MATED TO THE ONE I HATE

CHAPTER 1

Third-Person POV

" How incompetent can you be?"

Mr Willers yelled at his workers, clearly pouring out his frustrations at them.

" We barely have enough customers as it is and you, Oliver" he says, while pointing towards Oliver who appeared to be as red as a beetroot.

"You just had to be disrespectful to one of our ONLY customers"

"I'm sorry Mr…"

Mr Willers cut him off before he could finish his sentence.

" No sorry, you're fired". He said with a straight face.

All the workers were shocked, but they knew it was forthcoming.

Ruby exhaled as she imagined herself being fired because of a little mishap such as this.

Lately, Willers Cafe has not been doing very well. Ever since The Revolution, which was the hostile takeover of those other creatures on Planet Earth, the fees of the people have increased.

Rent, food, transportation and other little things now cost a lot and many have been forced to head over to the capital in search of greener pastures.

People no longer came to the Café or any other Café to eat anymore, as the majority of the town's locals had relocated to the Capital to work.

Ruby could sense that Mr Willers was having a really hard time making ends meet. She knew that in no time, one of her means of income was going to end because Mr Willers was definitely planning to close down the Café.

Mr Willers dismissed everyone and Ruby went straight to the locker room to pack up for the day. The door suddenly opened, and her friend Bethany also came in to get ready for closing.

She noticed Ruby's gloomy expression.

"What's wrong, Ruby?", asked Bethany.

" Can't you see what's wrong? Soon, we'll all lose our jobs. What am I supposed to fall back to? You know very well that all my other menial jobs are just as useless", she sighed.

Bethany nodded in agreement with this.

" I have an idea. How about you go to the capital then "

She handed a flier she had recently seen about job vacancies in the capital to Ruby, who looked slightly angry at the mention of the werewolf community but collected it anyway.

" I was planning to go there to start anew since everyone keeps saying there are more opportunities there. I think you should go too, Ruby" she said to Ruby enthusiastically.

" Okay Beth, I'll think about it. Thank you. " She smiled half-heartedly at her friend.

***

Later that night, Ruby thought about Beth's suggestion. She stood up from her bed and took the flier from her bag. She looked at it carefully and read the list of vacancies available.

Ruby saw that the Royal Palace was in need of helpers. She heard about how difficult it was to work in the palace. People were always given a tough time there.

What she could not understand was how a lot of people still wanted to work there despite the difficulties. Surely, it's because the pay was higher.

But as Ruby thought about all of this, she suddenly remembered what had happened to her mother many years ago and who had caused it.

Ruby clenched her fist in anger and her eyebrows became burrowed with annoyance. And then it occurred to her…

" What if I apply for a job at the palace so that I can get close to those monsters and somehow get information on the events that happened years ago". She said out loud.

She believed she could at least get a reason as to why that creature had called out its purpose of being there to kill her and her mother. There had to be something in the palace to provide her with the information she needed.

All of a sudden, she became determined to work at the palace and snoop around in order to find her mother's killer.

She quickly rushed to her laptop and started typing out an application letter, stating her experiences as a cleaner in the Willers Cafe and some other experiences she thought might be of help.

Soon, she was done and ready for it to be sent to the link provided on the flier. Although she hesitated a little bit, she hit the send button and crossed her fingers in expectation of what was to come.

Ruby woke up the following morning feeling enthusiastic about the day. She does her business in the toilet, brushes her teeth and gets into the shower.

Once she's done washing her hair and body, she steps out wrapped in a towel and heads towards her computer.

She opens it, searching for the news she wanted to see, but nothing comes up in the email. She sighs and closes her laptop.

She gets dressed for work and takes a look at the leftover Mac and cheese she had for dinner last night.

Not having much of a choice and deciding it was her only option, she settles down and munches on it quickly before leaving her home for the Café.

On getting to the Café, Ruby finds it locked. She's shocked because she knows how early Mr Willers always comes to ensure everything is set and ready for the day.

Ruby stands by the door awaiting her co-workers and Mr Willers. Once she sighted Mr Willers, she became excited, concluding that he had arrived to open up the café.

She was disappointed when she saw how unkempt he looked as he approached her.

" We will not be opening today, Ruby. Go home"

" But why is that?"

" We won't be opening because we don't have ingredients to make any food. Now go home" he said sadly.

Ruby knew what this meant. It was over, the Café was over. It started from one day off, to two days off, then three till the Café was finally closed down.

She knew it would come to this, but she had hoped to secure a place in the Palace first.

With a gloomy face, she left her former workplace and headed home.

She had a feeling that Beth was aware of what was going on but still decided to call her.

Beth didn't seem surprised as she herself had already expected it to happen.

Beth had long sent an application for a job in one of the big companies in the capital and had recently got hired.

She assured Ruby that she too was going to get a job in the capital, so she had nothing to worry about. Ruby sure hoped Beth was right about that.

She went home to her laptop and scrolled through her email once more. Sighing, she closed her laptop as there was no new email.

Her stomach grumbled, and she went to her fridge to find a half-eaten pizza Beth and her had once bought. It didn't look so good, and she didn't have a microwave to warm it up, but she couldn't complain.

She dug right in and ate till she could eat no more. After she was done, she went into her room to brush her teeth, have her bath and prepare for bed.

Ruby tried so hard to sleep, but it wasn't forthcoming. She tossed and turned but was only met with insomnia.

She had no reasonable job now and soon her other unreasonable jobs were going to be taken from her. It was only a matter of time.

She stood up once more and headed towards her computer. She held it in her hands and turned it on.

She went to her emails and searched once more for a new email, but there was nothing.

Ruby refreshed her email again and again but was met with absolutely nothing.

She felt in her heart that she wasn't accepted. The flier had said chosen applicants would be communicated with within 24hrs.

It's been a little more than 24hrs since she sent her application, and there was still no response.

Ruby suddenly regretted putting her hopes up for the job. She regretted thinking that she would finally be able to solve her nightmares and get back at the monster who killed her mother.

She had decided to apply for another job in the capital, probably the same company Beth had applied to.

The Royal Palace was known to be a tough place to get into, so she was sure somewhere else would work out.

Tomorrow, she will get to work on that application, but for now, she needs to sleep.

And just when she had given up and decided to close her laptop and get back to bed, there was a notification sound indicating a new email had just been received.

Her mind leaped as she opened the email and her eyes certainly could not fathom what she had just seen…