My heart pounded as I held his steely gaze. I’d never seen him before in person. Still, he embodied every physical descriptor I had heard customers give him at the diner. He was extremely fit, tall, dark, and handsome--with ice-blue eyes, eyes a girl could get lost in.
Alpha Elijah’s eyes narrowed.
“Yes, you. You seem to have incorrectly identified yourself, Miss…?”
I swallowed. I needed this façade to work for a little longer, or Elise’s parents would catch her before she and her boyfriend left town. I titled my head to the side in pretend confusion.
“There must be a misunderstanding. I’m Elise Matthews; I handed my invitation to the guard on the way in.” I crossed my arms.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone. He pulled something up on the screen and showed it to me. It was a picture of Elise.
Crap.
“Everyone who RSVP’d was required to send their picture in with their application. Are you really saying this is you?” He raised a dark eyebrow.
I swallowed and took a deep breath. “My name is Agnes Blake. My best friend Elise…her family was going to force her to be here when she already has a mate. She asked me to cover for her.”
The alpha snorted. “So she left you with the possibility of an impersonation charge if you were caught? Some best friend.”
My eyes widened. “Oh my gosh I didn’t even think about that, I just wanted to help my friend.” I covered my face with my hands and then looked at him through my fingers. “Are you going to press charges?”
He took my hands in his. “Do you want to be here?”
I paused. Of course, I didn’t, but my mind floated to that life-changing money again.
“Yes, I do,” I told him. “But please don’t tell Elise’s parents, at least not yet.”
“I won’t.” He promised. “But I’m not sure what to do with you…yet. I need time to think about it. Please go.”
Elijah strode over to the room’s door and beckoned someone over. It was a woman in a maid’s uniform. “Please show Miss Agnes Blake to the mate trial dormitories.”
The maid nodded and beckoned me to follow her. I gave the alpha one last look. He’d turned to look out the window, his strong jaw set. I shivered.
His look was not a good sign for me. Would he request me be fully ousted out of the pack?
I followed the maid to the dorms. “Each girl has her own room,” She told me curtly, “And own bathroom as well. Alpha Elijah wanted everyone to feel comfortable here.”
She stood in front of one of the rooms. “This is your room, room 14. Please take some time to get settled.”
I smiled. “Thank you.”
I decided to take a quick look at the room and bathroom, which were about 1000 times nicer than my apartment. The room had a chandelier as its light, with a large four-poster bed and a closet filled with clothes that were my size—and Elise’s.
The bathroom had a clawfoot tub, a walk-in shower, and a toilet with a bidet. I hadn’t lived in such luxury in a while, not since I’d lived at home. Thoughts of home drove me to think of how I had the potential to run into Ava at any moment here.
I wasn’t ready for that sister meeting yet. But unwilling to wait for whatever was next in my rooms, I hurriedly exited the mate’s trial dormitory and found two large patio doors that opened out to a garden. I slipped outside and took in the fresh smell of lavender and roses.
The garden was expansive, and I decided to take my time walking through, admiring the large flower bushes and other various exotic plants. It was when I was looking up, slowly admiring the flowering vines on a tall tree that my foot nudged something foreign. I looked down.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” I gasped. The toe of my shoe had nudged into the leg of a young girl, sitting under the tree with a pen and paper in her lap.
The girl smiled, and I noticed the freckles dusting her small, rounded cheeks. “No worries. I was just trying to draw that rosebush over there.” She pointed at a yellow rosebush with her pencil.
I sat down beside her in the grass and looked at her drawing. “This is really good. You’re talented.” She’d captured the rosebush perfectly, it was uncanny.
She bit her lip and grasped the paper, turning it this way and that. “I don’t know. There’s still something off about it to me.”
“May I?” I asked, gesturing for the paper, and she handed it to me. I looked for a moment and pointed at the stems.
“Add thorns,” I told her, handing it back, and she slapped her head.
“Ugh, of course! Thank you.” She smiled as she began to add some to her drawing. “Are you here for the mate trial?”
“I am,” I replied, picking a blade of grass and fiddling with it between my fingers. “Do you live here?”
She nodded. “My mom is…uh, she’s a maid here. I’m Thea.” She said brightly. “I come out here every day.”
“That’s so cool. It is beautiful here. Does the alpha come out here a lot too?”
Thea nodded again. “He likes the gardens, too. But what I don’t understand, is why so many women want to marry him?” She wrinkled her nose, and I laughed.
“Well,” I leaned down conspiratorially, “I’ll let you in on a little secret of mine. I’m only here to save a friend from having to be here. And she offered me a lot of money to come in her place. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the money.”
Thea burst out laughing. “Well, that’s going to bring down the alpha’s confidence. He’s very nice but he does think he’s SOOO cool, especially when he heard how many girls were competing. I overheard him talking.”
As I opened my mouth to respond, my stepsister flung herself around the corner, nearly barreling into me.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Ava demanded. Her blonde hair was still perfectly in place, even with her swift movements, but her blue eyes were red and angry.
I stood up and dusted off my dress. “Participating in the mate trial, same as you,” I stated calmly.
She scoffed, “As if an alpha would want you. You’re just a waitress. Don’t act surprised I know,” She stated when she saw the surprised look on my face, “Mom and Dad hired a private investigator to keep tabs on you, like, a year ago.”
I ignored her jab and turned to leave, but she blocked my path.
“Tell me what the alpha wanted with you today.” She ordered, her hands on her hips.
“Doesn’t that show that he was interested in me today and not you?” I quipped back.
Ava growled and got into my face. “Do you realize just how pathetic you are? Seven years ago, you got pregnant with some nobody wolf’s bastard. You left your only family, lost your wolf, racked up a mountain of debt, and the kid didn’t even live! Agnes, your life is a complete joke.”
I saw red and pushed her out of my space. “My baby didn’t die! She was stolen!”
Ava stormed back toward me, and Thea tried to get between us. “Please, stop.” She said to Ava.
I gently pushed Thea behind me.
Ava’s hand went toward my cheek, and I caught her arm in my hand. She struggled in my grip. Even ‘wolfless’, as she so pleasantly reminded me, I was still stronger than her.
“What is this?” A voice boomed from behind us. My eyes met Elijah’s as he looked upon us as if we were a wild spectacle.
And right now, I supposed we were.
I let go of Ava and she rushed towards him, giddy, fixing her hair behind her ears.
He didn’t spare her a glance. “Leave.” He ordered her.
It seemed he liked to do that a lot. She looked at him agape, then put her head down and hurried past him, out of the gardens.
Thea ran straight to Elijah and gave him a tight hug. “Daddy!” She exclaimed, but his eyes still didn’t leave mine.
My heart hammered in my chest as the truth sank in. She wasn’t the maid’s daughter, she was his.
The Alpha’s daughter.
