Chapter 6

♡Arielle’s POV♡

The soft ding of the bell rang as I stepped into the small café. The delicious aroma of fresh bread and baked treats wafted through the air, and my mouth watered and my stomach gurgled in response. Coming to the café was both a blessing and torture. I loved anything baked—cakes, cookies, buns—and seeing them made me happy but also made me sad because I was too broke to afford anything.

The last time I ate cake was when Brielle and I turned eighteen, six years ago, when mom wasn’t sick and we weren’t in debt. But with our current predicament, even bread was considered a luxury we couldn't afford.

“Hello, welcome to— oh Arielle, it’s you.” May, Agnes’ granddaughter, said from her place behind the counter. “Here for your box of chocolate cookies?”

To anybody else, a box of chocolate cookies met exactly what they were: a box of chocolate cookies, but not really. Only a few knew the true nature of the owner and the store, and they used codes to make special requests when others were around.

What most saw was an innocent little café that sold the best baked goods, but the truth was that it was all a cover. The nice granny that ran it was a witch, and what she really dealt with was illegal stuff, like the pheromone blockers and other magical items.

“Good morning,” I said as I walked to her. “Yes, I am, but I also want to talk to Agnes about her recipe. Is she around?”

“Oh,” she blinked at me. Most of the time, I don’t ask to talk to Agnes about the pills unless it was super important, which that moment was. I needed her to give me an explanation for why I reacted to the Alpha that way when I had taken my pheromone blockers the previous night and wore my charmed necklace.

“Yes, she’s at the back. Follow me.” She said, nudging me, and I did.

She led me into the kitchen and stopped at a large, innocent-looking box that sat in the corner. With a strength that couldn’t be associated with such a small body, she pushed it away, revealing a hatch door on the ground, and she opened it. Stairs could be seen leading to the bottomless-looking basement.

“Thank you,” I said, and she gave me a curt nod.

I made my way down the wooden stairs, and once my feet touched the last one, the latch was closed, and I jumped a bit.

‘Ugh, I remember why I hate coming here; it’s always so dark and smelly.’ I crinkled my nose, fiddling with my purse for my phone. My fingers grazed the small device; I pulled it and unlocked it.

‘Thirty-two missed calls and ten texts from Brielle.’ My notification read and I clicked my tongue at my forgetfulness. Of course they were worried sick; they haven’t heard from me since I left home last night.

‘Sorry for missing your call. I’ll be home in the next forty minutes or so.’ I typed and sent the message to her.

I would have called her, but it was better if we talked face-to-face about what had happened.

I turned on the torch light, and a rat squeaked at the sudden brightness, scrambling away. I screamed, scrambling back too, and I bumped into the damp concrete wall.

‘Eww, I forgot it had rats too.’ I shuddered. I needed to see Agnes immediately so I could get out of there.

I made my way through the damp, narrow passage, and after a walk that was far longer than I remembered, I arrived at a door leading to her consultation room.

*Knock knock*

My knuckles drummed on the wooden surface, and I placed my ears against it. The last time I was here, I waited for thirty minutes because I didn’t hear her. I was sure she deliberately did that because, when I finally got in, she had a cunny smile on her lips.

“Come in.” A raspy, almost inaudible voice said and I opened the door.

“Good morning, Agnes.” I greeted as I stepped into the large room

Unlike the café smell, which I enjoyed and calmed me, the consultation room filled me with unease. It smelled ominous, and the creepy-looking witch stuff she had arranged on the shelves, covering every inch of the wall, didn’t make me feel better.

“I never thought you would come see me for consultation again. Something really important must have happened.” Agnes grinned at me from her large chair and table at the centre of the room, which made her small, wrinkly body look even smaller.

“I’ve come to talk about the pheromone blockers and my necklace. It seems it’s not working.” I said, and I sat on the chair opposite her.

“My pills are not working.” She laughed, shaking her head, and strands of her grey hair fell from her loose bun to her face.

“I don’t make fake products.” Though her voice was light, there was an annoyed edge. She wasn’t really pleased, and I was accusing her of selling bad products. Agnes had a lot of pride in what she made and sold, be it normal baked goods or witchy ones. I appreciated that she dealt with only quality things, even though her prices were cut throat.

“I know, but—”

“Then why would you say that?” She tucked her hair behind her ears.

I explained to her what had happened between the Alpha and me—the deep attraction to him even though I had the necklace on and I had taken the pills the previous night. I excluded the part where he asked me to marry him because I wasn’t in for drama. If she knew, she would tell my mother, and if my mother knew, hell would set loose.

“Did he feel any attraction to you?” She asked.

“I don’t think so.” My brows furrowed as I thought back to our interactions. He acted normal—not that I knew what a normal Alpha was like—but he didn’t pounce on me or try to claim me like my mother said Alphas do in the presence of an Omega.

“Then it worked.” She said.

‘What part of me felt attracted to him did she not understand?’ I frowned. If it did work, then why did I feel that for him?

“But what of the connection? It was there.” I countered.

“You felt it, but he didn’t; that’s how the drugs works. It blocks your Omega pheromones from him but not his Alpha’s one from you.”

“What?!” I gasped. “You didn’t tell me that. I thought it blocked it both ways.”

All my years of taking pheromone blockers, she had never once mentioned it was one-sided. Maybe I was stupid to assume it was, but I trusted the witch no matter how mischievous and greedy she was. Mom always said we owned a great debt to her, though she never explained why, and I took that as enough reason to give her a bit of my trust.

“You never asked.” Agnes shrugged, and a greedy smile crept on her lips. “But if you’re interested, there’s a particular type that blocks both ways. It’s quite costly.”

‘Of course it is, you money-loving witch.’ My eyes rolled, and I held back a scowl.

“How much?” I asked, and I almost choked on my saliva when she called the price.

“What? Why so expensive?” I complained as my mind went into a frenzy, calculating how much money I would spend on just the pills. It was too much; I could barely afford the ‘cheap’ ones.

“That was why I never told you about it. You can’t afford it. And you can’t really blame me for the price; the ingredients to make these pills have become scarce because some Alphas are trying to shut down production. I don’t know how they managed to find out about the pheromones and their ingredients, but somehow they did. What a pain those beastly idiots are.” She clicked her tongue and mumbled what I was sure were profanities in Latin.

“Why don’t you just enchant the necklaces to work without pills? It would make things much easier.” I asked the question that had been bugging me for some time.

From what she had told me, the necklace was the main item that blocked the outflow of pheromones; the pills only made the wearers’ bodies receptive to the magic in it. If the necklace was snatched off their body, it didn’t matter how many pills they had taken; the omegas’ pheromones wouldn’t be stopped from flowing out into their surroundings. So why couldn’t she charm the necklace to be independent of the pills?

“Trust me, I wish I could, but some magic is far higher than the level of an old witch.” She sighed, stretching out her hands, and a cup of coffee appeared in it. “Can you imagine how much profit I would have gained? My stress would have reduced because I wouldn’t have to make more pills, and I would have sold the necklaces for an astronomical price, too.”

‘Of course it’s about the money and not the consumer.’ I snorted.

“Just give me a bottle of the cheap pills so I’ll be on my way.” I popped my elbows on the table and leaned against my palms. I would have loved to buy the better one, but my budget was already far more than my pocket. “I need to get home soon so I can freshen up and go job hunting.”

“Job hunting?” Her brows furrowed as she stepped down from her chair and walked to one of her shelves. “I thought you were walking with that Jake man?”

“Not anymore. He wanted me to sleep with him before he gave me the money. What a pig!” I huffed and gagged at the awful memories.

“Want me to turn him into a real pig? It doesn’t really cost much. You could keep him as a pet or eat him. That way, he would be more valuable.” She snickered, and I grinned.

There was a high chance that if I paid her, she would do it. May complained that he always hit on her too when he came to the café. But I didn’t dabble in any kind of magic other than the one that hid my identity as an Omega.

“No thanks. If I kept him as a pet, he would most likely snoop in Brielle’s and my underwear drawer, and if we cooked him, I doubt he would taste good.” I giggled and ran my fingers through my hair, uncertainty washing over me.

Quitting a job was easy, but finding one was a lot harder. How was I ever going to pay for my mom’s treatment if I was broke and jobless?