Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4: Royalty

Ilyana's POV

I burst out of the hallway with my bare feet skidding on the floor. The front door was completely splintered off its hinges, hanging by one sad bent screw and standing right in the middle of Natasha’s living room looking like a pair of nightmares were Boyce and Sara.

Boyce was pressing a bloody and crumpled rag to a nasty gash on the side of his head with his chest heaving with exertion while Sara stood right behind him looking at me like I was a piece of dog shit she’d just scraped off her expensive shoes.

“You crazy fucking bitch,” Boyce snarled the second he saw me. “You actually had someone try to kill me?”

“That’s not true,” I said, my heart pounding. “I don’t even have the money for a decent cup of coffee let alone a hitman!”

“Don’t play dumb with me!” he roared, taking a threatening step forward. “I tracked your scent from the alley. You were playing whore at a luxury hotel and then you send your new sugar daddy to crack my skull open?”

I froze with the blood draining from my face. He had seen Braun?

“Oh look at her. She’s speechless,” Sara sneered with her voice dripping with that familiar sickly-sweet poison I had grown up hating. “Mom and Dad were always right about you, Ilyana. You’re just cheap and weak omega trash. You couldn’t keep a real man so you spread your legs for the first guy with a thick wallet to fight your battles.”

Those were the exact same garbage my family had force-fed me my entire life. That I was weak.. that I was useless and a defective burden. Tears instantly pricked the back of my eyes so hot and humiliating but I bit my lip hard, refusing to let them fall.

Before I could throw a punch, Natasha stepped directly in front of me and she had her phone pressed to her ear with her finger hovering over the screen.

“I’m dialing the pack police right fucking now,” Natasha said with her voice shaking but fiercely loud. “Breaking and entering, assault and threatening a mother and child. You just graduated training, Boyce. You really want to start your elite Royal Guard career with a domestic violence charge? Cause I will ruin your fucking life!”

Boyce’s face twisted in venomous rage as he stared at Natasha’s phone with the gears turning in his skull. He couldn’t risk a scandal.. not on his first day.

“This isn’t over,” he pointed a bloody finger at me. “You’re dead to me.”

He turned on his heel and stormed out the broken door while Sara threw me one last disgusted glare before trailing after him like a lost pathetic puppy.

The second they were gone, the adrenaline completely crashed out of my system. My knees buckled and I hit the floor, burying my face in my hands and just started sobbing.

All the ugly, hurtful shit Sara had said echoed in my head carving out the insecurities I tried so hard to bury. Natasha dropped to the floor beside me, wrapping her arms around my shaking shoulders.

“Hey, hey, don’t listen to that bitch,” Natasha soothed, rubbing my back. “She’s just projecting because she’s a miserable homewrecker. But… Ilyana, did you actually fuck some guy at the Grand Eclipse?”

I sniffled, wiping my nose on the back of my sleeve.

“No. Almost. But I couldn’t do it.” I gave her the short and pathetic version of the truth, crying through the whole humiliating ordeal until Jasmine started wailing from the bedroom, demanding her breakfast.

***

By noon, the apartment was quiet again. Natasha had left for her shift at the diner and a burly construction guy was out in the hallway, hammering a new frame for the front door.

I was sitting at the tiny kitchen table nursing a cold cup of coffee and aggressively skimming the 'Blackridge Pack Tribune'. I couldn’t stay here forever.. I needed my own place or at least enough cash to pull my own weight so Natasha wouldn’t go bankrupt feeding me.

My eyes snagged on a small and boldly outlined ad in the classifieds section.

'URGENT: Lactating she-wolf required for high-paying palace employment. Immediate start. Generous compensation package.'

I blinked, reading it twice. They wanted to buy breast milk? At the palace? I frowned, tracing the edge of the paper with my thumb. It was weird as hell but then again, a hungry baby was a hungry baby whether they lived in a slum or a castle. If some rich palace snob couldn’t feed their kid and was willing to throw bags of cash at my useless omega biology, who was I to say no? It was worth a shot!

Two hours later, I was standing in front of the wrought-iron gates of the Alpha King’s palace.

I explained my business to the heavily armed guards and after a thorough pat-down, I was escorted inside.

The palace was ridiculously huge with all soaring ceilings and golden fixtures that probably cost more than my entire life. The guard led me into a lavish velvet-lined waiting room.

I swallowed hard with my confidence plummeting. There were at least a dozen other women in the waiting room all wearing expensive clothes and smelling of rich perfumes. I looked down at my faded jeans and worn-out sneakers. I was so out of my league it was physically painful.

The guard pointed me to a set of doors. “You will go first. Wait in the interview room. You’re up next.”

I slipped inside the private room and stood awkwardly by a desk, wringing my hands together.

The side door suddenly clicked open and I braced myself, putting on my best customer-service smile.

A tall man in a black jacket walked in, holding a leather folder. He didn’t look up immediately.

“Alright, let’s get this over with...” he started with his deep voice echoing in the quiet room.

He looked up and my heart literally stopped beating.

Braun?!..

We just stared at each other in a stunned silence. His dark piercing eyes widened a little with his gaze snapping from my face down to my worn-out clothes while my cheeks instantly flushed with a heat so intense I thought my skin was going to melt off my skull.

“You,” he spoke finally, looking genuinely surprised. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I… I came for the job,” I stammered with the embarrassment choking me. “The breast milk ad. In the paper.”

Braun blinked with a strange complicated emotion flashing across his face before he cleared his throat, suddenly looking so uncomfortable as he walked around the desk and sat down in the high-backed leather chair.

“You’re the one carrying out the interview?” I asked with my voice squeaking slightly.

Gods.. I had nearly ridden this man like a stolen dirt bike a few hours ago and now he was going to interview me about my lactation capabilities. Shoot me.. just shoot me now.

“I am,” he said tightly, opening the folder.

Panic set in. There were twelve perfectly dressed women out there and I was the bruised and broke omega who had run out on him.

“Look, Braun, please,” I stepped forward. “I need this job. I really really need the money. There are so many people out there and I know I don’t look the part but please… put in a good word for me.”

He leaned back in his chair, studying me with those intense dark eyes. “And what makes you think I have the power to just hand you this job?”

“I saw how you reacted at the bar when those guys dissed the Alpha King. You wouldn’t care that much unless you were someone really high up. A guard captain or a royal advisor or something. You have pull here. Just… help me out.”

Braun stared at me for a long and painful second. His lips parted ready to speak but a knock on the side door interrupted him.

The door swung open and an older distinguished-looking servant in a grey uniform stepped into the room. The servant immediately bowed at the waist, not even glancing at me.

“Forgive the interruption, Your Majesty,” the servant said smoothly. “The council requires your presence in the throne room in ten minutes.”

The room went dead silent as my brain completely short-circuited. I slowly turned my head, looking back at Braun.

He hadn’t moved.. he just sat there in his rubbing his jaw and looking back at me with an expression caught between amusement and impending dread.

'Your Majesty?!'

My blood turned to ice amd my jaw actually dropped open with a breathless and horrified gasp escaping my lips.

Braun wasn’t a royal guard or an advisor! He was the Alpha King..!

I had almost fucked the Alpha King last night...!