CHAPTER 6: The Shift

My brow knits as confusion pelts me.

Entertainer? What kind of entertainment does this guy want?

For a few seconds, he’s quiet. He's only giving me nothing but his widening cocky smirk. 

“We’re not on the same boat here. I don’t have any talent to entertain you. I’m here to apply as Mr. Alessandro Ocampo’s maid.”

“Dad isn’t here. I am. He wouldn’t mind if I’ll hire you in his stead.”

My knitted brow deepens and I don’t make any effort to conceal my bafflement. It works. This time, he doesn’t give silence a chance to unfurl. 

He says, “You look great. You’re my type.”

My eyes widen and my chest thuds when bafflement is shoved aside by panic.

Now I get it. An ‘entertainer’ to him is a s.ex slave.

“Mr. Davide,” I say, trying my best to lull my growing undesirable emotion. “I don’t want the job you’re offering me. If your father isn’t available to speak with, I’ll come back some other day.”

“I don’t think you understand our family culture here,” he says. “We can turn our employees into whatever we want them to be. And they don't have the the right to say no to that.”

I veer my gaze to the maid, who’s standing behind the sofa. She smiles as she nods her head, obviously understanding what Mr. Davide is saying.

Does that mean that this lady isn’t just a typical maid? I don’t mean to be insolent or what not, but if I base it on her appearance, I don’t think that she’s a s.ex slave. Her figure is alright, but her skin is wrinkled and sagged. On top of that, some of her teeth are either yellow or missing too. 

“Look,” Mr. Davide says, getting my attention back. “My time is precious. I can’t waste it. If you don't want the job, you can leave now.”

Leave now? I can’t! I have to stay here… close to them… so I can kill them! 

Out of desperation not to fail on my mission, my canines start protruding from my gum and my fur starts blanketing my arms. I purse my lips tight while rubbing the fabric of the sleeves of my coat. 

Should I make my first move now? Should I act now? 

Mr. Davide gets up from the couch, then strides past me. 

If I attack him now, I’ll kill him for sure. As a matter of fact, I can kill everyone who’s here right now. But how about their gang’s other members? If I do what I’m planning to do now, when will I get the shot to kill them? Besides, I’m pretty sure there are many surveillance cameras around here. If I transform into my lycan form, that’ll only give their other members solid evidence that we really do exist.

Relax Mackenzie. It’s best if you study them first, before making a gallant move. 

I let my canines and my furs sink back to my gum and my skin respectively. Then I stand up to face Mr. Davide’s back, and say, “Wait!”

Mr. Davide stops, then looks at me over his broad shoulder. His piercing gray eyes trigger my chest to palpitate and my bones to shiver. The words that I’m ready to let go earlier are now jailed in my throat by his keen stare. 

When my silence stretches, Mr. Davide takes his eyes off me, then strides ahead again. 

That makes my desperation muffles my uneasiness, forcing the words out of me. “I accept your offer. I’ll be your entertainer.”

My voice quavers at the mention of the word ‘entertainer’, an indication that I’m not ready for that deplorably unexpected job.

Without looking back at me, Mr. Davide says, “Cool. Follow me.”

“What? I’ll start now?”

Uneasiness wriggles underneath my skin, trying to topple down my desperation to succeed in my mission. 

Mr. Davide doesn’t respond and just continues to ascend to the golden staircase situated in the middle of the living area. 

My heart is menacing to explode from my chest. Its tremendously wild heartbeats overwhelm my ears and spin my head. 

Marguerite… it’s just s.ex. Your life and your future with Alpha Allen are on the line here. Do what you gotta do.

My foot twitches when I take the first step forward. My knees tremble when I take another step. 

Do I really have the stomach to have s.ex with someone whom I just met and about to kill?

I feel like my body is melting the more trudges I take.

Right, if I can’t handle this, Mr. Davide will be my first prey. I’ll rip his skin and flesh apart with my canines and claws, then I’ll hide his body somewhere where he can’t be easily found. I’m sure wherever he decides to have s.ex with me doesn’t have any surveillance camera. Therefore, I’ll be able to do what my brain dictates me to while still keeping my secret from anyone. 

My uneasiness augments to fear when the soles of my boots connect on the second floor’s tapestry. Mr. Davide enters the third room on the left hallway, then leaves the door wide open. With extreme reluctance swamping me, I enter that same room.

To my surprise, the room doesn’t have a bed. The floor is hard and the sofa isn’t as huge as the one in the living area. So, where is he planning to do it then?

He moves towards the awkwardly-carved desk in front of a curtain-draped glass window at the rear part of the room.

I squint my eyes coz I don’t think that desk will be comfortable either.

He then sits down on an oversized leather chair behind that desk. Subsequently, he pulls the desk’s drawer and takes a folder out of it. He extends a piece of paper to me, then motions for me to sit on one of the couches opposite to him. 

“Dom-Sub Agreement.”

I murmur the text at the topmost part of the paper. A relief breath clears out of me. My heartbeats relax a little and so does my body. 

My fear from earlier stopped me from analyzing the situation. Thank goodness, he’s not gonna do it yet. I’ll still have time to strategize my game plan. 

“Do you have any questions about our agreement?” he asks.

“Yes,” I say. “The agreement is printed and ready. Does that mean this isn’t the first time you hired someone to be your s.ex slave?”

“It’s better to be ready all the time. So when the battle begins, I’ll have little-to-no worry about the outcome… coz I know I’ll win.”

It’s ludicrous how he compares s.ex to a battle. And it’s unbelievable how calm and serious he was when he said that.

I stare at him longer than I should, which I only realize when he asks,

“Any other questions?”

My eyes falter back to the paper in my hand. I won’t make an effort to read all this, so I look at him again and reply, “Everything written on it, please explain.”

Mr. Davide stares at me without any emotions on his face. He holds his copy, then says, “The first clause states that our agreement will last for as long as I want. The expiration date is based on your performance and my satisfaction.”

Wow! Just wow! I pity the women who had ever agreed to this b.ullshit. 

“Any reactions about that?” he asks.

“None.”

I wanna elaborate my answer and scream in his face that this agreement won’t last, and that my action of wiping him and his entire gang out is its real expiration date.

“Let’s move onto the second clause then. During the duration of our agreement, none of us should have another s.ex partner other than ourselves. In that way, we can avoid conflict and health issues.”

My shoulders sag and my fingers squeeze the edge of the paper when Alpha Allen’s sweaty face and wounded body sprouts in my memory. 

“What’s the matter? Don’t tell me you’re in a relationship?” he asks.

“No,” I lie. Well, technically, it’s not a total lie. Alpha Allen didn’t marry me and he even rejected me in front of our entire pack, but he made an effort to get me back, making me somewhat single. If that’s even a thing?

“Then why is your face telling me something different?” he asks.

I bite my lip as my brain explores for the best lie it can possibly produce. After a brief, glacial silence, I come up with one.

“How can I make sure that you don’t have another s.ex slave other than me?”

He smirks as he leans his back on his chair. “Do you think I’ll put this clause here if I, myself, won’t obey it?”

“Why not?” I say. “Well, there’s one way to prove that I’m your only s.ex slave. You need to introduce me to your family and friends and you also have to bring me wherever you’ll be going.”

Fingers crossed he agrees. That’ll give me more access to the rest of his gang. However, my hope quickly depletes when his smirk becomes an unstated form of his disapproval. 

“I hope you’re not forgetting. You’re not my girlfriend. You don’t have to sign the contract if you feel cheated by it.”

If only my life and my future with Alpha Allen isn’t at risk here, I really won’t sign this. 

“I’m sorry.”

The phrase stings my tongue, but I carry on coz I have to.

“I didn’t mean to act as if I have the right to question you.” I take a deep breath, smile, then add, “Let’s proceed.”

I don’t wanna push him to his edge. That may change his mind, which means I’ll be kicked out of this mansion. Instead of having him read clause number three, I do it myself, hoping that it will lessen his irritation at my earlier unintended behavior. 

“Clause number three says that…” I pause to swallow the lump in my throat. But my voice still trembles when I continue, “That the dominant, who’s the employer, has the right to have s.ex with his submissive, the employee, anytime, anywhere and anyhow he pleases.”

I wanna laugh at myself for being nervous again. There’s nothing to be worried about. Before he can even see any of my private parts, I’ll rip him off - exactly what I planned earlier on. 

Perhaps my silence is taking too long that Mr. Davide starts to explain the forth clause. “For each s.ex, you’ll receive Php 100,000. The payment will increase by Php 30,000 after every three months if I don't void the contract. And the money will be deposited into your preferred bank account.”

Squandering his illegally earned money for his shameful hobby is incredibly revolting. This alone is enough reason to eliminate humans like him from the face of the earth. They don’t deserve to live let alone exist.

Mr. Davide’s low, monotonous voice plucks me out of my thoughts. “So, is there anything that you find disagreeable in our contract?”

“All of it, actually.”

I immediately regret my response and follow it up with an unintelligent reasoning, “But I need money, so… no complaints.”

I refuse to look at Mr. Davide’s piercing eyes, so I fixate my sight on the papers in my hand. 

“Here,” he says. 

Following his voice is a soft rumble of a rolling pen on the desk. 

“Sign with your complete name.”

My heart thuds again when I clutch the pen. It thuds even more aggressively when I position the tip of the pen at the bottom part of the paper where I’ll be signing. And it stops beating cold at my chest when my hand moves on its own. The next thing I know, the contract is signed. 

The savage ambience swaddles me, restricting air to flow into me.

It’s alright. Mr. Davide or anyone from his gang can’t harm you. They’re just humans, you’re a lycan. You’re more powerful than any of them. Believe that!

That encouragement is swiftly squashed by a voice in my head, screaming, ‘Yeah right! You’re only one and there are thousands of them.’

All I can do is to shrug off that thought to avoid more of it to haunt me. 

I return the paper back to Mr. Davide and my signature flashes a satisfied smile on his face. He slides the contract back to the folder, then the folder to the drawer before walking away from his desk and towards me. I hesitate to take his extended hand, but I regret it when I take it. Without ado, once our hands clutch, he pulls me close to him, imprisons my waist in his arm, then rams his lips against mine.

Bolts of electricity streak through me. My muscles tense while my skin tingles. The heat he produces captivates me, urging me to move my lips in accordance with his movement. His tongue enters my mouth and soon, it playfully dances with mine.

I want to stop, but something unexplainable inside of me doesn’t.

What is this? Why am I into this? Why do I want him to continue what he’s doing? Why do I want him to do more than what he’s doing? Why?!