Chapter Six - Proposal
1067 Words
~Atticus~
The buzz of my phone interrupts my morning workout. Other men use the pack gyms to keep in shape, since all of us need to stay in peak physical condition in case of an attack, but I prefer to take care of things in private. Above ground, my home is fairly modest, but there are three more floors underground, including the home gym where I can work out away from the prying eyes of the rest of the pack.
Returning the weights in my hand to their proper place, I use a towel to wipe the sweat from my forehead, brushing my slick hair back from my face as I grab my phone off the table by the door. Maybe Silas has found something for me?
However, the message isn’t from him. It’s an automatic alert from my bank, informing me of a transaction on my card that they’ve deemed suspicious.
$42,000. At a dress shop.
I stare at it in confusion for a long second, thinking it must be some kind of mistake, until the pieces slowly fall into place. Yesterday, I handed that card over to someone else, someone who would have every reason to be shopping for dresses. She teased me that she might run up my credit, but I thought she was joking.
Is she trying to steal from me? Maybe the bump on her head made her so confused that she gave them the wrong card? Or…
Is this simply a way of getting my attention?
If it is, it worked. She definitely has my attention now.
Since I don’t have her phone number, I call the main office at the pack house instead.
“Blood Moon pack, how can I help you?” a cheery female voice answers.
“I’d like to speak to Elara Preston.”
I hear the tap of her fingernails against the keyboard. “May I ask who’s calling?”
“No.”
My blunt refusal throws her for a second, but after a brief silence, she stutters out a response. “J-just a minute.”
She puts me on hold and I can imagine the conversation on the other line. She’ll tell Elara that someone’s calling who refuses to give his name. If Elara isn’t expecting me, she’ll refuse to take the call. But if she is…
“Hello? This is Elara.”
Just as I thought: she wanted me to call. What is this woman up to?
“I hope you picked out something that will do you justice. The wrong dress can make even the most beautiful woman look out of place.”
Her soft laugh sounds warm in my ear. “I’m sorry if I scared you. Most of the money will be refunded directly to the card after I return the dresses. Anything I keep, I’ll pay you back.”
“It takes a lot more than that to scare me, Miss Preston, and you don’t need to reimburse me. You can consider anything you keep a mating present. Now, what is it you really want from me?”
If she wanted me to get in touch, she must want something, but nothing I could imagine her saying would surprise me as much as the words that actually come out of her mouth.
“I want you to elope with me.”
My body freezes, fire and ice running through my veins at the same time, as Strider howls in my head. I told you so. I told you she’d accept us if you made her an offer, and you didn’t even have to. She came to us.
It is exactly what he suggested, which is what makes me doubt it. How did she know my innermost thoughts, things I’ve only discussed with my wolf? What kind of game is she playing?
I wait a few seconds, waiting for her to laugh or take it back, but she doesn’t. She doesn’t say anything else at all until I take a little too long to respond.
“Are you still there?”
“I’m here.” I clear my throat when the words come out croaked, running the towel over my face again. “I’m just surprised. You don’t know me at all.”
“I know you better than you think. You’re the one who doesn’t know me, but that’s okay. I’ll tell you what you need to know.”
Obviously, I don’t know her, not as well as I thought I did. The woman I’ve observed from a distance would never make me such a proposal, but I’d have to be a damn fool not to at least entertain the idea. “What’s in it for you?”
I don’t have to ask what I would get out of it. Mating with the Beta’s daughter would give me a higher rank within the pack than I could ever achieve on my own.
“I want to see Caspian suffer.”
Again, her words shock me. “I thought you were in love.”
“So did I,” she says enigmatically. “Will you help me or not, Mr Ellington? If you won’t, I’ll find someone else who will.”
Strider growls inside me, furious at the thought of anyone else taking away the woman he believes is meant to be ours.
“How do I know this isn’t some kind of trick?”
“You don’t,” she admits. “You’ll just have to trust me. Come to my mating ceremony and I’ll prove to you that I’m completely serious.”
It’s madness. Utter insanity, and yet, I know in an instant what my answer will be.
“I’ll be there.”
What’s the worst that could happen? If it’s a trap, I might lose face, but I’ve dealt with worse before. On the other hand, if she is serious, it could change my entire life.
It’s worth the risk.
Elara lets out a sweet, enticing sigh of relief. “Wonderful. Until then, don’t say a word to anyone.”
“My lips are sealed.”
“Good. I need to go now, my dresses have just arrived. I’ll see you in six days.”
She hangs up before I can get another word in, leaving me staring at the phone in my hand with the strangest feeling on my face.
I think it might actually be a smile.
- Writer
