Fictional Character
1006 Words
Rebecca's Pov
Katherine didn’t just look angry, she looked like she was about to start foaming at the mouth. Her hands were balled into fists so tight the knuckles were turning a ghostly, bloodless white.
"Extra labor? Damian, are you out of your mind?" She paced the rug, her heels clicking a rhythmic, frantic beat. "She is a liability! A fire starting, back talking disaster. Sack her! I don’t want to see her ugly face in this house for one more second."
I didn't wait. I knew how to play this. I dropped to my knees like a puppet whose strings had been cut, bowing my head until my hair curtained my face. I needed to look pathetic. I needed to look like a broken little toy.
"Sir… please," I whimpered, letting my voice crack just enough to hit the right frequency of desperation. "Please don’t fire me. I am so sorry. I know I am clumsy, I know I am a mess, but I just… I couldn’t bear the insult to my parents. I have tons of loans to pay off, and my brother… he is all I have. I have so many responsibilities, sir. Please."
It was a disgusting performance. Every word felt like I was swallowing glass, but it worked. Katherine scoffed, the sound sharp as a razor. "Don’t listen to this crap, Damian. She’s manipulative. Get her out."
Damian didn’t say a word to her. Instead, he moved. He crouched down right in front of me, his presence swallowing the light in the room. He smelled like gunpowder and rain, a scent so sharp it made my eyes water. He reached out, his thumb tracing the line of my jaw with a touch that felt more like a threat than a caress.
"I don't know what it is," he murmured, his voice dropping into that low, resonant register that made the hair on my arms stand up. "I swear, you feel so familiar. It’s like I have seen those eyes before."
My breath hitched. I held my mask together with sheer willpower. Don’t flinch. Don’t break.
"But," he continued, his expression hardening back into stone, "that doesn't stop your punishment. You want to stay? You stay on my terms. As of now, you aren't just a maid. You are my cook, my shadow, and my personal assistant. You will be around me twenty-four-seven."
My mind raced. Assistant? That meant access to his office. Access to his files. But it also meant I was essentially a prisoner in his skin.
"What?" I gasped, the word slipping out before I could check it. "I can't....."
"I don't remember asking if you could," he cut in, his eyes narrowing. "You have a problem with that, Rebecca?"
Katherine lunged, grabbing his arm and pulling him away from me. "Babe, how is that a punishment? She just yelled at our Alpha! She challenged you! Do something to her!"
The word Alpha hit the air, and suddenly, the absurdity of it all just… snapped something in my brain. I had spent ten years training for this, ten years dreaming of killing these people, and here they were, acting like they were in some cheap soap opera. They had no idea I wasn't an ordinary human. I knew about their world they hid from humans. I was once in it.
I let out a small, sharp intentional laugh. I couldn't stop it. It bubbled up in my chest a mix of hysteria and pure, unadulterated contempt.
Damian’s head snapped toward me. "Is something funny?"
I looked at him. Really looked at him. He was standing there with his chest puffed out, looking like he expected the ground to tremble because he was the Alpha. I stood up, my knees still aching from the fall earlier, and wiped the dirt from my apron.
"I understand you are the boss," I said, my voice steady, conversational, and completely devoid of the fear I was supposed to be showing. "I understand you are the CEO of Thorne Corporation, and that’s a big deal. But… Alpha? Is that a bit much? Are you a werewolf or something? Is this Teen Wolf?"
The room didn't just go quiet; the air vanished.
Katherine’s eyes bulged. She looked at me like I had just announced I was going to sacrifice her in the middle of the foyer. Damian? Damian just stared at me. He didn't growl. He didn't rage. He looked at me like I had suddenly started speaking an alien language. He looked around the room, confused, searching for the punchline.
"Did she just…" he started, turning toward Katherine with a look of absolute bewilderment. "Did she just mock me? To my face?"
"She’s insulting your rank!" Katherine shrieked, grabbing his sleeve. "Do something, Damian! She’s mocking you! b***h, does an alpha only refers to a wolf ....are you even schooled? Who the f**k do you even think you are to talk back?"
I didn't care. I felt the adrenaline spiking in my veins, a cold, clean fire. "I am just a maid, Miss Katherine," I said, offering her a sweet, poisonous smile. "I am just trying to figure out if I am working for a CEO or a fan fiction character."
Damian took one step toward me. His hand shot out, grabbing the collar of my uniform and hauling me toward him until our faces were inches apart. The smirk was gone. His eyes were darkening, swirling with that dangerous, pitch-black hunger.
"You think you are funny," he hissed, his grip bruising. "You think you got some jokes?"
He dragged me toward the office wing. I tried to dig my heels in, but he was too strong. We slammed through the double mahogany doors of his private office, and he shoved me toward the desk, scattering files everywhere.
"You want to know if I was a fictional character?" he snarled, throwing a heavy black binder onto the desk. It landed with a dull thud that echoed like a gunshot. "Fine. I will show you."
- Writer
