Chapter 5: Setting Things in Motion

Samiya’s POV

Sometimes it felt as though everyone in the pack thought with what was in between their legs rather than the brains that they just so happened to be born with.

Although I could tell that the guard would have willingly taken a night with me rather than my money, he took the money regardless and when I told him that the alpha and I had a special ritual we did, every night we met, the fool didn’t bother to ask any questions and did exactly as I needed him to.

This plan was absolutely crazy.

Scarlet made it her sole mission to inform me of every possible event that could make this entire plan go wrong and while she made a few solid points, I was determined to get the job done. Plus, I had gotten some kind of protection just in case anything went wrong. It wasn’t foolproof, but it would just have to work.

“When did my intuition ever fail me?” I mindlinked Scarlet in a snarky tone.

“When our mate rejected us,” she snorted.

“Just shut the fuck up!”

The guard had led me to the royal kitchen and, apparently, the alpha had a special Shilajit tea that he had taken to his room every night and I of course, had to pretend that I already knew that. When the guard mentioned it, a crazy idea popped up in my head that had a few kitchen staff as well as the guard helping me, offer me a look that let me know that they were questioning my sanity.

“Alpha Zain has gotten used to all my crazy ideas and if you don’t believe me, you should trust that the Alpha himself would punish me if he sees a stranger in his room. I also promise not to mention your involvement in this with anyone,” I told the guard and the female staff, staring at me with incredulous looks.

They all gave each other looks and that was when I chipped in again before they got a chance to register how truly crazy all of this was. “And besides, if anything goes wrong who are people most likely going to believe? The wench of Etrana? Or a few loyal staff of the alpha with clean records?”

“Fine,” one of the female staff sighed.

She lifted the white cloth covering the trolley and gestured for me to go in. “If you get the Alpha angry, then it’s your funeral.”

“Thank you. I assure you that the alpha will be pleased,” I told them all with a smile before preparing to get in. However, a small but slightly deep voice stopped me.

“Promise me that we will still see each other after this?” I turned to find the guard that had led me to the kitchen looking at me with sympathetic eyes and a hopeful smile.

“Just how delusional is this man?”

“Very,” Scarlet answered in a heartbeat.

I forced a smile. “I will try to,” was the only thing I said to him before hiding myself in the trolley.

From my experience, a delightful surprise could act as a perfect form of seduction. I had spent the last two years gathering all the details I could possibly get about the alpha and one of them just happened to be that he had been a closed-off person ever since his fated mate, Esmeralda, a powerful witch, turned against him and almost destroyed our pack.

I had heard that before that, the alpha was a man who enjoyed all the joyful things that life had to offer, but he had distanced himself from all of that ever since he got his heart broken in the worst way possible and tonight, I planned to offer him a taste of what he had lost in the past.

Not long after I had hidden inside the serving trolley, it began to move and the moment it stopped, I felt my heart skip a beat.

I felt someone kick the trolley and I took in a deep breath. “We’re here. You can come out now.”

Running over the plan in my head again, I pushed the white cloth in front of me aside and stepped out of my hiding place. Finally standing again, I straightened my back and then took the time to study my new surroundings.

In one word, I could describe the alpha’s room as simply beautiful. Arched windows lined the walls, bathing the room in a soft moonlight glow accompanied by the dozens of lights from the grand chandelier above our heads. Heavy white drapes of rich fabric cascaded from the ceiling, their folds capturing the light in a way that made them glow as well.

A golden harp about my height sat in one of the corners of the room and its strings seemed to call to me, but I resisted the urge to play. In the middle of the room sat what had to be the biggest bed I had ever seen, accompanied by a headboard with delicate carvings of wild roses. It felt as though I had somehow slipped into one of the fairytales my mother would read to me when I was a pup.

“We will be leaving now. Please try not to die,” one of the female staff said, pulling me out of my trance.

I only nodded with a small smile and waved the two women goodbye.

Once the two women had left, I grabbed the small cushioned seat close to where the harp was situated and, although there was still a tempting voice that told me to at least run my hands through the strings of the instrument, I ignored the voice and focused on the task I had at hand.

Untying my robe so that it flowed freely by my sides and showed the black lingerie I wore inside, I took out the flute and blindfold I hid inside of it.

“It’s now or never,” I told Scarlet.

“I trust you, but please don’t get us killed,” she replied softly.

“Not encouraging, Scarlet, but believe me, I won’t.”

Sitting on the cushioned chair, I put on the blindfold and began to wait for my queue. Using Scarlet’s super senses, I listened closely for any sign of movement, and it was only when I heard faint footsteps at the beginning of the hallways that I began to play the flute.

Notes from Lakme’s The Flower Duet escaped my lips and ran through the hollow wood that was my flute. If everything worked right this night, then it could only mean that my intuition was right, and I had chosen the perfect piece to play.

There wasn’t a moment where I stopped playing my flute. I played the instrument until the moment the footsteps got so loud to the point where I could feel them and I heard the bedroom doors open and close.

It was him. It was Alpha Zain Shuzen. The one Alpha in all of Etrana’s history to ever fall for a witch and choose to isolate himself from members of his pack right after. I could feel his powerful aura. I could feel his presence enter and take up all the space in the room to the point where it almost choked me, but what I couldn’t understand was why he hadn’t stopped me or said anything.

His footsteps grew even closer until he was right in front of me and, although I was blindfolded, I knew that he was staring. I felt his eyes all over me. It was hard to ignore, but still, I kept playing. That was until I heard his voice.

“Who are you?”

It was a simple question and his tone was soft, yet the force in his voice made me stop in an instant.