Back in the Circular Cabinet.
“Hey, are you all right?” Jericho asked and Olive looked up at him.
“Yeah, of course.” She cleared her throat and went to sit on the couch, resting her back and closing her eyes.
“Don’t let her words get to you. She’s always like that to everybody,” Terry said nicely. She didn’t even realizing he had been sitting on that couch before she sat there. She opened her eyes and smiled sweetly at him.
“Trust me, I’ve dealt with far worse people than her. She’s not even half of what Cynthia is,” Olive chuckled softly.
“Cynthia really hated you,” Jericho said from behind them. All three of them, that is, Terry, Crusoe and Jericho vividly began to remember how Cynthia whipped her mercilessly. While they looked on and laughed at her. Jericho felt very guilty. He had come to like Olive already, but that image of him being happy at her torture made him guilty.
“Who’s Cynthia?” Shem asked.
“That bitch who wouldn’t stop rubbing hands on Alpha Knight that night at Selcece Pack,” Jericho answered.
“That fish eyed girl?” Shem asked again with bulged eyes. He knew Cynthia, and hated her possessiveness over his brother. He even thought they were mates and despised that they would be seeing more of her. But Wayne personally told him that he only wanted Cynthia for the time being.
Shem always went on missions with Wayne. He was just twenty, and seemed silly. But in the real sense, he was like his brother. Strong, alluring, tactical and powerful. Just that, he wasn’t dark like Wayne was. He had light.
The week they had gone back to Selcece Pack because of Cynthia’s information about The Vrek Cult, he was on a field trip with his class so he didn’t know about it. That was why he was surprised to hear about Wayne’s mate during breakfast. He wasn’t around to hear the rumours either.
“The fish eyed girl is one person I’d want to skin right now. Not Gia,” Olive stated and closed her eyes again.
“How do you know her?” Shem inquired again and Vanessa rolled her eyes.
“How many questions would you ask in a minute? Shut that mouth of yours already!” Vanessa cut in. She knew Cynthia, and had watched her taunting Olive. She had seen both the ladies break into a serious fight and destroy properties with their bodies. Olive won most of the fights, much to Vanessa’s delight. However, she didn’t want Olive recounting any of those experiences yet. She wanted her to calm down, feel her freedom and get a life again.
“Why are you always attacking me?” Shem retorted but Vanessa ignored him.
Dolly watched Olive’s face as she just laid there, eyes closed and thinking. She had guessed Olive was from a rough side of life, but she felt like there was more to this girl than she had guessed. Olive seemed cold yet warm. Filled with light, yet dark. Something was amiss with her. And Dolly feared for her because of who her mate was. He wouldn’t be able to help her in that sense.
Wayne was dark. Real dark, and the real world had no idea how that darkness was dangerous.
“Olive,” Dolly called. She immediately popped her eyes open.
“Yes.”
“Have these cakes. I baked them actually. Tell me how they taste,” she said with a fine smile and sat in front of the table. Olive had lost her appetite and her mouth felt clammy. She didn’t want anything, but seeing the smile on Dolly’s face as she put the cakes on a plate made her change her mind.
“I’ve got different flavors. Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and banana. Taste them all,” Dolly encouraged and handed the plate to her. Olive smiled and took the chocolate cake first. She took a big bite and munched happily.
“Tastes good, Dolly,” she said amidst munches. Dolly clapped like a five year old and proceeded to pour out drinks for her.
“Have this too. Eat everything up,” she said and shifted the tray to her. Terry took one cake and Dolly glared at him.
“What? You wouldn’t want Wayne to come and meet an obese mate, would you?” he asked and Olive laughed.
“Eat. Take another one,” Olive said and smiled at Terry. Terry chuckled softly. He had realized that Olive was just a bunch of roses, unlike how he and the men had read her days back and judged her wrongly.
\*\*
A week had passed and Alpha Knight had not yet returned from his emergency journey. Olive was worried. Had The Vrek Cult sent someone else to kill him? Maybe a battalion this time? She knew he had enemies, and she was scared. She had just found him, she didn’t want to lose him.
She knew he was called the Big Bad Alpha for a reason, but she also knew that great men could die too. Her heart wouldn’t stop thudding harder everytime she thought about him. Dolly had said he wasn’t calling and his phone wasn’t reachable because he had gone to a place with no reception. Where was that? And when would he be returning?
His quarters was getting bigger in her eyes. Everything was expanding and threatening to swallow her up. She wanted his presence in there with her, but each day was dry. Therefore, she avoided spending time in his quarters. She only slept and took her baths there. Most of her time was with Dolly and Vanessa who took her around the castle. Jericho always made her laugh and told her stories too.
Gia was nowhere to be seen and Olive was glad about that. Though, there was a time she felt someone boring eyes into her back as she walked across a hallway alone towards the backyard. When she turned to look back, she saw Gia’s retreating back. Olive knew Gia must have been staring at her before walking away. She didn’t care though. To hell with that bitch!
It was a week and a day since Wayne disappeared, and she was returning for her afternoon shower after having lunch with Dolly and Vanessa in the garden. The men had finally left her for the first time since Wayne disappeared. They had been like her second skin, following her up and down and glaring daggers at anyone who even dared to stare at her. Wayne had given them the orders they said, and she found it ridiculously funny.
Immediately Olive stepped into the receiving room, she was hit by a very strong scent of rain on a dusty forest floor. She froze as the scent filled her entirety. It was so fresh and strong, that she knew the owner was there not less than five minutes ago.
“He’s back!” her wolf screamed in her head. Like electricity, she jolted forward and zapped through the hall into their bedroom. She looked around but couldn’t see him. She inhaled his scent and zapped to the bathroom. He wasn’t there. She entered the closet too and Wayne wasn’t there.
“Where is he?” she cried out. She ran out of the quarters and went back to the garden, but Dolly and Vanessa were no longer there.
“They must be in the Circular Cabinet,” she thought and sped off to the inside of the castle. She quickly entered an elevator and tapped her fingers against the cold wall of it. Immediately it opened, she ran out and located the hallway that led to the Circular Cabinet. She couldn’t scent him anywhere around that area. But Dolly and Vanessa’s was strong at the door. She flung it open and rushed in.
“Dolly! I scented Wayne in our quarters immediately I stepped in. It was so fresh that I thought he was still inside. I searched everywhere but he wasn’t in. Have you seen him? Tell me where is he?” she blurted out frustratingly in just a few seconds that her breath turned ragged and she began to heave up and down. But her breath got choked in her lungs when she finally looked at the people in the room.
Alpha Knight was sitting there at the bar in all his glory. His Beta was standing beside him and everyone was there too, including his men. They were all staring at her with amused stares. But him, he was looking at her with a smile. The type of smile you produce when you suddenly find out your crush likes you back.