Chapter 2

"I admire your confidence, I have a job for you."

"Huh!" I bit my lip sheepishly. The lycan releases me from his grip as he leads me to the chair where he pulls the chair back for me and commands "Sit!"

I hesitate briefly, taking a quick glance at him before sitting on the chair.

"Talk to her." He commands one of his men. I look between them wondering what’s going on. The room goes silent as the man wearing a red shirt starts to speak "We have a contract for you, Bella."

"How do you know my-"

"Shh." The Lycan hiss cutting me off. "Just hear him out."

The red shirt guy opens the document, pulls a pen out of his pocket, and turns the document to face me. "Sign on it."

"Why? What does it say?" I ask

He opens his mouth to speak but clasps it shut. He looks around presumably to make sure no one is listening to our conversation before he speaks "It says you get whatever you want."

"I don’t understand. Why does it say that?" I inquire

"Just sign the contract." The lycan says

"I can’t sign it without knowing what’s written on it."

"It’s a marriage agreement between you and the Lycan." The red shirt guy says

"What!" My voice comes out louder than intended. I quickly push my chair back, causing a loud scrape on the wooden floor, as I jump to my feet. "What the hell?!"

"You’re making a scene here. Get back on your sit Bella." The lycan grunts.

I look around to see everyone’s attention on me. I smile awkwardly at them before I sit back on the chair. "Why?" I question them

"It’s just for 182 days." He says calmly. I glare at him wondering if he’s okay, 182 days? I won’t even agree if it’s just for a week.

"Just for 182 days? You make it sound like it’s no big deal." I say

"Because it’s not a big deal." He says

"Well I’m not signing it and what kind of a Lycan are you? Is that what you do when ladies serve you bad coffee? You make them sign a marriage contract?"

As soon as the words leave my mouth, I see the Lycan's eyes light up and a smile spread across his face. He lets out a deep, hearty chuckle that reverberates around his men. "I am not the lycan." He says, still laughing. Then his face changes, he looks serious and says, "Don't talk about the lycan like that, ever."

I wasn’t bitten by his reaction as the only thing I could think of is that he’s not the lycan. "You’re joking, right?" I inquire "You come here every single day and I see you all the time."

"You think the lycan will come into this cheap cafe?" He scoffs "No Bella he won't."

"I don’t understand, everyone thinks you’re the lycan." I say

"Not everyone silly, just you and the people that are unaware of their environment." He states raking his hand through his hair "You see Bella, the lycan and I are very close. You wouldn’t even know the difference between us." He continues

"Okay, now I’m way more confused. Who are you guys?"

"I’m Jacob, the Lycan’s twin brother. This is Charles." He points at the red shirt guy "Those two are Micheal and Eric." He continues

"I never knew the Lycan has a twin brother." I say mostly to myself.

"He does and it’s me." Jacob responds

"Okay, I guess we’ve done the introduction we needed to, now why don’t we sign the contract," Charles says to me. He picks up the pen and hands it over to me.

"I don’t get it. If you’re not the lycan then who is?" I inquire. It’s so peculiar that I don’t even know who the Lycan is. I always thought he was Jacob but I guess I’m wrong.

"Trust me, darling, you sign the contract and you will find out."

"I can’t do that, I have a boyfriend and I can not cheat on him," I say. Matt is my boyfriend, he is a really nice person, he has his problems but when it comes to me, he’s always there and the last thing I want to do is cheat on him.

"It’s not cheating when it’s a contact."

"No, I can’t. I love him and why are we still having this conversation?" I stand up from the chair. I turn to leave but my actions come to a halt when I hear Jacob says

"You sign this contract, you get whatever you want. Your sister gets the treatment she needs and you don’t even have to work double shifts."

I turn to look at him, shocked by what he said: "How do you know about my sister?" I inquire

"I know everything."

"No, you don’t and you shouldn’t interfere in my matters. What my sister needs it’s not your problem but mine so take my sister out of this." I snarl at him.

"I was just trying to convince you."

"You don’t have to do that. I already gave you my decision."

I walk to the counter and stand behind it. I try to ignore what just happened as I watch them walk out of the cafe but before Jacob left, he wrote his number on a piece of paper and kept it on the counter for me. I look at the picture, wondering if I should take it with me or not. I decided to put it inside my pants pocket.

Lifting my gaze, I notice everyone’s attention is on me. "Do you guys need something?" I ask but no one said a thing. They all turn away to face whatever they are doing.

I start arranging the doughnuts and a customer walks in. I greet them and take their order. While I'm getting their order ready, Anna tries to ask me about the Lycan. I don't say anything about the contract. It's weird enough that they're trying to get me to sign it, I don’t want to talk about it. I mean, there are thousands of people in this empire. Why did they choose me? I'm still wondering about it.

I continue serving customers for another hour, but I'm getting impatient as I wait for noon to clock. I can't wait to get out of here and head to my next job. Time seems to be dragging, but before I know it, it's just a few seconds away.

"5, 4, 3, 2…." I halt counting when my phone rings. I glance at my phone and see Kate's name on the screen. Kate is my neighbor.

That's strange, Kate never calls me unless... My heart skips a beat as I think about the possibilities. I answer the call and immediately ask, "Is Layla okay?" My heart is pounding as I wait for Kate's response.

"I’m afraid not. She just finished eating lunch and now she’s coughing out blood." She says

I feel a chill run down my spine and my stomach drops. "Take her to the hospital, I will be there in a minute." I say before I end the call. I waste no time and I quickly grab my bag and head out of the cafe. I don’t bother to tell Anna I’m leaving as I am too worried to do that.

My heart pounds in my chest as I turn the key in the ignition and hear my old truck roar to life. I grip the steering wheel tightly as I pull out of the parking lot.

I’m not gonna let anything happen to you Layla. You’re all I have, I can not lose you.