Chapter 2: Audience with the Alpha

“Your money?”

Desiree turned to see Malcolm Blackstone, the alpha’s beta enter her room. He was tall with a lean muscular stature. His brown skin was weathered beyond his thirty-odd years with a scar of jagged claw marks that traveled from his left ear, over his jaw down the side of his neck, and disappeared beneath the collar of his guard uniform. His dark eyes were sharp as lasers, focused on her as he motioned for the guards to lift her from the floor.

The already cramped space began to feel claustrophobic. He retrieved the jewelry box and looked inside. He didn’t seem impressed with the contents. Closing the box he went to her quilting table and thumbed over her materials. Her eyes lifted to the wedding present she’d just completed on the shelf behind him. He caught her gaze and turned to retrieve it hastily.”

“Please,” she pleaded. “It’s for a wedding. Be careful.”

He raised an eyebrow towards her but his handling became more considerate. He unwrapped the fine paper and took out the blanket. He seemed more impressed with it than he had with her earnings.

“These will be given to the alpha as evidence,” Malcolm announced capturing the quilt and coins in his arms.

“Evidence for what?” she demanded.

But instead of answering, he nodded towards the guards who took her by each arm and escorted her to an awaiting carriage, the Blackstone seal engraved on the door in gold, marking it as the alpha’s carriage. Desiree hardly had time to brace herself before the guards opened the door and shoved her inside a blanketing scent of the ocean sea and exotic spices, onto a cushioned seat opposite the alpha, Declan Blackstone. In one hand he held a letter. In the other was placed her box of coin. On the seat beside him, the wedding quilt.

“Oh,” she muttered. “You got my letter… I was going to—"

He held up a hand and opened the box of coin which also contained a small ledger. She wasn’t sure but it seemed as if he refused to look at her directly. He lifted her ledger which detailed her spending and earnings and thumbed through it.

“It seems you have sent some of my money to a sister,” he accused.

“Well…”

Tiny beads of sweat formed above her lip as irrational prickles of guilty goose bumps rose over her body.

“You see, I was going to make payments to you after I’d had a good bit saved and I didn’t… I didn’t think… I wasn’t stealing. I earned it on my own time and… Well, Alpha Waylon would…”

He flinched at the mention of his father’s name and she trailed off waiting for him to say something.

But Declan allowed the silence to grow between them, still refusing to look at her. The silence grew harsh and thick but as more space and time passed, it became bearable and then comfortable.

As comfort set in, she allowed herself to examine the new alpha closely. He filled up a good majority of the space in the carriage. He was dressed in full soldier uniform as if ready to go to battle. His dark hair was cropped short and she wondered if she touched it, would it feel soft and silky. But, the set of his face seemed to be etched from stone as his eyes remained steadfast on the ledger in his hand.

She’d never met the previous alpha’s youngest son, but she felt more familiar towards him than she should have. Maybe because his features were so much like his father’s.

“I wrote to you for an audience,” she said calmly indicating the letter in his hand.

“Which you see I have granted,” he growled impatiently.

“I wanted to explain the arrangements I had with your father,” she continued. “I intended to pay off the debt my father owes him. You may take all I have now I just—

“I don’t know how you bewitched my father,” he interrupted menacingly.

Her heart thundered as the coldness in his voice turned the blood in her veins to ice water.

“I didn’t!” she insisted. “My father borrowed money and I have worked here for five years to earn my keep, plus extra, to help pay off my father’s debt. I should be able to do it in a little over a year.”

“That is the part in your letter that I don’t understand. How could you possibly pay it all that fast? I thought maybe you were sitting on a lot more money but…” He replaced the ledger and closed the box, eyes still averted.

“I don’t understand,” she replied confused.

“I do believe that your father has borrowed much more money over the past five years than you seem to realize.”

“How much more?”

Declan Blackstone reached into the lapel pocket of his jacket and retrieved a ledger of his own. He sighed and handed it to her. She unfolded it and felt her heart sink at the figure that seemed too high to ever reach.

“Oh…”

She blinked back tears and swallowed the sobs that were in her throat.

“How much of this has my father paid?” she wondered aloud. Not seeing any items of credit.

“Your father has not made a single payment in five years.”

“Then why did Waylon..?”

Again Declan flinched at his father’s name.

“I mean Alpha Waylon… Why didn’t he…”

The revelation of how much debt she was in was like a bolt of lightning. There were so many things that the old alpha could have done, as nonpayment effectively had made her his property. But instead, he’d allowed her to work and live in the Blackstone Village as if she were one of the pack. He left her alone and kept sending her father money.

Looking at his son, the new alpha who held her very life in his hands but refused to even look at her, she let the tears fall from her eyes as she asked;

“What will happen to me now?”