Chapter 10

“I’m saying exactly what it sounds like I’m saying,” I snarled at him.

“Oh dear, there’s no need to be rude,” Verity said with a light snort.

“Did I not just ask you not to disparage yourself mere seconds ago?”

“Alpha, I think she’s only just stating her reality,” Verity responded with a pout. “She may have grown up favoured by Alpha Darren but it doesn’t change the fact that her mother was only just a maid and she had to survive on the pennies Alpha Darren was generous enough to slip into her hands.”

“I do not remember asking your opinion.” Kian faced Verity with the full force of his glare. It moved her back a few meters. “You must have thought I ordered your shitty opinion along with the food.”

“No, Alpha –“

“Get out.” He snarled at her.

She hurried out of the office without having to be told a second time.

“You know she’s going to go cry to her father for being wronged?” I snorted as I watched Verity retreat.

“I am sure Beta Caine has not grown the liver to confront me.”

This was one thing about Kian.

He was truly an asshole.

His family led Dark Howl from its inception, his ancestors having founded the pack. Not only was the seat of Alpha his birthright, it was also a seat he filled perfectly. He was rude and arrogant, challenging his Elders and everyone in authority. Most feared him and those who didn’t envied him but no one could go against him.

In this world, Kian Zephyr was a god in a class of his own and no one dared challenge him, not even his father’s Beta and the most influential man in the pack.

“Alpha,” Matthew showed up minutes later. “The time has come for your four o’clock meeting.”

Kian gave me a look before he spoke. “Send them in.”

“This meeting is important,” he said to me.

“What does that have to do with me?” I asked with a smirk.

“Behave,” he warned just as there was another knock on his door. “Come in.”

Three men walked into the office. Their eyes first fell on me before their gazes slid over me as if I was a piece of cloth hanging in the hallway.

“Good afternoon, Alpha,” they greeted in unison.

Silence met their response. A second passed. Two. I observed from behind them as their backs started to straighten one by one. Kian’s gaze cut into them, and the sound that filled the silence next was that of his own tapping against his desk.

“A – Alpha?”

“It’s interesting,” a low voice responded. “It’s almost as if you do not recognize my Luna.”

“What do you mean?” They asked.

“You must never have met Natalie.”

“No, Alpha, we know your mate. Is there a problem?”

“You know her. Then you must be unaware of the correct protocol to follow.”

“Alpha is there a problem?”

“You must not know a thing about hierarchy.”

As the atmosphere got tenser and tenser, I wanted to laugh. The men who had walked in and immediately faced Kian without acknowledging me did not know what was happening. It was not unusual for people not to acknowledge me as the Luna. Most people in this pack felt that I was not deserving of the position and it didn’t help that everyone knew that Kian didn’t think highly of me.

There were rumours going around that I was just a placeholder, someone filling in a gap on Alpha Darren’s orders. Soon, someone who fit the position of Luna for this powerful pack would come and I would be relieved of the duties I never got to take on.

At first, I had been hurt by these assumptions but as time went on, with the more I lost interest in Kian, the more irrelevant these opinions were to me. I had long since stopped caring about whether the people in this pack called me their Luna any more than I cared about Kian calling me stupid but today, it seemed, Kian had decided that since he finally acknowledged me, others were violators of hierarchical laws by not paying me due respect.

“He’s asking if you don’t know how to pay respect to the Luna of your pack,” I spoke up, taking pity on the three men whose legs were already starting to quiver. The scent of fear on them was repugnant and Marc, the one in the middle, had a particularly foul smell as he started to sweat.

“O – Oh!” The three men who walked in and looked over me like a piece of rag, immediately turned to face me. ”Good afternoon, Luna Natalie!”

“Whatever.” I looked away from them and went back to perusing the documents in front of me.

“I was already in a bad mood but now you’ve made it worse.” Kian tsked. “Before you present that wretched report you have with you, can you swear on your lives that it won’t put me in an even worse mode?”

“Y – yes, Alpha!” They rushed out.

I could feel their eyes dart to me but I wasn’t interested in what they had to say so I didn’t bother raising my head.

“Can you swear on your life? Mind you, I could have you in the dungeons faster than you can spell your names if I find a single mistake in that report.”

“Alpha – we will – we will review the reports and bring them back at a later date!” They scurried away with that.

It was funny seeing grown men like this move in fear because of a man at least ten years their junior.

I spent the rest of the day mapping out possible strategies to leave the pack, researching divorce terms and secretly texting Aaron’s assistant on the quickest way to get Aaron out of the dungeons.

Since he had indeed trespassed and flouted the laws of hierarchy, there was no reason to go to court since he was guilty so we just had to find a way to placate Kian to let him go.

Two hours later, it was time to go home. I had not made any headway all day so I was quite frustrated. My anger and anxiety from being helpless out of nowhere made my heart uncomfortable. I could not divorce him in peace, could not run away and my only legal counsel was now rotting in the dungeons.

As we got to the car, the sound of heels clacking came accompanied by a breathless Verity.

“Alpha!” She stopped us. “Alpha, can I bother you for a ride?”

“You must have mistaken me for your chauffeur,” Kian responded.

“No,” she raised her hand in a show of surrender. “How dare I? It’s just that my car broke down and my brother isn’t leaving anytime soon. Since we live close to each other, I thought –“

“Get lost, Miss Caine.” He got into the driver's seat and I laughed under my breath.