Page 141 of Rejected By the Alpha King

He took a step toward me but stopped when there was a knock at the door. “Leave us,” he ordered.

“It’s me.”

A familiar voice. Elonso?

“What?” Emerson snarled.

The door opened, and his second came in. His eyes flitted over the scene, but they showed no sympathy. “Forgive the interruption, alpha, but it appears that our special guest has arrived earlier than expected. Would you like me to welcome them myself?”

To my surprise, Emerson smiled coldly and cruelly. “No need. I’m done here. I’ll see to the guest myself. See if my mate needs medical care. She is so clumsy. Anna, forgive my brisk exit.

I’ll make it up to you tomorrow at dinner.”

With that, he was gone. Warily, I rose to my feet and stared at Elonso while I gripped the knife. “No need to call the healer. I’m tougher than I look.”

He just grunted. “Clean yourself up. I’ll send someone to clean up this mess.”

“I’ll do it. I’ll alert my…guards when I’m done. Who’s the special guest?”

“Plan B.”

64

Anna

A dark bruise formed on my cheek the next day. I dressed for work and opened the door only to find a female guard waiting for me. She bustled her way into my suite, covered my bruise with makeup and pinned the necklace back around my neck. “It’s so pretty. You should show it off,” she said mildly.

Right. So pretty.

The first hour of opening the bar was usually a quiet one for me. Everyone else was busy at their stations, the manager was counting the money, and it was just me, flipping on the automatic switch, and planning while I worked. Only today, I was constantly interrupted by a parade of my co-workers who wanted to admire the necklace. Their simpering made me sick to my stomach.

“Oh, how beautiful. Our alpha has amazing taste.”

“The two of you are like a fairy tale. I can’t wait to find a mate of my own who treats me like this.”

“He loves you so much.”

Don’t vomit. Just smile and nod. You can survive if you just smile and nod.

Hiding the necklace down my shirt, I opened the unlocked the doors and let in the people who were lined up at the door, like Hair of the Dog was the place to be at eleven o’clock in the morning. The Thursday regulars walked in, seated themselves, and patiently waited for me to get behind the counter.

“I heard Emerson gave you a beautiful necklace? Can I see it?”

Fuck, this was going to be the longest shift of my life.

By one, the bar was incredibly busy. Almost everyone asked to see my necklace, so I ended up just wearing the stupid thing outside my shirt to save time. Cindy came in early, and nobody blinked an eye when she asked me to go to the bathroom with her. When I asked her why, she just smiled. “Your makeup needs a touch-up.”

So much for thinking Cindy might be a friend.

Dutifully, I followed her into the bathroom and stood there while she covered my bruise.

The whole time, I watched her face to see if her true emotions might arise. She chattered on aimlessly about something her daughter had done that morning.

“This is good practice for me. One day, I’ll be doing her makeup!”

“Is she accident-prone as well?”

Cindy’s hair wavered just a little, and she smiled. “No, silly. For dance recitals and plays and all those things.”

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