Her wicked uncle

Amara's POV.

"The Baroness's brother."

I froze completely at what Margaret had just said. The Baroness's brother. First, I wasn't aware the Baroness had a brother and there was absolutely no way I could know that. My mind tried to imagine what he would look like.

Was he tiny just like his sister or was he a brute of a man? Did he have the same fierce spirit as the Baroness or was he a timid little thing?

A few hours later, all the ruckus died down and I was certain at that moment he had just arrived. My palms got sweaty and I tried my best to relax but the effort just made me sweat more and extremely skittish. Why was I nervous? It's not like he was here for me and what if he looked like the shadow of an ape. I tried to dismiss him from my mind fully and succeeded for a while. Just a while.

Margaret rushed out of the kitchen for a minute and rushed back. She looked worse than I did. I was already in the jade gown and I packed my hair in a neat bun. I used a silver plate to check my face. It was pale but cute nonetheless. The bun gave me an air of seriousness I suspected was important in this affair.

"You'd better go and start setting the table love. They're all seated waiting on you."

My heart pounded as I realized it was time to make an appearance. I wondered what the Baroness (I preferred thinking of her as just Camille) would think about me the moment she saw me in the gown. Knowing her, she probably won't say anything about it. Her mind was like pandora's box except it was never going to get opened.

I took a deep breath and walked into the hall leading to the dining area. The mansion was so quiet I could hear the spit move down my throat when I gulped. Sadly, the gulp wasn't good enough to take down my nervousness with it. 

The wolf within me sensed something was going to happen but I dismissed it. This wasn't the time or place to listen to my stupid wolf instincts.

"I think Rickal is nothing more than a puppet. It's just about knowing who's pulling his strings."

"That's something to say about your Alpha. I just think he's the worse type of dangerous." 

Camille fired back at the man sitting by her side. I was too tense to look his way so I avoided his eyes but knew they were on me.

"No politics in the dining area." The Baron said. His voice was heavy and shook the place even his laugh that followed vibrated the table.

I set down the plates moving as carefully as the bomb squad disarming a complex set of explosives. It felt like all eyes were on me and my body. My body mostly. I suddenly felt naked and exposed.

"Wow." The silence made that single word run its course swift and effective. It would be great if I could just disappear or get swallowed whole by the ground. I would have been so grateful.

I bowed and left the room for the kitchen as fast as my legs would let me. Margaret saw the look on my face as soon as I walked in and she burst out laughing hysterically.

"You heard it," I asked. She nodded through her laughter.

It was Camille's voice and that was what made it worse. It was just so unexpected. I decided to act like it didn't happen at all as soon as Margaret had gone through her fair share of laughs. I wondered how she found it funny.

Going back there to serve them was one of the most difficult things I have ever done in my entire life. I had to struggle to keep my eyes glued to the floor while trying not to spill the drink or stumble over the table.

An hour later when they had left the table and I successfully cleared the dishes, I retreated to my room, and for the first time in my life, I was glad for the opportunity to walk into the steel prison. Shutting the door with a loud yet silent thud, I turned around to find a man there watching me. I almost jumped out of my skin.

"Did I scare you?" He asked oblivious to the pale scared look that must have been on my face.

"No. Walking into a room to find a strange man sitting on my bed is a normal scenario." I retorted keeping my voice level. He had scared me so much that my legs wobbled under me. It was either that or I was just freaking exhausted.

He grinned at my response and straightened on the bed. It was obvious he had been there for a long time judging by the imprints his body had made on the sheets. He waited till the point he had gotten tired and lay on the bed.

"You are a peculiar woman." He said.

"Do you say that type of thing to every maid you see in a pretty dress?" I replied. My color was slowly coming back and my confidence was along with it.

"It's crazy you'd assume I'm here because of the dress." He got up and moved from the darkness surrounding the bed.

His jawline was heavy with thick dark stubble all over the bottom part of his face. His eyes were the same color as his hair; raven-black and haunting. His body fit the tailored shirt he wore.

"I'm assuming you wouldn't be here if you had seen me on the clothes I wore before."

He stifled a laugh as he drew closer to me. Instinctively, my legs pushed backward in an attempt to put distance between us but the distance was slipping away slowly as I was running out of walking space.

He got so close to me that I could smell his cologne like the thing had been pumped into my system with a syringe. My body trembled a bit but I was lucky it didn't show. The inner beast in me screamed with an intensity that was both sensitive and alluring.

Camille's brother had gotten so close that his lips grazed my skin setting my whole being on fire. These uncontrollable feelings were starting to scare me because this was the first time I felt something like this.

I closed my eyes just like in the movies. My lips parted a little as I waited for it to happen. I pulled closer waiting for him to plant a kiss on my lips. I waited still nothing.

My eyes opened to see him watching me with a dangerous dark gaze. He stared at me for a while then grinned as I watched him in confusion.

He turned around and left the room before I had a chance to say anything.

What just happened?!