Choosing Between The Alpha And The Dragon King

Chapter 2

It was 6:30 p.m., and Jamie no longer had the excuse of work to hide behind. The customers had dwindled down to next to nothing, and the servers were using the downtime to either put their feet up or catch up on social media. She, however, was hiding behind Andrew, literally. Servers weren’t allowed to sit in the main area during office hours, so they were both seated at the side of the building. That way, they could still hear whenever the bell jingled.

"Andrew,” the manager called from inside, and she saw a clear image of herself lying down, wounded and half-naked, with the other girls pointing and taking pictures. She shuddered and shook the picture away. Now her imagination was running away with her.

"Andrew,” the man called again, and her friend shook his head with a huff before he headed back inside. She wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly feeling alone. Something crinkled in her breast pocket, and it was then that she remembered the paper she’d hidden there.

When she’d mustered up every iota of courage she had and gone to drop the bill for the ‘freaking Alpha’, she’d been too wary of the eyes of the others boring into her back to do more than jump back when his hand had come too close to hers. She’d actually first dropped the bill and left, but she’d had to come back when the man had sent someone else to get her. Then she’d paid attention to everything on his table beside him. Eventually, he’d opened his wallet, dropped some bills on the table and, with his unflinching eyes on her, folded his bill back into her hands. But not before she’d seen the paper sticking out.

Playing along, she’d picked up the bills with the same hand, stylishly putting the paper in her breast pocket with a simple sleight of hand. Then she’d forgotten about it. Until now.

She pulled out the folded bill, and sure enough, another paper had been placed between it. Glancing behind her to avoid the others, she carefully peeled it open. She had to raise it slightly to see what was written on it, and she blushed furiously upon reading it.

I could smell your heat from across the room, little one. You can’t run from me.

“What’s that?” She heard from behind her, and she jumped up in shock. Another thing she couldn’t understand was how quiet wolves could be when they wanted.

“Nothing,” she hurried to say, folding the note and sliding it into the sleeves of the jacket she’d collected from Andrew when they’d stepped out into the cold.

Kiara, one of the cooks and a worse bully than Brianna nodded at Eliza, another cook she hadn’t noticed was behind her. She spun around to see; big mistake. Kiara grabbed her hands and covered her mouth and her friend searched for the paper as she struggled and failed. When they found the crumpled bill, they released her as suddenly as they’d grabbed her, making her fall from the suddenness of it.

From the floor, she watched them try to make sense of the paper, their impatience further tearing it apart.

“What does it say?” Kiara asked Brianna.

“It doesn’t really make sense to me, Kiara. I think she’s just obsessed with keeping trash like her.”

She shivered under their gaze. Her heart was thumping in her chest and she couldn’t get rid of the acrid taste at the back of her tongue that screamed ‘danger’. She tried to shuffle back towards the door, praying for someone to step out. And then someone did. But rather than her savior, she saw Brianna and Kaycee step out, their eyes eagerly scanning for something. Without thinking about it, she ran.

There was a curse behind her before someone was in hot pursuit. She suddenly fell, slamming her elbows into the ground to protect her face, when someone pushed her from behind. She hadn’t even made it twenty feet.

“And where do you think you’re running to, you slut?” Kaycee asked as she dragged her up by her tied back black hair.

She glared back and was rewarded with a slap on the face before Kaycee dragged her back to the others.

“Got her. What did you see?” Kaycee asked casually.

The three of them shrugged, and it was Brianna who answered, “I think it really is thrash.”

Kaycee rattled her by the hair, “But that doesn’t explain her running.”

Eliza grinned wolfishly, “Maybe the slut just got scared.”

“Of course not,” both Brianna and Kiara answered. She stopped struggling.

Of course, she was scared, terrified even. Why did they think otherwise? And most importantly, how could she use that to her advantage?

“She’s not scared,” Kiara said, her voice low in threat, “But she will.”

Kaycee laughed, “She’s almost pissing her pants here. What are you guys talking about?”

“Can’t you smell her? Does she smell like someone who is scared?” Kiara growled at her.

Jamie just looked at them in shock. Her chest was still pounding, and it was with a great effort that her breath wasn’t shuddering out of her in panic.

The string holding that effort finally crashed and burned when Kaycee shoved a hand into her throat. She whimpered, but rather than choking her to death, the finger just remained there. Her fear increased when she realized that the finger was directly on her pulse.

“That’s it,” Kaycee murmured to her soothingly before she removed her fingers and looked at the others, “Mission accomplished. Now that you can smell her fear, are you satisfied?”

They looked at each other in shock before Kiara dragged her hair from the other side, “What game are you playing, you witch?”

“I’m … I’m sorry. I… don’t know… what… what you’re talking about.”

Her head was shaken again until Brianna suddenly said, “Wait, I’ve seen it.”

They rushed to her side, all staring eagerly at the piece of paper like it was a unique trinket.

“The b***h isn’t collecting trash. This is Lucas’ bill.”

There was a moment of heavy silence before the cries of outrage came. She was shoved to her knees, and someone ground her face into the ground.

“You slut. Why. were. you. keeping. his. bill?” Brianna shouted, grounding her face into the sand with each word.

She couldn’t even say a word. She struggled but the only thing she achieved was to cut of her air when a hand grabbed her by the throat. She was shoved upright, coughing and trying to blink back the sand from her eyes.

She bent over with a cry when a foot was shoved into her back.

She was jerked back upright again by her screaming hair follicles. She saw the fist coming to her face when she finally heard movement from the door.

“Jamie,” she heard Andrew say from behind her. “What in blazes is going on here?” he roared when he saw them fully.

The person holding her pushed her aside and she slammed her knees into the bench she’d been sitting on. She heard her scream as if from a distance, but she didn’t stay down. Dazed and in pain, half blind from the sand she hadn’t gotten out, she shoved herself upright and ran. She just needed to leave the territory; she'd be safer out in the wild. A hand grabbed her and she screamed in terror.

“Stop it, it’s me,” a familiar voice said in her ear, but she couldn’t place it in her panic.

“Let me go, let me go,” she chanted.

“Hey, little one, stop wiggling,” finally penetrated the cloud of fear. Only one person had ever referred to her as that, and it had been on paper. She stopped struggling.

“Let’s go,” he told her.

“Go where”

“Anywhere but here. Where would you like to go, little one?” The voice asked gently, and she didn’t even have to think about it.

“Away”

“Alright then, we can do that.”

She allowed the hand to lead her a few steps before she heard the sound of a door opening. She settled into the car seat and shook for the seconds it took to hear the sound of the other door open. She startled badly and then breathed a little better when the familiar pair of hands leaned around her to secure her seat belt. And then the car started, and they zoomed off.