Chapter five

Sapphire turned around and startled, holding her chest as her heart took a lurch out. 

“Jeez you’re going to give someone a heart attack popping up like that!” She chastised Nika. 

“The boss is calling you.” The gothic girl said tonelessly. 

“Why?” She asked, annoyed. 

“Beats me.” Nika replied and went back to her scribbling. 

Sapphire sighed and headed to his office. Dealing with Mr. Delarien was tedious on a good day. He was the owner of the fashion agency she worked for and a spectacular pain in her ass. Considering how shitty a day she had been having with thoughts of the barbarian king prowling her mind, she was hoping to avoid him completely today. 

“Sir, you called for me?” She asked, pasting a smile on her face. He swivelled his chair around and met her gaze beneath bushy caterpillar brows. 

“Miss Legolith! Just the woman I was looking for. I have something for you, over there.” Her boss pointed. 

She took the envelope carefully, eyeing him mistrustfully. Her eyes widened with disbelief as she read the contents. 

“What’s this?! You’re firing me?!” She asked incredulously. 

“You read right.” He said, stroking his jaw with fake sympathy. “It was a hard decision for me you see, but we’re no longer as buoyant as we used to be. I cannot afford to continue with all of my staff and so someone has to be cut.”

“And that someone has to be me!” She said incredulously, her voice quivering with disbelief. 

“A hard decision I said.” He replied with a smile. She was incensed!

“Does this make any sense to you at all?” She asked, taking an angry step forward. “I am your highest paid stylist in this agency.”

“Hence... the cut.” He replied. 

“I am by far the best stylist you have got here!” She slammed the envelope down and he stiffened. “I have brought in the most elite of customers and my track record is spotless. Does this make sense that I’m the one being cut?!”

He slammed his hand down with a bang and stood. “Your displeasure does not give you grounds to be unruly in my office!”

She laughed. “I know the real reason why I’m being cut.” She sneered and his face tightened.

“If you’re implying there has been some sort of misconduct-“ He began and she interrupted him. 

“Please cut the crap. Last week.” She said, pinning him with a stare that dared him to deny it. “That’s the real reason I’m being cut isn’t it?”

The old fart called her to this office last week and ordered her to blow him for a raise. The disgust she felt was only matched to that period three years ago when she was fated to marry her father’s old beta. That episode had ended with her twisting his wrinkly old dick in her hand and nearly yanking it off. She knew he would not dare to breathe a word to anyone about it but she didn’t expect this underhanded tactic. 

He coughed and adjusted his tie. 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m cutting you because the income reserves have gone low.” He snapped. 

“Then you wouldn’t mind an agreement then.” She smiled and leaned into his face. “That is, if there isn’t a personal vendetta in this. I’m sure the Minister of Works would find this case interesting if I were to file a petition to his desk. What will people say?”

“Fine! I’ll give you one condition to fulfil in a week if you wish to keep your position.” He said and she straightened. He smiled and she knew she was in trouble. 

“Find us a customer before the week’s end.” He declared. “The opposition’s most valuable customer.”

She knew it! The condition was impossible. 

...

To make her day worse, she just had her sweetest customer in her next appointment. 

“We’re gonna be late.” Nika said. 

“Coming!” She called. 

Fifteen minutes later, she and Nika hurled themselves into waiting room to face Bianca Montero’s resting bitch face. 

“You are one minute and twenty eight seconds late.” She bit out. “Hurry up, I have a meeting after this.”

“I’m so sorry!” Sapphire said with a forced smile and snapped her fingers. “Nika, get the draft.”

Bianca’s eyes narrowed on the dress as Nika wheeled it in. 

“I don’t believe that’s the dress I’ll be wearing to the AMVCA next month.” The award winning actress said and Sapphire tried not to frown. 

“Of course it is, do you not recognise it? It is exactly the same as the draft I created, which you approved before we began the work.” Said Sapphire. 

“Are you an imbecile? This dress is the most basic piece I’ve ever laid eyes on. I wouldn’t even use it to scrub my floors.” The actress said coldly. 

Great, like her day couldn’t get worse. She was tempted to point out that this ‘basic’ dress was actually specified by none other than the actress herself so... it was her imagination that was basic. The customer was always right and she was already on thin ice as it was. 

“Me neither. The fabric is not really the absorbent type.” Sapphire said, immediately regretting her wit when Bianca’s nose flared. 

“What did you say?!” She asked. 

“I mean-!” Sapphire pulled the dress closer. “You can always count on me to make you a star. Give me free rein and I shall transform this dress into something from your fantasies.” She caressed the gorgeous fabric. 

Bianca scoffed. “The sight of that dress is making me want to puke. Trash it. I want you to create another one from scratch.” The actress said and Sapphire’s smile fizzled at the edges. 

“I’m sure you don’t mean that. The fabric alone took months to source for remember? You were quite adamant you didn’t want basic fabric.” Sapphire said placatingly. And perhaps, the snotty-nosed elite’s dress was not the only one she had to compete. The award ceremony was just in a month. “Let me transform the dress, I assure you when I am done with it, you’re going to love it.” 

Bianca smirked and stepped forward, grabbing the delicate fabric and with an explosive motion, she ripped it in two. 

Sapphire gasped and watched the two halves drift to the floor and Bianca smirked. 

“Don’t make it so obvious you’re too lazy to start from scratch. Find the fabric again, Sapphire and make the dress from scratch.” She blew on her nail and laughed a little, pleased with herself. 

Sapphire looked from the ruined dress to her, her hands fisting as she realised she was now boxed into a corner. On a normal day, she was the most temperamental of the stylists here and she would laugh in the bitch’s face and tell her to go design her dress herself but Mr. Delarien was looking for any reason at all to cut her and she would be damned if she gave him one. 

“What are you glaring at?” Bianca asked, stepping forward menacingly. 

The reason why the actress was being so testy was also very obvious. It was a month ago when Sapphire finally agreed to attend one of the ceremonies her clients invited her to and she happened to run into Bianca’s boyfriend, a hotshot lawyer. He dumped Bianca on the spot and chased after her pathetically but she wanted nothing to do with him. Sapphire still had that effect on men, even though she was making absolutely no efforts to look enticing. Her lips curled sardonically as she thought about the priceless expression on Bianca’s face when she was dumped. 

“You bitch!” Bianca gritted out, triggered by her smile. Her hand rose and snapped towards her cheek and Bianca closed her eyes but the sound of flesh hitting flesh made her open them tentatively. 

Her heart slammed into her chest as no other than Killian McGarth gripped Bianca’s arm in mid-air and glared down at the actress with anger. 

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Killian growled.

“Fuck me.” Sapphire whispered. She was having the second worst day of her life. Ironic that the first worst day was also connected to the male. 

“Killian.” Sapphire said tonelessly. 

Bianca hissed like a cat and looked up but when her eyes found Killian, they widened and she grew quiet, staring up at him with adoration. 

Killian released her hand but his glare remained dark. 

“There is no way I walked in on you trying to slap my woman did I?” He growled. 

“Your woman?!” Sapphire and Bianca chorused incredulously. Sapphire pasted her diplomatic smile on her face again. 

“Killian? Please outside, we need to talk.” She gritted out. 

“Wait!” Bianca practically yelled, sidling closer to Killian. 

“I’ve never seen you around before.” She said with a coquettish smile. “And you didn’t just call ‘Sapphire’ your woman did you?”

“Yes.” He replied the same time she said no. Sapphire scowled at him, irked at his audacity. 

“Interesting.” Bianca said, looking between them with a devious smirk on her lips from obviously devious thoughts. “I’m Bianca Monterro.” She offered her hand. 

Killian ignored it, cocking his head. “Miss Monterro, consider this a last warning. If you ever try to hurt Sapphire again I will break each of your fingers and feed them to the dogs.”

Her eyes widened with shock and Sapphire hurried forward and gripped his arm. She had no doubt the psychopath was not joking. 

“That’s enough. We need to talk. Now.” Said Sapphire as she pulled him out of the room. 

“What the hell are you doing here?!” She asked as soon as she shut the door behind them. “How did you even find my workplace?!”

He advanced on her, looking equally furious and she stood her ground and fought the urge to shrink into herself. 

“What about you? What the fuck Sapphire? Is this the treatment you have been tolerating for three years?! You are my mate! My queen that should rule at my side! Why would you tolerate such treatment from these pathetic humans?!”

She stiffened and glared at him.  

“I am no mate of yours! Whatever happens in my life is none of your damn business. Go back to Callahan pack, rot in peace and stop bugging my life! I am never going back with you.”

“Who said I was giving you an option? A werewolf has no place amongst humans!” He growled. 

“Then you are far away from home. This werewolf has found her place here.” She bit out.

She grabbed the door handle and glanced back at him. “I hope you and your pack rot in hell!”

She added and stomped out. 

Damn the male! Damn his stubbornness! She thought he would have left here by now! She stomped back towards her infuriating customer, hating her life. 

...

“I need a gun.” She told the man over the counter that evening after she left work. There was a beast she wouldn’t hesitate to put down if she needed to.