Chapter 4

Zydan-

“Where the hell did she go?” I asked, but no one was around to hear me.

Now frustrated, I walked up and down the hall, checking every room except the bathrooms. If Eclipse hadn’t stopped me, I would have caught up with Accalia. I didn’t know if Accalia intentionally had him block me, but I doubted it.

Even if Accalia was the Alpha King's daughter, she had no power over any member of the Renegades. Maybe they knew each other, but I didn’t think that was the case. Right now, I don’t care about anything except finding and talking to Accalia.

Walking back down the hall, I considered returning to the party. Perhaps she had slipped past me when I checked the other rooms and returned. Either way, I needed to talk to her. As I walked by the bathrooms, a female emerged, colliding with me. I instinctively grabbed the female before she could fall.

Once I was sure she was steady on her feet, I released her. Stepping back, I looked at the girl, ready to apologize, but saw the familiar dazzling rainbow dress that seemed a size too small compared to earlier. It was the same dress Accalia wore at the party, except she wasn’t wearing a mask.

“Finally, I found you.” I quickly sidestepped around her to block her path in case she tried to get away. “I need to talk to you.”

“You were looking for me?” She asked, seeming mildly confused.

“Yes. I want to discuss our engagement.”

Big blue eyes looked up at me with a crease between her brows. I admit she was cute, but not as much as I imagined she would be. If anything, she seemed a little ordinary. I have never officially met Accalia, but I had thought she would be as attractive as her parents were.

“Our engagement?” She frowned, and her eyes wavered as if she were trying to figure out who I was.

“Listen, Accalia. I don’t want to waste any time on this.” I groaned as my frustration was starting to peak.

“Accalia?” She looked up at me again, tilting her head to the left. “Engagement?”

She took a step back, her arms crossing over her chest. If it weren’t for the dress and the blonde hair, I would have thought I wasn’t talking to Accalia. The only reason I could think of that she wasn’t admitting anything was because her father had mentioned she had wanted to keep her identity a secret for a year to make a name for herself.

“Yes, I want to talk to you before we return to the party.”

“You are Alpha Hynes?” Her gaze dropped, and she subjectively studied me from head to toe.

“Even if you aren’t wearing your mask, I know who you are. I don’t care about your identity, but we need to talk.” Grabbing her wrist, I pulled her into the nearest room, opposite the bathroom.

“We can speak privately here.” I said after shutting the door and turning on the light.

“Okay.” A smirk danced across her lips. “I guess there is no need to hide who I am now.”

Releasing her wrist, I stepped back a few feet. I felt dirty after touching her, and I had this strong desire to wash my hands. Wiping my hand on my pants, I tried not to make it obvious.

“Although our engagement was put on hold for a year, I want to discuss having it completely canceled.”

“What makes you think I will agree to that?” Accalia crossed her arms again.

“I believe if you wanted to marry me, you wouldn’t have requested that your father give you a year. I think we can both help each other achieve our goals.”

“Even if I wanted to end our engagement, my father wouldn’t allow it.” Her brows lifted, and her eyes seemed slightly calculated.

“You want to prove yourself to your father, which means you are trying to get out of this marriage, just like me. I can help you achieve your goal if you agree to help me.”

“How do you plan to help me?” Her eyes narrowed.

“Just tell me what you want, and I will make it happen.”

Her expression relaxed, and she began to pace the room between the door and a few desks that seemed to be in it for storage. Seeing that she was seriously considering my proposal, I believed we were both on the same side. If it weren’t for the fact that I wanted nothing to do with her, maybe we could be on good terms with each other.

“Okay, I will agree.” She stopped pacing and turned her large blue eyes on me. “If you want to help me prove myself to my father, give me a management position at Z.H. Tech.”

The urge to roll my eyes and deny her was intense. How did it help her prove herself if I gave her a management position? The last thing I expected was for her to ask for a handout. It just further increased my dislike of her.

“You can be a technical project manager.” I groaned.

I heard she went to school for coding, programming, and a few other majors. As a project manager, she couldn’t use her degrees, but it was a management position. The most she would do is ensure everyone kept on task by meeting timelines, budgets, and the scope of the project.

“Perfect!” A broad smile appeared, revealing two large front teeth.

I expected her to argue for something more related to her field. “You do understand what the job requires, don’t you?”

“I went to school for management, so as long as it is a management position, I don’t care.” She shrugged.

I frowned because I didn’t recall hearing anything about her getting a degree in management. I guess it is possible, considering she would eventually take over the companies her father owned. Sighing, I rubbed the back of my neck and hoped I didn’t regret letting her join my company. At the very least, it would give me some time to figure out a different solution, and I could fire her if necessary.  

“Just make sure you uphold your end of the deal, Accalia.” I said and started walking toward the door.

“Since I am hiding my identity, I will use a different name. From here on out, you can call me Arielle.”

“Whatever, as long as we successfully end the engagement.” I opened the door.

“You might change your mind in the next year.” She yelled as I walked out of the room and down the hall.

“Highly doubtful.” I mutter. “Arrive at the company at ten in the morning on Monday. I will have someone get you settled.” I speak loud enough for her to hear without raising my voice.

When I reached the entrance to the banquet hall, I paused. Now that I had spoken to Accalia, there was no reason to return to the party. I could see my parents happily talking to the Alpha King, and they didn’t seem concerned that I wasn’t there.

Turning around, I walked in the opposite direction to leave. When I was outside, I had this urge to shift into my wolf. The only reason I didn’t was that the full moon was last week. I was a pure-blooded wolf, but I wanted to hide that fact whenever possible.

In the past, whenever someone saw a pure-blood, they would respect them. Now, most pure-bloods have a target on their back. Turned wolves and half-bloods hated that we could shift at will while they were subjected to the moon's phase. Also, while humans have accepted us, Hunters still target us.

Werewolves have much more freedom than in the past, but we must still be careful. My wolf understood that, but I could still feel him wanting to run. Another thing that pure-bloods had that the others didn’t was that we could communicate with our wolves.

“Later tonight, I will take you to the country so we can run.” I told my wolf, Nyko, after I gave the valet my ticket, and he left to get my vehicle.

“I wouldn’t be anxious if you allowed me to run during the last full moon.” Nyko’s burly voice filled my head.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t want to, but I had to work late that night.” I looked to the left when I heard my Dodge Charger approaching the front of the Azure Hotel.

The Azure Hotel was owned by my family and named after my mother. I often used the hotel when conducting business or when having an event. There were three restaurants with one on the roof, four conference halls, two bars, twenty private rooms for dinner parties or other smaller events, and five banquet halls. The largest banquet hall was on the lower level, while the others were scattered on different levels.

The building was sixty-two stories tall and had three hundred and seventy hotel rooms. Three of the hotel rooms were penthouses, taking up six levels. Each penthouse was two stories high and had three to four rooms. One of the penthouses was for my personal use, but I rarely stayed in it unless I had to.

Nyko didn’t respond after that, but I hadn’t expected him to. He tended to cut off a conversation whenever I mentioned work, often complaining that I only cared about work. Technically, he wasn’t wrong because I rarely left my office.

With the conversation with my wolf ended, I walked forward just as the valet parked my car. Before he opened the door and exited the vehicle, I stood by the door. After he was out of my way, I climbed behind the wheel and shut the door without so much as a thank you.

Leaving the hotel, I started driving aimlessly through the busy streets. When I had to stop at a red light, I leaned my head back and tapped my fingers on the steering wheel. The light seemed to take forever to turn.

“Do you smell that?” Nyko’s voice caught me off guard, causing me to briefly take my foot off the brake.

“Smell what?” I quickly put my foot on the brake, before I ran into the car I was waiting behind.

“I thought I smelled something, but it is gone now.” Nyko sighed.

Shaking my head, I lifted my head. As soon as I did, I noticed a female walking across the street with a hood covering her head. I don’t know why, but I followed her with my eyes. After she finished crossing the road, she stopped at a food cart on the sidewalk.

I suddenly wanted to park the car and go to the food cart. A car behind me honked its horn. Taking my eyes off the girl, I saw the light had turned green. As I started to drive again, I looked at the girl again.

She had pulled down her hood, and her head was turned, allowing me to see her face. There was something familiar about her, but I couldn’t remember where I had seen her. Wanting a better look, I drove through the intersection but pulled the car off to the side and parked.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I was running across the road to the food cart and the girl. As she took two meat skewers from the man at the cart, the smile on her face was enough to take my breath away. When she walked away, I started following her, trying to figure out why she felt familiar.

“You know, if you keep following me, you will regret it.” The female stopped and spun around to face me.

Emerald eyes glared at me, and her smile was gone, but she was likely the most beautiful female I had ever seen.

“I have a question.” I spoke without a thought process. It was like my mouth had developed a mind of its own.

“What?”

“Marry me.” I blurted out.

“That doesn’t sound like a question. What makes you think I would marry a random person?” She stopped glaring, but her brows tilted, and she looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

Maybe I have. The last thing I wanted to do was get married. Marrying a stranger was a terrible idea and one I would likely regret.

“Just hear me out.” I scratched the back of my head. “I was thinking we could have a contract marriage.”

“I’m listening.” Her face relaxed, and she lifted one of the skewers to her mouth, taking a chunk of meat off it.

“My parents are trying to force me to get married to someone I have no interest in.”

My mind was catching up with my mouth, and I started thinking I was onto something. If I were already married, my parents wouldn’t be happy, but there wasn’t anything they could do about it. Also, I wouldn’t need to worry about whether Accalia would uphold her end of our bargain.

The only downfall was that if I found the girl I was looking for, I wouldn’t be able to pursue her until I was divorced. Then again, I was starting to think finding a girl I could barely remember, with only a bracelet, was impossible. It has been years, and I haven’t had any luck.