Chapter 0003

"Done, let's get going." Leanne said, dropping the makeup brush down on the table and standing up to double check her work on my face.

And let's be quick about it. Marcellus is going to be pissed that we took as long as we did," Lenny grumbled, pushing himself off the wall. I stood as Leanne shot me an angry glance, obviously she thought I wasn't moving fast enough. 

Lenny shoved me from behind, my eyes narrowed at him but I forced my feet to obey them and walked forward. A few steps from the door though, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and stopped dead in my tracks. 

Was that even me looking back out from it? I was.... curvy. Normally all I ever wore was a sports bra, baggy shirts and sweatpants or my one single pair of leggings that was reserved for my mandatory morning workout to keep my body healthy and in peak baby growing condition.

I could see Lenny about ready to push me again but I asked quietly, "What if I can't conceive?" My hand went to my belly as if on its own accord.

"Then you'll live out the rest of your life a prisoner to werewolves, so I suggest you do your best to get with child, and quickly. Because we won't be coming for you otherwise." Leanne's voice was emotionless as she answered. My hand dropped to my side.

My raven black hair spilled halfway down my back and framed my face in a way that made my green eyes pop. Or maybe that was the dark eyeliner that now framed them. I rarely ever got to wear makeup, the only times I had was when I'd been made to practice after studying videos teaching one how to apply it. Tutorials like that were part of my daily schedule. I was made to watch reels about how to do fancy hairdos, how to eat like a sophisticated, high-born lady or how to carry myself when walked as well. Among other way less tame things...

Like porn, so that I'd know what to do to "keep him wanting to come back to my bed" was how Leanne had put it the first time she'd sat me down to watch the stuff. I had been twelve. Messed up, I know.

Suddenly a rough shove between my shoulder blades pulled me back to the present and had me stumbling towards the door and I shot another withering look at Lenny before I followed Leanne down the stairs to where my father was waiting.

We walked into the room to find him sitting at the counter, a mug of coffee no longer warm beside him while he pored over some paperwork and Aiden in a chair next to the door. He glanced up from his work just as Aiden's head swiveled in our direction, no doubt having heard my heels clacking on the hardwood floor. 

"Took you long enough," My dad drawled, standing as I came to a stop in the center of the room. He circled me like a vulture, his eyes traveling up and down my entire body before he sighed out in resignation. "I suppose this is just going to have to do." He gestured down the length of me. "I wish you were born with better genetics. You look too much like your mother," he muttered as if he were describing an old shoe.

"But you loved her, you must've thought she was pretty," I shot back, wishing I didn't sound so desperate. Despite everything this man had put me through the last nineteen years, I still hated how I felt so small in front of him. Like everything I did was wrong and wished it wasn't. Wish he would look at me with approval for once. Rather than the scaulding disppointment he usually did.

"I thought she was adequate." he said simply, going back to his paperwork. "Let's just hope he doesn't look too closely at your nose or the wideness of your shoulders." He paused, casting one more quick prefunctory look. "You're feet too, I think, are a little disproportionate. Leanne, you probably should have gone with close-toed shoes. But I digress, nothing we can change or do anything about now and it won't help any. Come, let us away. The auction starts soon, and we want Lathan to meet you up close before the bidding starts." He tucked his papers away in a briefcase.

I stared down at my toes, wondering exactly what was wrong with them, I thought I had felt small when I'd first entered the room, now I felt like a flea, ready to be tread on. Worthless until I had a baby in my womb.

"Stand, boy. Unfortunately, I've no one here today to tend to you, so you're coming with," my father continued, snapping my attention away from my feet.

"But he can't! Not yet. He can't be around so many people while his powers haven't finished developing. He can't shield himself yet. They'll feel him," I argued, marching up to Aiden as if to block him from my father's view. 

"That's why Lenny and Leanne will be surrounding him, so they can cover his aura, girl. Do not fight with me," he ground out, getting in my face and I flinched as I saw his hand twitch. Normally I would've deserved a smack across the face for questioning him that way, but he'd had a strict "no hitting the goods" policy for the last month so I wouldn't accrue anymore bruises while my old ones had time to heal.

I felt Aiden's hand touch my skin as he felt for me, his hand, having found its target, wound its way around my arm as if to offer some of his strength to me. I reached up, squeezing his hand in thanks as my father strode past, pushing the door open hard enough that it banged off the wall.

Without a word, the four of us followed behind him into the cool night air.