Buying the Slave Alpha

Chapter 2

The night was quiet aside from the pitter-pat of the rain shower against the ground, that seemed to grow louder as the raindrops began to build up momentum.

The sound of a bell echoed as Averil pushed the creaky door forward in a bid to enter. The alpha, Cyan, as he had called himself, was now dressed in a better looking cloak, which was now damp from the shower of rain. They still covered his body and scars better than when she had first seen him. He simply followed after her in the shop as she expected him to. They had not seen a single soul out in the streets since they left the auction house. It was late at night, pouring outside and they had spotted this store thanks to sheer luck.

It looked like a small, rundown store, a little sign outside, which had almost gone unnoticed, indicating that they sold 'perfumes'. Dying flowers laid outside did nothing to make the store stand out. Averil was sure she had never seen such a store even though she had passed this path quite a few times.

Perfumes were somewhat known as codenames for scent concealers. Concealers weren't illegal per say, even high officials used them whenever they wished to conceal their gender identity. But these scent blocker stores were usually seen as alpha hiding places. Shops that were blatantly known to sell such concealing devices were raided very often. So instead, they used the title of 'perfume selling stores' and sold perfumes along with scent blockers. This store seemed to be one of those.

The woman in front of the counter looked to be of advanced age, wrinkly and shrunken. It looked like she was of beta gender as well. She merely glanced at the two of them before going on with her work of mixing and stirring several liquids .

There seemed to be a lot going on in the shop. From the odd, antique decor, to the slight nonenal smell mixed with various scents of herbs, present in the tiny store. The several potions of different colors that sat on shelf after shelf brought more life to the room. They shone brightly like raw jewels, and in all of her life, she had never seen 'perfumes' look that beautiful. As far as she knew, they were usually just colorless or had a small hint of color. Averil looked to her right, where Cyan stood. He seemed just as curious about the tiny store as she was, hurriedly glancing around.

Averil turned back to the store owner. "Do you happen to have a few bottles of scent concealers?" She asked the woman, a little desperate. It was late at night and she doubted any other store would be opened up before she got home.

The woman didn't look their way this time and instead, just continued to pour some of the mystery ingredients she had on her counter, into the cauldron. "Eh... I figured you'd be here for some concealers."

She then looked Cyan directly in the eye, making him move an inch backward. "With an alpha with that much pheromones, you'll need a lot," She said, smiling a little before going back to her work. Averil expected her to figure out the moment they walked through the door, so it was no surprise. Perhaps, she should have left him outside incase the old woman did not sell scent concealers and had decided to rat them out instead. But she also somewhat feared that he would run off as well. He barely spoke and she wasn't even sure how trustworthy he would be.

Averil ignored her thoughts, mind concentrated on the woman in front of her once more. "Um... How many do you mean by 'a lot'," She questioned, starting to grow suspicious.

"At least fifty."

"What fifty?" She looked at the woman as she repeatedly stirred the bowl, eyebrows raised. Surely, she did not mean fift—

"At least fifty bottles per week," The old lady replied dryily.

"What? I mean... I know he's a huge dog." Averil could see the alpha frown, slightly offended. "But, don't you think fifty bottles is a little too much? What kind of wolf needs so many bottles?" She was almost sure she was getting scammed off her money.

"An alpha, that's who," The old woman murmured, rolling her eyes. "Think whatever you want. Leaving him out without that many scent blockers is like leaving him out in the wild. He's going to get killed soon enough. Scent blockers don't last past a day, and for an alpha with such a strong scent as his, you are gon' need to douse him in the s**t every five hours."

"Besides," the lady continued, "You're lucky I won't tell off on you two. You'd have been in tough s**t anyways."

Averil suppressed a grimace at the woman's choice of words. The woman was an annoying, old hag for sure, even trying to threaten her. Her hand moved to the bridge of her nose, fingers closing over them before she sighed, "Fine... I'll take the fifty then."

The lady grinned, probably happy that she got to have her way, before finally leaving the counter and moving over to the stack of colored liquids that brightened the store. Her shaky hands began searching through them, picking out several colors. From a bright, crystal blue, to a light pink, and then a dark red. She would slowly put each one of them into a huge sack as she searched through their labels.

After she was done, she handed them over to Cyan, dumping them in his arms.

"Those cost 5000 gold coins," The old lady said, a hand out in Averil's direction.

Averil fished out for a pouch and placed it in the woman's hands. There's a satisfactory smile on the old lady's wrinkled face before she gasps, "Ah!" She bends down at her counter, rummaging through her things, before popping back up, startling the two of them.

"Here, have this," The woman placed something in Cyan's now empty, right hand. She smiled at them knowingly, before patting his hand close. "A gift for buying so many scent blockers from me."

Cyan opened his hand to see a ring band with an emerald-like, green jewel at the front. A green just as similar as his eyes. Cyan looked over to Averil, as if searching for her approval. She was so sure it was fake but it wouldn't hurt to accept a gift anyways. And so she nodded.

"Thank you?" Cyan's scratched and barely used voice, spoke, unsure of why he had received such an odd gift.