11. LOBBY INCIDENT

JULIA

I woke up gasping for air. It was a dark dream that involved being trapped in a room with Zeke. His bloodshot red eyes and snarling lips hovering over me. I was applying pressure on my neck, where blood was gushing out. Zeke had bit me, and he looked amused.

“Why do you look so scared, little human?”

My hands immediately flew to my neck, fortunately, there was no bite, and no blood. The room was also empty.

The sunlight had entered the room through the glass window and the sky looked bright as ever. I stood up after calming myself down and looked over the window.

It was already dark when we arrived last night so I didn’t see or notice anything about the place we’re staying in, but now that it’s day, I could clearly see it. And it was amazing.

The house was up a hill, surrounded by a forest but it overlooks the town and the sea in the distance. The house was surrounded by tall steel fences and men, who wore the same black shirts surrounded it as if they were patrolling the area.

My stomach grumbled the moment someone knocked the door. I remembered not eating dinner last night, refusing to. When I opened the door, It was Lyla, who looked a bit livelier than she was yesterday.

“Good morning, miss. Breakfast is ready for you.”

I followed her while my hand rested on my stomach. I was hungry. If this were the forest, we’d have to hunt before we could have the first meal of the day. But Lyla told me that breakfast was ready, which felt like I was dreaming.

The bed was soft, and I slept well, aside from the nightmare, and now I was getting breakfast easily. Everything felt like a dream to me. I wasn’t used to it.

Men were waiting down the grand staircase. They were forming a crowd, talking under whispers in front of the door that Zeke had disappeared into last night. Their heads looked up into our direction at the same time as if they had smelled something and decided to turn.

Lyla didn’t mind their attention but had stopped in her tracks in front of a tall figure in front of us. We were on the last step of the stairs, but no one stepped aside, as if they were refusing to acknowledge our presence.

“Please make way,” Lyla politely asked but a man refused to step aside. Lyla looked up, realization and fear flashed through her face when their eyes met.

I followed her gaze and looked at the man. He was wearing a condescending smirk in his face as he looked down on her. His body was big and burly, a few weapons hung on the side of his waist and a burnt scar marked his neck.

“Please allow us to pass,” Lyla repeated, trying to raise her voice but ended up cracking instead. Her hands were fisted together, visibly shaking as she tried to hold them tighter. Her eyes were shifting from one direction to another, and her breathing is unstable.

“What if I don’t want to, Lyliiee?” he mocked, stepping closer.

 “And who do you have here? A mere human girl?”

I met his gaze; we held it for a few seconds since I didn’t want to look away. His lips curled into a snarl and scoffed.

“An arrogant bitch, I see.”

“Bern!” Lyla warned him. The man named Bern jerked his head aggressively towards her which made her look down.

“Did you just raise you voice at me; you bitch?” Bern started hovering over her and bumping himself into her a few times, making her stumble back. “You think you’re powerful now, are ‘ya? Just because your dad found back up?”

Bern kept bumping his body into her and almost made her fall back on the step of the stairs. Lyla was clearly struggling to stand her ground and refusing to fall but the impact was gradually becoming stronger and stronger.

“Hey, stop this,” I warned him and placed myself between both of them. I placed both of my hands between us and pushed him away. He barely moved but I continued to glare at him.

Bern smirked and looked at the other men. Some of them scoffed and laughed, some of them stayed silent and looked away. None of them came to help.

“We just wanted to pass by, what do you want?” I asked him. I was kind of scared about the fact that big men were surrounding us at close proximity, but I was not patient enough to deal with this.

 I was hungry.

“Who do you think you are, you bitch?” he taunted me. At that moment I wanted to slap him or kick him in the balls, but I stopped myself before I got into further danger. Lyla was also shaking in fear behind me.

“Stop calling me that,” I warned him. He grinned.

“Calling you what? Bit—”

Bern blasted away, dragging away other men with him. He slammed into the wall with a loud thud and dropped to the group groaning along with the others.

Most of the crowd turned and saw Zeke standing near us. He was clenching and unclenching his fist. His hair was disheveled, but at least he wasn’t naked anymore but wore a black V-neck shirt instead.

He slowly walked towards Bern and the group of men who had fallen with him and kneeled at his level. Bern was still groaning in pain from the fall but when he saw Zeke’s face, he turned pale.

“Who do you think you’re calling a Bitch?” Zeke asked him. His voice was calm, yet deadly and his face was devoid of any emotion.

Bern transferred looks from him to me and sudden realization lightened up his expression.

“Oh, I see,” he said, “I—I’m sorry, I didn’t realize the human was your toy.”

Zeke tilted his head, but I scoffed.

“What toy?!” I snapped at him.

Bern laughed and shook his head. He slowly sat right up and looked at Zeke with a mischievous expression.

“There are better women here, Alpha. I could recommend you some—Aaaghhh! Shit!” The lobby area was filled with his scream when Zeke withdrew a knife from Bern’s hilt and buried it on his thigh.

Zeke grinned, exposing his teeth and looking amused at the sound of Bern’s screams. He started to laugh as if he was looking at something fun and amusing. He curled his fingers around the handle and twisted it which made Bern groan and whimper even more.

“Who sounds like a little bitch, now?” he taunted him, burying it deeper and twisting the knife even more.

I stood there in shock, blinking several times just to see if I was just dreaming again. But the sound of pain got louder and louder and no one dared to stop them. No one dared to step in and stop Zeke. Even Amir was just staring at them, his hands crossed on his chest and his expression tells me that this is just normal.

After mustering up enough strength and courage I finally cleared my throat and called out to him.

“Zeke.”

He stopped; his hand turned still but it was still holding on to the knife. He partly turned his face towards my direction then sighed. He uncoiled his fingers and stood up, his back still facing us. A part of me was scared. He was different. A totally different person than when we were alone. But the following days after we met his family, I wasn’t so sure anymore.

Amir walked towards him and handed him a handkerchief to wipe the blood off his hand. Zeke then turned around and walked towards us at the stairs. Everyone near us immediately disappeared from my peripheral vision, but my eyes remained on him and watched his every step.

Will he bury a knife in me too? Will he coil his fingers around my neck and break it?

“Amir told me you didn’t eat dinner last night,” he said, which surprised me. His voice and demeanor completely changed compared to what it was a few seconds ago. I slowly shook my head and fisted my hands, trying to calm myself down.

“That’s strange. Are you hurt?” he asked me, but I shook my head once again. We stood there in silence, with everyone’s eyes on us. None of them spoke, maybe even they could feel the coldness right now.

“Lyla,” Amir finally broke the silence, but Lyla was still out of it. “Lyla!”

Lyla finally blinked and snapped back into reality. She looked at me and then at Zeke and then at Amir.

“Oh, yes, I’m really sorry.” She walked past me and pointed towards the empty hallway. “Breakfast is ready.”

“I think we should eat before proceeding with the meeting, Alpha.” Amir politely said and bowed his head in respect. My forehead creased with the term that they kept on repeating. They kept calling Zeke, ‘Alpha’.

Zeke nodded, his eyes never leaving me. I was starting to grow uncomfortable and frozen to the spot with his discerning eyes. It never bothered me before but now it was even more obvious.

“Let’s eat,” Zeke meekly told me.

I nodded at him, and we followed Lyla. My body felt a spark and a slight shiver when his hand landed on the small of my back and guided me, but it didn’t stop me from looking back at the incident and seeing the men carry Bern out of the lobby.

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END