0002: Alpha Lukan

 MERIDA

My eyes were spinning in my head, and they dropped on my feet.

My tongue felt so limp and dry that I couldn't utter a single word.

Shhhh, I said to myself.Don't say a word. Don't even breathe. I could feel the hot intensity of their eyes, I was almost burning under their gaze and I wished the ground would open and swallow me up. 

My cheeks were burning up, already turning red with embarrassment and I felt so scared I could feel the Alpha's eyes on me. 

"Why did you do it?"he asked suddenly, making me glance up and look away quickly. He sat back on the chair and gulped down the contents in the tumbler and set it back on the table.

"It was my birthday. My sixth birthday party." I forced myself to speak." I wanted to give my parents a treat, so I added the Nightshade fern."

"The Nightshade fern is of two types," Alpha Lukan said, rubbing his jaw slightly."the one with green leaves is extinct now, and I presume you are speaking about the one with blue petals."

Aunt Ophelia and her husband rolled their eyes and groaned in frustration while they stared at me with hatred.

" Just listen to the rubbish she is spewing, Alpha Lukan." Aunt Ophelia eyed me disgustingly.

I could barely remember what happened when I was six, but what I could feel was the guilt which had crawled into my heart ever since.

"If that's what happened," Alpha Lukan began."she was just six years old and was just a child."

My eyes widened in surprise. This was the first time someone was actually defending me. 

Aunt Ophelia gasped and she and Uncle Garrick exchanged sharp glances.

" A child indeed." Uncle Garrick sneered." If a six-year-old is called a child, then a two-year-old should be called a zygote perhaps," He said sarcastically. 

But Alpha Lukan paid no attention to them, and he turned his eyes on me.

" The Nightshade fern has blue petals that are star-shaped, correct?"he asked, and I could hardly bring myself to nod. 

"Once one of the petals is plucked, it can never grow again?"he asked and turned to Aunt Ophelia and Uncle Garrick, and they stared back at him like he had grown a horn suddenly.

"What the hell are you saying?"uncle Garrick thundered." We didn't bring you here to ask us stupid questions."

"What I am saying is that she was set up." Alpha Lukan said almost immediately, and Aunt Ophelia's face turned red.

"We didn't invite you here to accuse us." Aunt Ophelia spat." Besides, you weren't there when it happened."

Alpha Lukan nodded slowly and got up.

"It is true that I wasn't present, but everyone knows that the Nightshade fern stains the thumb and forefinger of the one who plucks the petals."

I was so surprised and shocked at the same time, I knew deep down within me that Aunt Ophelia and uncle Garrick were beginning to get angry and disgusted by the Alpha's questions.

"I didn't see any stains on her fingers." Alpha Lukan continued.

"My wife and I invited you here based on a very important meeting we are supposed to have, but then you have turned this over into a job interview." Uncle Garrick spat, and it seemed that he wanted to reach over and slap Alpha Lukan.

" Questions like this aren't welcome," Aunt Ophelia interjected.

"Very well then, I guess I have to take my leave," Alpha Lukan said, and his icy gray eyes were glowing.

He gave me one last look as he walked away, and immediately Aunt Ophelia rushed to my side with a kind of speed which even a hurricane would envy, and she grabbed me by my neck.

" What did you say to Alpha Lukan, idiot?" She yelled, and I could feel her saliva on my face.

I was saying something when I heard the honking of cars outside. 

" The rest of the buyers are here." I heard Uncle Garrick say." They are all from a different pack."

The word 'buyers' made my eyes open wide, and I struggled to understand what was happening. 

Aunt Ophelia and Uncle Garrick pushed me aside as they hurried to welcome some men, about three of them dressed expensively.

"You will be standing over there," Aunt Ophelia whispered into my ears." I just hope the men strike a good price for you."

And immediately it all dawned on me. Hitting me so hard that I almost passed out.

I was about to get sold, to the highest bidder.

I stood there on the raised platform. I could feel the wandering eyes of the men on me and at that instant I wanted to vanish.

"Fifteen hundred." One of the men called out.

" I will have her for twenty-two." Another yelled, his voice bouncing off the half-empty hall.

" Thirty." A man stood up and his price drew so much attention to him.

With the surprise on Aunt Ophelia and Uncle Garrick's faces, I knew already that they were happy with the price, and I was about to be sold off to this fat man whom I knew was from another pack.

Tears slipped out of my eyes and as Aunt Ophelia approached me to hand me over to the buyer, something which no one expected had happened. 

It came as a shock to us all.

" Sixty-seven." A voice rang out from the doorway and immediately all heads turned to the direction it was from.

It was no other person but Alpha Lukan, he was leaning against the door and his sleeves were rolled up over his bulging biceps. It was the first time that we saw his arms, which were kind of heavily tattooed.

" I will make it seventy,"he said, approaching us slowly. I even thought he had left when he did.

" Party's over." He smirked at the men." Get out."

They didn't let him complete his sentence as they all ran out of the room.

"I want you to give me the document t

o sign so we can be done and over with all this." He said to Aunt Ophelia and uncle Garrick, who were shocked to utter a word.

Then he turned to me.

"Go upstairs and get your things ready."