Fight for Me

The next day

Layla’s POV

As comfortable as the bed was, I was still restless throughout the night. My dreams scare me more than my reality. What if I never got out of that torture prison? What if we were all still stuck there? What if that tracker actually got away after finding out my secret?

I can’t let such slips ups happen again. I have to make a plan to work on it while I’m here.

I get up and freshen up. But I realize I don’t have any clothes, other than the ones I came in. And I am not putting them on again. They’re covered in dirt, ash and sweat. That’s why I had no problem sleeping naked. But what now?

I open one of the cupboards and oddly enough there are a few general items, like a coat, a simple white dress with frills and a gown.

I go for the dress. I’m sure they won’t mind. And if they do, I’m sure they wouldn’t want it back anyways.

Before I leave, I make sure to check that my bag is safely hidden under the couch against the wall. I can’t lose it. My life is in it.

I leave hoping I’ll find my way to the ‘kitchen or eating area’, or whatever people call it. All I know is, I’m hungry.

I walk down the marble stairs barefooted. I don’t mind, in fact I actually prefer it. I always feel more free this way.

When I finally reach the bottom of the stairs I realize, I’m officially lost. I remember him saying something about the ‘east wing’ but I’m still trying to figure out how that relates to left or right.

I don’t know if I’m early, because it’s just about seven. But the more I walk through hallways, I finally hear some clanking noises in the house and I’m sure it must be the kitchen or close to it.

Just as I tiptoe into what seems like a massive dining hall and a huge chandelier hanging in the middle, I see Nicholas and one of the guys from last night at the table already eating.

Nicholas turns his head to the side as if he can sense me looking back at him. But their stunned looks are kinda weird. Shouldn’t they have heard or smelled me coming?

But seeing them look at my body I realize it’s probably about the dress.

I look down at my body and sort of wipe the sides of the dress as I look back up.

“I hope you don’t mind me wearing this. I don’t have any other clothes and this was in the cupboard.”

Silence. That’s what I get.

Like, is he mad? Or does he just not care? What am I supposed to take from this?

That’s when the guy next to him cracks the silence and clears his throat.

“Well, have a seat.”

I’m certainly not going to hesitate. The smell was the other thing that led me here. And I’m loving it.

Nicholas’ stare on me though is making me uncomfortable. So I take a seat next to the other guy hoping to use him to block my view with Nicholas. I start dishing up the amazing buffet laid out on the table.

“Most people don’t usually come down to breakfast this early.” My neighbour says.

“Well, most people are probably not as hungry as I am.”

Even though I was serious with my words, he somehow finds it funny, as he chuckles.

“I’m Tyler by the way.” He says with a curious smile.

“Layla.” I say as I pour syrup on my stacked pancakes.

“So, Layla? What brings you here?”

I look at him confused.

He continues. “Our Alpha here tells us you’ll be one of his personal maids, but that’s all he’s willing to tell us. So maybe you’ll be able to shed some light as to how and why you scored the job just last night.”

With Tyler looking at me with that smirk, I know he either can’t or is denying to see the look of rage on Nicholas’ face behind him.

“And here I was thinking that I was going to thank you too.” But he looks at me confused. “Your Alpha did nothing but help a poor, helpless person out of a dire situation.”

It’s not like I’m lying.

I go back to my food. I was so focused on stuffing my face with food, the silence didn’t even bother me.

When I finally look up after cleaning my plate, I notice Tyler is already gone. And I’m stuck here with a staring Alpha.

“Come up to my office with me, and we’ll start discussing things there.”

I just gently smile as I get up and follow him. He didn’t even look if I was following. But I guess he knows.

His office is just as big, and fit for a king.

I immediately walk to the large window-of-a-wall, to look out and see the view. The forest looks so beautiful with the morning sky.

When I turn around, I see him leaning against the front of his desk and staring at me curiously.

“What?”

He pinches the bridge of his nose and takes a deep breath.

“I’ll have someone send up clothes for you,……….and underwear.”

Hearing the pause in his voice makes me realize, - I’m not wearing any underwear. Looking down I can see the outside light practically shining through the white dress, giving an outline of my body.

I instantly cross my arms over my chest and walk away from the window and lean against the wall.

The fact that he knows now, I feel so exposed. He probably wouldn’t want me sitting on the chairs.

“Have a seat.” He gestures to one of the couches in the middle of the room.

“I’m fine.” I hesitantly say, still a bit shy to lower my arms.

“Suit yourself. Now let’s begin. I already have a personal maid, but you will be helping her with her duties from tomorrow onward. She’ll show you around later today. Her name is Margret. Do you have any questions?”

“Uhm…..yeah. Does she know?”

“No.” He says curtly. “No one besides us knows. And it should stay that way.”

I nod my head in understanding.

“Anything else?”

“Yes. Actually. I was wondering,……… whether it would be possible to get one of your guys to teach me some self-defense?”

He raises a brow. “Self-defense? I can get you some pepper spray.”

Hfh. “No. I want to know how to defend myself against shifters as well. Pepper spray barely works against you guys”

“Shifters?”

“Yeah. Humans aren’t the only dangers in life as you pack wolves might think.”

He’s staring again.

“Fine. I’ll arrange to have one of the warriors help you out. Anything else, before we make this final? No requests will be made later on.”

I take a few seconds to think it over. I don’t think there’s anything else. Besides, I shouldn’t be getting greedy, he’s already doing so much for me.

“Nope. That is really more than enough for me.”

“Okay. Then let’s shake on it.”

I straighten up against the wall, finally feeling a bit comfortable to let my hands down. I’ve been peeking every few seconds to see if the dress is still see-through, but I think I’m good.

“Shake?” I would have expected him to want to sign a contract or something.

“Yes. Well usually we would cut our palms to do a blood-pact on the shake. But you humans don’t heal as quickly. I wouldn’t want you getting sick from a single cut.”

I can’t help but roll my eyes at him. If he only knew what I have been through.

“Shake it is then.” I walk towards him and grip his hand.

I have to hold my breath with how this man pisses me off. I don’t know if it’s this so-called mate bond making my hand feel on fire, but I don’t like the way it’s making me feel. What annoys me even more, is that I don’t think my supposed firm grip of a handshake is doing anything. My hand looks like a child’s in his. Like, what the hell?

I know I’m considered slightly small on normal standards, but him being bigger than the average man is not making things better.

“Well then Layla. We have a deal.”

“Yes, we do Nick.”

Ggrh. “You are to call me Alpha.”

“Y-e-a-h. But that’s not gonna stick. And Nicholas is too long. I like Nick better.”

“Woman. Do not test me. You are an employee of this household now. It is expected of you.”

I huff out annoyed. But honestly, I’m not doing this on purpose. Once a name is stuck in my head, it ‘sticks’.

“If people ask, just tell them I’m human and new to all of this. That usually stops your kind from complaining about such things. Your kind never takes humans into high regard anyways.”

He’s staring again.

“This is going to be a long month.” He says under his breath.

Later that day Margret came to fetch me from my room and showed me around. It almost took half the day. It’s official. This is definitely a castle.

Many people were staring at me, and I don’t blame them. There are only two other humans I spotted here. One was a girl that works in the kitchen as an assistant chef and the other was a gardener outside. And here I am, lucky number three, working as the Alpha’s personal maid. Apparently he likes to have things done in a very specific manner. Please.

The house is pretty much empty during the day. Most wolves are outside doing training, patrolling and other ‘wolf stuff’. Not that I would know what. But at least that means I have the house mostly to myself during the day. This really might not be so bad.