Chapter 8 : Meeting Alan

*Alice's POV*

"What is this I hear of William declaring you as his mate?" Joan asked as she walked into the kitchen to find me doing the dishes from lunch.

"You already heard?" I groaned. "Didn't you just get back?"

"So it's true?" Joan looked flabbergasted. "Yes, I just got back, and that is all the palace is talking about!"

That's not good.

"Yeah, it's true," I told her. "He just blurted it out earlier. I got annoyed and walked away, though, so that's all I know, really."

Joan kept her eyes on me, but once she was satisfied that I had no interest in William, she sighed and asked me no more questions.

This wasn't good. Olivia would be looking for me to torture me if she knew anything good had happened to me. There was no doubt in my mind that she'd already heard the news, and she'd be furious—jealous, even. I needed to hide before she could find me.

Then, I thought of Simon.

Maybe I could sneak over to his place and wait for him to return. I knew from the guards that he had left the palace, and I wasn't sure where he went. What if he really had given up on me? I didn't want to stop training. I needed to be stronger.

I didn't know what I planned on doing to get back into his good graces, but I needed him to resume our lessons, no matter the cost.

I wonder…did I do something wrong?

Ugh, why did I even care this much? This was Simon we're talking about—the Simon that most people around here were terrified of. His opinion of me shouldn't matter in the slightest.

I sighed, making Joan look at me worriedly.

"Is there any way you could cover the rest of my duties for the day?" I pleaded with Joan. "If the palace is talking about William's announcement that much, I don't think I should be around."

"Of course," Joan said. Then, I saw her temper flare for a moment. "If anybody gives you trouble, you let me know. Okay?"

"Will do."

I wouldn't.

I gave her a quick hug and sneaked out of the side kitchen door.

Once again, I was lucky enough not to encounter anybody on the way to Simon's living quarters.

Simon's door loomed before me, and I gave it a solid knock. No one answered. I already knew he wouldn't be there, but I couldn't help but think he might have returned early.

Just as I was about to leave, I heard the door open and turned around anticipatorily to see Simon. Maybe I was right after all. My face contorted when I saw it wasn't him.

A tall man that looked to be about Simon's age was standing in the doorway, looking at me in surprise. The next thing I knew, he was violently grabbing my arm and ripping me into the room. As soon as he shut the door, his questions started.

"Who are you?" he asked in a grumpy and irritable voice. "What are you doing here?"

Who was he? That's what I wanted to know. He seemed to have free access to Simon's room, which was intriguing to me. I didn't remember ever seeing him around the palace before, either. Making a decision to try and get more information, I turned on my acting charm and smiled.

Hopefully, he wasn't immune to it like Simon.

"I am Simon's lover."

It was the first idea that had come into my head.

The man was still gripping my wrist, and I felt it tighten. I let out a small gasp as it felt like it might break.

"You are lying," he growled out. "I have been with Simon for two years, and I have never seen you before, not even a picture. Nor has he ever mentioned a lover. I don't believe he would have anything of that sort with you."

"Okay, okay," I said quickly as the pain and pressure in my wrist grew. "Simon is my teacher. He is teaching me how to fight. My name is Alice."

I knew that giving the man my name would humanize me and maybe make him release me. Sure enough, his hand let go of my wrist. However, he still looked suspicious as he stayed close to me.

"Who are you? And how are you in the teacher's room?" I asked the man. "What are you here for?"

He looked at me for a moment, and his expression turned to one of annoyance.

"My name is Alan," he announced. "I was supposed to make a report to Simon today, but Simon isn't here as he promised, so I am patiently waiting."

"Report of what?" I asked. He seemed to be pretty open.

"Just normal stuff," he said vaguely. "Mostly concerning the rogues in this area and the location of the abnormal rogues. Why did you come here?"

I noticed he was changing the subject, but it didn't bother me at the moment. That was still more information than I had ever gotten out of Simon.

"We have been training every night, and he said that we might not train when I saw him earlier, so I was just trying to verify our session for tonight." I flipped my hair over my shoulder, hiding the fact that Simon had decided to end our teacher-student relationship. I wouldn't let that happen."Plus, there is some gossip going around the palace concerning me, so I was just trying to get away before it escalated."

I was hoping that if I gave Alan this small piece of personal information, he would begin to trust me a little more. Building trust and getting people to talk was one of the hardest parts of my manipulation.

"You saw him earlier?" Alan asked. "Did anything seem unusual when you saw him?"

"He seemed normal to me," I shrugged. "Just dressed in his normal suit and everything. Nothing out of the ordinary."

He was annoyed by me, but I didn't want to tell him the entire truth. Maybe Alan could help me get Simon to change his mind.

Alan sighed and took a seat. It was working. He was opening up. "Simon likes to take off places by himself. However, he is a punctual man, and he will not let others wait for him for too long. Which is why I decided to wait for him here."

I had to admit that although Simon was a powerful shifter, his etiquette was indeed much stronger than others—namely James and Olivia. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that he hadn't ever really even treated me with disrespect. He only ever got angry when I touched his belongings. My neck throbbed at the reminder of the incident.

"Do you have his contact information?" I asked, pointing to the cellphone in his front pocket.

"Yes, but I never call Simon unless it's an emergency."

I scrunched my nose. "Why?"

Truthfully, I had never seen Simon use a phone, but why not use it if you have it?

"Simon is a teacher in the palace, you know," Alan paused. I knew he was hesitating but ultimately resided on keeping his cards close. "It has nothing to do with you. Unless Simon permits it, I won't tell you about him."

I was disappointed. It seemed that I couldn't get more information about Simon from him.

His hand still held the phone, so I hurried and snatched it away. The burly man looked like he was going to grab it back from me, then seemed to think better of it. He most likely knew that I was going to call Simon with it, and he was tired of waiting for him too.

Plus, he was probably wondering if I did have a close relationship with Simon because if he misjudged it and hurt me, then he could still be in a lot of trouble. So, he crossed his arms across his chest and watched me do my work.

"It'll be your head," he said with a shrug.

Not scared in the slightest, I opened up the contacts. Technically, Simon had hurt me on the first night, but just because I had moved incorrectly while trying to evade his pebbles. If I hadn't jumped to try and dodge, it would have hit me in the thigh, where it wouldn't have caused any damage.

Since the time he had choked me right here in this office, I don't think there was a single thing that he had done to hurt me intentionally. Even the ankle incident was a mistake. In fact, it was often quite the opposite. I could still feel his magic healing potion coursing through my body and making me feel better and not worse.

But this morning, maybe he was just reminding me in his way to better protect myself. And I lost control of it. I attacked him with my words.

It's unimaginable, but I did.

I feared he would reject me outright if I didn't say something. I pressed his name on the phone and saw the dialling sign appear.

My palms started to sweat, but I had no choice. I put the phone to my ear and listened as it rang, and rang, and rang…

My heart was beating fast, as if I was standing on the edge of a cliff, and taking one more step would determine my fate.

Finally, I heard it pick up, and his voice came through the line.

"Alan." His voice was quiet.

I felt a tingle at hearing his voice, which annoyed me more than anything.

"I did not agree to stop the training!" I nearly screamed at him to ensure that he got the message. "I'm at the normal place waiting for you."

Then with an annoyed huff, I hung up on him before he could snap something back at me.

I didn't want to hear any words of refusal. I couldn't let Simon reject me.

My chest was heaving as if my heart was about to erupt. Well done. I didn't back down. As for whether Simon would come or not was another story.

Alan looked at me dumbfounded.

I grabbed my secret phone out of my pocket and copied Simon's information into it so that way I would have it for later. Then I handed the phone to Alan, handing it back to him.

"Are you actually Simon's lover?" Alan asked as he grabbed the phone.

"What?" I looked at him in confusion. "No, he really is just my teacher. What makes you ask that?"

"I have never seen anyone talk to Simon like that." He shook his head. "You either have a death wish, or you like him."

I felt the heat flush into my cheeks.

"Death wish, definitely."

Alan just laughed.

"If you like him, you should know he has a photo in his wallet," Alan stated.

I was surprised Alan knew the photo, too. That picture was the reason I was almost killed by Simon. But I still didn't know what the woman in the photo had to do with him. Before this, I wasn't interested in it, but now, I couldn't deny that my heart had skipped a beat.

"Of course, I know that photo." I rubbed my neck subconsciously. Alan looked at me as if he knew everything.

"I think that beautiful woman is Simon's mate."

Allen's words made my hand freeze.

I never thought about it. The whole mate thing. I was not interested in shifter bonds. But Simon was also a shifter, a powerful one at that. He couldn't possibly be without a mate. He was not like me, forgotten by the Moon Goddess.

"Where is his mate?" I asked. I wanted to hide my curiosity. I knew that as a student, it's normal to care about a teacher's mate. But truthfully, I didn't just have curiosity.

"Who knows? Maybe dead." Alan noted with a tinge of despair.

His change in tone alerted me, and all I knew about the mate bond came to my mind.

"It is said that when the werewolf's mate dies, he will be greatly hurt and turn into a rogue. Is that right?" I asked.

"You say this as if you are not a shifter," Alan answered, giving me a strange look. Then, he sighed. "But yes, essentially, they turn rogue and lose their minds."

My eyes widened. "Does that mean Simon was formerly a rogue wolf?"

"No, no, I don't think so. Simon is a great shifter. He's strong, and I don't think he would ever reach that level of despair. I'm talking about myself. I used to be a rogue wolf. Simon saved me from the brink of insanity. Honestly, Simon is my savior."

Simon was a savior?

I didn't ever picture him that way, and thinking about him potentially losing his mate hurt me more than I expected. Maybe Simon knew real pain too. And maybe we were more alike than I thought.