and I take a step back. She stands there for a moment, trying to catch her breath. She’s going to reject us. I see it in her eyes. In her demeanor. I’ve been waiting for this my entire life, and she’s going to deny me it? Over my dead fucking body. This family has fucked me of everything already.
“This ain’t exactly a choice anymore, Baby,” I try to shake the panic threatening to wash over me.
“Alpha Barnes-”
I growl, cutting her off before she can get a word. No. She’s not doing this to me.
“You belong to me now, Violetta Wilde. You’re mine,” my wolf surfaces. “You so much as let any other man touch you, and I’ll end him. Do you understand?” that includes her fucking boss. The thought of him laying a single finger on her. She nods as she stares up at me in a trance. She doesn’t
ook away and I know I just scared the fuck out of her. I didn’t mean to do that. Not anymore. “I’ll
lk you to your car. You go straight home, yes?”
es,” she squeaks.
I need to calm down. I step back and take her arm, trying not to hurt her. She’s barely keeping up with my strides as I guide her back to the parking lot. There’s no way in hell I’m going to let her run around Wise Men alone and without my mark.
“Which one is yours?” I ask, looking around.
“The Bentley, sir.”
“Fuck,” I stare at the brand new custom pink pearl Continental GT parked right in front of the back entrance. To confirm what she said, she holds up her fob and unlocks the thing.
I lead her to the car and open the door for her. She doesn’t hesitate to get in. The inside is just as fucking ridiculous as the outside. There is fur across the dashboard with little toys all over it. Her
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scent permeates the space inside. The seats are white leather accessories with pink pillows in the shape of bows. It matches the way she’s dressed.
20)
I take her in properly this time. She’s got a ten-thousand-dollar Tiffany necklace around her neck. A six thousand dollar bracelet and really big fucking diamonds on her hands. The cream-colored heels she’s got on are probably just as expensive as the purse she’s clinging to.
My mate is a little princess. In what fucking world does that make sense? It explains the pity in her eyes. One look and she knew we weren’t it.
“You’re all kinds of spoiled, aren’t you, Violetta?”
To my surprise, that coldness from before returns, and her eyes snap to mine.
“I work hard, sir,” she all but growls at me. “I deserve everything I have. Down to the custom rims on this thing.”
Suppose the rumors about this tiny girl are true. I do not doubt that she’s worked hard for all of this. I drop a tracker under her seat, needing to know where she lays her head.
“Yes, you do.” I look down at her plump, pink lips. “Don’t make me come looking for you, Flower.” I tuck the strands of hair that came loose in our altercation behind her ear. I can’t help but cup her little face. She’s not wearing a lot of makeup. I can see the sprinkle of freckles under the pink shade. Her eyelashes are long and full. They frame her big eyes beautifully. How long will she make me wait to be this close again? “You make me fiend for you, and I’ll make you cry,” I find myself saying. I inhale her scent deeply. Recording it to memory. “I don’t want to do that, baby girl,” she flinches at the words. Not in a good way. Her eyes fill with tears, but she blinks them away and averts her gaze. “Something tells me you’ve had enough of that already.”
I pull her seatbelt and click it into place. I take a little doll off the dashboard as a memento of this
st encounter. I step back and shut the door. The car comes to life and she doesn’t hesitate to get fuck out of here. I look down at the little thing I took off her dashboard. She has a lot of them,
Houbt she’ll miss it.
an ugly fucking doll. Its body is plush. Its face is odd and plastic. I hold it by the golden ring keychain. The little fisherman’s hat reads Labubu. I snap a picture of it on my phone and send it to Maggie to ask her what the fuck this is. The thing smells like her perfume, and I tuck it into my pocket to head back inside.
I take my whiskey glass and toss it back. It’s only then that I see my little princess left her phone on the table. I picked it up to see that she didn’t even lock it. Immediately, I put my phone number into it and text my phone so I have her number.
Against my better judgment, I open her pictures. The first one is a picture of her and Pricilla Wolfe, More of her and her siblings. Even her fucking brother. I stop at a picture of her and Zander Thorne. She’s looking up at him while he holds the phone up to snap the picture. He’s smiling at the camera, but she’s looking at him like he’s her entire world.
This is fucked. We must have pissed someone off in a past life. She’s gorgeous, obviously.
Successful and independent. Things I’ve never looked for in a partner. I’ve always wanted someone
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I can groom into the Luna my pack deserves. Someone in my league who can fit in with my wolves. This pretty princess wasn’t it, but the moon has spoken, and there’s no way in hell I can turn away from the gift she’s granted me.
How did this happen? My mate has been under my nose almost my entire life, and I never once crossed paths with her until now. And of all the women in this city, it’s her. The woman completes the power of the enemy. I had every intention to end her, to violate her, and send her to him in pieces until he lost his fucking mind.
My phone pings. Maggie sent a link. A picture of the toy comes up on my screen with the price tag of four hundred and ninety-nine, ninety-nine. Plus shipping. She had more than twelve of these things on her dashboard in different colors and another one on her fucking purse. I take it out of my pocket and hold it up.
“This girl is going to drive me fucking insane. Who spends this much money on something this ugly?”
“Hey, that is a very rare Labubu,” Alondra says, as she takes the empty glass off the table. “Is she coming back?”
“No, and if she does. Escort her out,” I say, getting up. “What the fuck is this?”
“It’s a kid’s story. It’s really popular in Japan. They come in these surprise boxes, and social media influencers love them. They’re cute,”
“Thanks,” I say, tapping the fifty-dollar bill she slapped on the table earlier. “Drinks are on her.”
