Arabella
As much as I wanted to slap my supplier right in the face when he advised me to try being lovable, I can’t deny he had a point. I need Bastien to fall head over heels in love with me, and I haven’t been trying very hard thus far. After all, I have to convince him we’re meant to be together so completely that he won’t believe the truth even when his betas say it to his face. He has to be so blinded by affection that he won’t recognize his own mate if they meet again.
I’ve got my work cut out for me.
At least I have one advantage, which is that I know what he likes. I just have to act as pathetic and helpless as Selene, and the big idiot will fall at my feet. No one is easier to manipulate than an alpha with a hero complex, except maybe one who’s being drugged. That’s the other tool in my limited arsenal. I’ve decided to up the dosage of the memory potion a bit, so that he’s even more confused than he is already.
I’m going to set my plan in motion tonight. I’ve done everything I can think of to arrange the perfect date. While he’s taking a little drug induced nap a professional cleaning crew and chef will make me look like susie homemaker, and the dress I purchased this afternoon will make me look even more appetizing than dinner. I’ll act as sweet and ditsy as I possibly can, lord knows his mate doesn’t have a spine, let alone a brain.
However before I begin the distasteful task of making that oaf love me, I have to deal with the other Alpha in my life. Blaise hasn’t seemed to mind my absence too much in recent days, and I might have been offended if it weren’t for the fact that I very much needed the time away from him to sort out things with Bastien. Still he did call an audience with me this afternoon, so I expect he’ll be bending over backwards to apologize for his neglect. I’ll have to act aloof and unconvinced so that I can explain my continued absence in coming weeks.
Blaise is the only Alpha I’ve ever known who actually sits on a throne, and he’s waiting for me in the throne room when I arrive, looking imperiously down at his subjects from the dais. The room is half full of nobles and aristocrats required to fawn over him every afternoon by his own decree, and I”m only too pleased to have an audience for his apology.
“Is there something you’d like to tell me, Arabella?” Blaise inquires ominously, tapping his fingers impatiently on the arm of the throne.
For a moment I think he might know about Bastien, and fear courses through my body. “Whatever do you mean?” I ask him with a wide smile, playing dumb.
“Think very carefully, Novan.” He growls, “you do not want to lie to me.”
I want to be caught hiding Bastien from you even less. I think. Furrowing my brow, I say, “I’m sorry, sir. I’m confused. I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Blaise nods at his beta, and the big wolf steps forward and places a stack of glossy photos in my hand. Looking down at them in surprise and disbelief, I realize they’re all of me. Thankfully none of them include Bastien, but they do show me going around the city on my day to day business, including visiting my potion supplier at the underground market.
“I…” I stammer, “You’ve been having me followed?”
“As is my right.” Blaise snarls, clenching his fists at my audacity, “would you care to explain what you were doing buying memory potions from a common trader?”
I have to think fast. Glancing around the assembled crowd and praying for someone to come to my aid, my mind races a mile a minute. When no one speaks up I look back to the terrifying alpha and nervously gnaw on my lower lip. “I-I was stocking up.” I lie, sudden inspiration striking me. “I thought it might come in handy when we take over the Nova pack. There might be a few people who don’t fall in line immediately, but if we can make them forget it will be easier.”
“Is that so?” Blaise asks rhetorically, rising from his throne.
“Yes!” I insist, “I was going to tell you the plan the next time we met.”
The Alpha smiles, and I breathe a little easier. I return his grin as he draws nearer, relieved beyond belief that he bought my story. He comes so close that our bodies are almost touching, and before my eyes his smile melts to a horrible grimace. He lashes out and fists his hand in my hair, yanking my head back. “Listen to me, you impudent bitch.”
I flinch as his harsh words and even harsher touch, not understanding where I went wrong. “First of all, we are not taking over the Nova pack. I am taking over the Nova pack and if you’re lucky, I’ll let you live long enough to lick my boots once we succeed.” He hisses, spittle flying from his lips as he shakes me roughly, drawing an unwilling whimper from my lips.
“Second, you do not make plans and inform me about them later, you do not make plans at all. You do not even think without my permission. You are useful to me because of your connection to the Durands and your inside knowledge, that is why I’m keeping you around, not so that you can fuck up my best laid plans by getting ideas of your own.” He thunders.
To my shame tears burn in my eyes and I begin to tremble. The only reason I’m able to keep it that much together is that he’s clearly not planning on killing me, but I’m only too aware that he might still hurt me. “And third, I don’t associate with the drudges of the underground. No one aboveground is permitted to contaminate themselves with those mongrels’ poverty and depravity. If you expect to receive another audience with me, I expect you to thoroughly disinfect yourself and never set foot down there again. I do not need another dirty whore serving me, I want only the purest of she-wolves in my presence. Is that clear?”
“Yes sir, I’m so sorry.” I mewl pitifully. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
“You won’t do a single thing without my express orders!” Blaise roars. He raises his hand a second before his knuckles slam across my face, sending pain exploding through my head. He’s still holding me by the hair, so I can’t even fall to the ground, I hang there by my hair, struggling to breathe through the agony.
“I’m sorry!” I moan again, half sobbing.
“Good.” He drops me like a sack of bricks, “Now get out of my sight.”
I can’t meet the gazes of any of the courtiers filling the room as I slink out with my tail between my legs. What on earth just happened? I can’t believe I miscalculated so badly. I can’t believe I didn’t notice I was being followed. I’m going to have to be much, much more careful in the future.
I stop in the opulent restroom before leaving, wiping away my running mascara and trying to get my tears under control. There’s already a huge purple bruise blooming across my cheek, and my nose and eyes are red and splotchy. This is so not how I wanted to look before my big date with Bastien. After all, Selene always looks perfect, she’s even a pretty crier and I absolutely am not.
However as I’m washing my face I realize that this might actually work in my favor after all. Bastien has always been a sucker for a woman in need, and I don’t actually have to tell him about Blaise. I could easily pretend I was attacked by some strange wolf and fall into his arms like that helpless bitch he calls a mate.
The more I consider the idea the more I like it, and the more grateful I am to Blaise- this really couldn’t have gone better if I planned it.
When I get home a little while later I turn off the oven and kick out the cleaners, undoing all their preparations for our date and hiding the evidence. Once the apartment is back to normal, I walk out into the hallway and work myself up into another fit of tears. When I’m suitably pathetic I crash into the house so loudly I’m sure it will wake Bastien. I slam the door hard and throw myself against it, sliding by back down the wood until my butt hits the floor and sobbing melodramatically. Right on cue Bastien surges out of his room on high alert.
He takes one look at me and pales, his hands instinctively clenching into fists. “Bella!” He asks frantically. “What happened!”
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