3. The Alpha King

Athena wasn’t lying when she said that the hall had being beautifully decorated. It was pretty impressive what they had done with it and as the hall slowly began to fill up I could see that the guests were thoroughly impressed.

The moment I freshened up and changed into the uniform that we were mandated to wear on occasions like this I had begun to feel the exhaustion settling within my bones.

No matter how hard I had begged Stella to let me be her little assistant cook the stubborn woman had insisted that I come to the ball and serve. Mentioning something about meeting my mate amongst one of the Alphas.

Even as I thought about it now I couldn’t help my eye roll at her words. As if that were possible for someone like myself.

“Don’t just stand there looking like a fool Cat, these guests won’t serve themselves.” Jason hissed from behind me and continued on as if he had done nothing.

The hall was slowly filling up although the main guest was yet to show up. I picked up a tray filled with flutes of wine and began to weave my way through the building crowd, offering the wine to the guests.

There was loud talking and boisterous laughter and the air around the room would have been contagious save for the fact that none of it was meant to be enjoyed by people like me.

Just as I was moving the empty tray back to the end of the hall where more of it was being dispensed I felt a firm hand reach out to grab onto me and a little squeal that was covered by the noise of the place escaped my lips.

“What’s a pretty one like you doing working a party such as this one? You should be sitting amongst the classy women.” The man said in a gruff voice.

When I looked to him, I was met with a disgustingly fat and short man with a creepy smile that exposed yellowing teeth. He wore a white suit and I couldn’t help but grimace. It didn’t suit him at all and the white of it made his sickly looking skin stick out even more.

I looked to his hand still on my arm, that he was now stroking and I had to fight the urge to scream in his face and scratch out his eyes.

“I’m not interested sir. Thank you.” I said politely instead of the string of insults that were trying to burst out of my lips.

His smile only widened along with his tight grip on my arm. That was sure to bruise if he kept on with it.

“Are you denying me of a request?” He asked, the smile on his face remained in place but his gruff voice became even deeper and was filled with irritation.

“You’re hurting me sir, please let go of me.” I pleaded, trying to look around hoping to find Jason. The idiot trainer always disappeared when he was needed the most.

It wasn’t absurd for an Alpha to begin a sexual relationship with an omega, but at an event like this it wasn’t acceptable.

The Alpha was about to respond when the hall erupted in cheers and clapping. I could see my Alpha entering into the hall and behind him was another man that I assumed to be the Alpha King.

He was surprisingly tall and fit looking for a man that was supposed to be old and fat. I was about to turn back around and slip to the back since the Alpha had let go of my hand to pay attention to what was happening up front.

But that was when the Alpha raised his head to address the crowd and when I caught sight of his face my heart stopped working in my chest.

It couldn’t be.

This was the man that come to the hill just earlier in the afternoon.

“Are you okay? you look like you’ve just seen a ghost.” Athena asked once I was back.

I ignored her. I had asked the Alpha king if he was crazy? What if he had been offended by that and would spot me amongst these people and pick me out to publicly humiliate me or worse pass out my death sentence.

I had two missions now. Avoid the disgusting Alpha as much as I could and also avoid the front rows where the Alpha king was settled. It shouldn’t be too hard, the hall was big enough that it was impossible that the Alpha would be able to pick me out amongst the crowd of people that now occupied the hall.

My plan was foolproof and I turned to refill my tray with drinks when Jason appeared beside me. I said nothing but secretly wished I could squeeze the life out of him, now that I didn’t need him, trust him to appear out of nowhere.

“Take only one drink. You have to serve the Alpha Gwaine.” He said and I nodded my head.

Returning the rest of the drinks and leaving the singular drink as he had asked.

“Alright where is he?” I asked and from the sinister smile that painted the trainers lips I knew that there was no way I would like the response.

“Up there. You’re to serve the Alpha King.”

At his words I was pretty sure that all the blood drained from my face and went straight to my head, I could even feel the dizzy effect from my shock.

“Please sir, can you send someone else? Please I’ll make up for it with extra work. Please I beg you don’t make me go up there.” I pleaded with Jason but he only scoffed at me.

“If it was up to me you wouldn’t ever reach the center of this hall. The Alpha has requested that you alone serve him, so you better be on your way and trust me Cat, if you embarrass me you’ll be doing a lot more than extra work.” Jason said, walking away from me while muttering quietly to himself.

When I looked to the front where Alpha Gwaine was seated, he had his eyes trained on me and I shivered from the intensity even with the distance between us. I gulped to push down the lump that was stuck in my throat.

And then holding on the tray tightly, I began walking down to the front of the hall. The hall was still pretty busy and I knew that there was no one paying much attention to me, well except the Alpha but it felt like the eyes of the entire hall was on my back and everybody was watching my every step.

I focused so much on walking carefully and making sure that the tray in my hands was balanced that I didn’t see the foot that was just in the way of the spot I was about to go through.

The next couple of seconds felt like a blur and it happened so fast. One moment I was concentrating on the tray before me and the next I was hitting the ground alongside the tray.

The sound of glass shattering hit my ears and that was when realization hit me. The entire hall had gone silent and I began praying to the Goddess to open up the ground so I could be buried into it.

“You bitch! How dare you?” The voice of the disgusting man that I had rejected his advances just minutes before came through.

I scrambled to my feet and it was to face the angry Alpha. There was a patch on his white suit where the red wine had stained.

“I-I’m so sorry sir. Please, I’m sorry.” Tears pricked at my eyes at the entire situation and in the moment I wanted nothing more than to begin bawling my eyes out at the humiliation of the situation.

“You’re sorry? This jacket is worth more than your entire worthless life and you’re sorry? Is that supposed to help with replacing this jacket?” The man roared and I cowered from him.

“Alpha Gabriel, I’m sure we can settle this amicably, she’s just a silly and stupid omega please accept my apologies on her behalf and be rest assured that the right punishment will come to her.” My Alpha said from before me.

I didn’t know when he had moved from his position at the front of the room to where we currently were and when I raised my head to meet his, the death glare in his eyes and the anger let me know that after this situation was over, I would be getting the worst beating alongside a very cruel punishment.

“I really don’t care what you do to your untrained omega. You could kill the ugly bitch for all I care but this jacket cost me five thousand dollars and I’m not leaving this place without it.”

My heart skipped two beats in my chest. Five thousand dollars? There was no way in hell that jacket was five thousand dollars and also no way my Alpha was going to agree to pay it.

“Gabriel come on that’s outrageous!”

“Are you calling me a liar?” The gruff man said.

“No, no, it’s just that there’s no way you expect her or myself to be able to pay you five thousand dollars for a mistake.”

“A very expensive mistake, need i remind you. If you can’t pay it and she can’t, then I’m taking her with me to serve until she can clear her debt.”

It was at his words that I really began to cry. I would do anything else in the world except go home with this man. Goddess knew what he would do to me if I agreed to go home with him.

“Gabriel I’m sure we can fix something. The-“

“I’ll pay for the jacket.” That voice pierced through my subconscious and I startled at the sound of it.

“And the girl comes with me!”

It was at this point that my heart really stopped beating.

I knew that minutes before I had wished for anything else, but does this anything else had to be the Alpha King taken on my debt and acquiring me along with it?