The Alpha King

Chapter 3

Artemis

Phew, I almost was late for the meeting with my father at the building where he worked.

Why he had summoned me to his workplace was a bit puzzling, but one thing I knew was not to argue with him when he gave an order with no room for saying no. My father worked in a large company of United Paper Mills, it was one of the largest forest industry company in the Western Continent.

Their products were pulp, paper, plywood, sawn timber, labels and composites, bio-energy, biofuels for transport, biochemicals and nano products, although I didn´t understand half of it, my father was proud of his position in the company so, I kept smiling every time he got into a rant telling me about his workday. He was the CEO and he worked closely with someone called Lionel Donovan who apparently was the chairman. I had asked my father one time who owned the company thinking it was a group of powerful people but the way he had looked at me told me even he didn´t know who owned it. This was odd given the fact that he was the CEO of the company but didn´t question it further.

Driving into the parking lot I parked the car and nearly flew out the car locking the doors before dashing toward the main doors. Glancing at my phone to see the time I saw I had five minutes to spare. Cutting it close, my father hated latecomers. He preferred to be early than on time or late.

Walking briskly through the sliding glass doors I dodge the people walking around as I navigated my way across the lobby while nodding when I saw the receptionist behind her desk. Sandy smiled back at me giving me a quick thumb up letting me know my father was already expecting me. Great, so he had phoned her asking if she had seen me yet.

Groaning internally I hit the button when I reached the elevator and tapping my foot impatiently while waiting for the doors to open. How was it whenever you were in a rush the elevators seemed to work at snail speed?

Glancing at the phone again, I whined. Three minutes left. I hated this. I hated the fact my father most likely was going to lecture me being a couple of minutes late. No wonder my parents had divorced, or rather my mother had divorced his punctual ass. My father wasn´t the easiest person to get along with and I often wondered did he know the concept of love at all?

Who am I kidding? I didn´t know the concept of love or did I even believed in it. Why should I? My parents were the perfect example, love didn´t exist. Sure, there were a mutual attraction and maybe feelings but true love? No. That kind of stuff happened only in books and movies. And after seeing what happened with my brother and his relationship two years ago…let's just say I rest my case.

His girlfriend took advantage of him when she had learned who his father was and then cheated on him multiple times. My brother was nothing more than a money bank to her while she screwed around with other boys. My brother was heartbroken, and I was there to pick up the pieces. I hated the b***h, I really did and I had offered to go and kick her ass to the curve but he had told me she wasn´t worth it. Something I agreed to but it would have felt so good. But I respected my brother's wish not to do anything.

So instead I made him go with me to martial art classes to blow off some steam since I lacked a partner because one of my good friends and training partner Cassie was out of town.

Both I and my brother had been going to aikido and ninjutsu classes since we were 6 years old and we had mastered the arts at the age of 20. Plus my brother loved boxing while I was more into archery although we heard many comments when we were still at school like” it must be nice to have parents who have loads of money lying around, damn you, rich kids”. Yeah, those hobbies weren´t exactly cheap. Sure, we were wealthy but most people didn´t realize it came with a cost. There was almost zero family time because they practically lived at work, and I resented my parents for it because it made me believe work mattered more to them than their kids. One more reason not to believe in love.

I snapped from my thoughts as the familiar bing of an elevator arriving and the second the doors opened I stepped in and pressed a button to floor 15, where my father's office located. Counting seconds as the elevator went up hoping my father was in a good mood I kept watching the digits flashing by on the top of the doors telling me which floor I have passed.

12

13

14

My nerves were acting up as I saw I was one floor away from my father's office. My hands were sweating now and my heart beat a little faster, while I chewed my bottom lip trying to calm down.

15

Ping

The elevator halted and the doors opened. I let out a shaky breath stepping out of the elevator and saw his office across the hallway, the door was already open and I glanced at the phone. One minute late, great. Almost jogging the rest of the way I stopped in front of the ajar door and knocked.

“Come in.”

My father's deep voice barked and I swallowed as I pushed the door open stepping inside and walked through the short corridor and immediately afternoon sunlight greeted me while lighting the entire room. I stood there in awe at the spacious room, the meeting table and chairs stood by the rows of windows, right to the meeting table, against the curtain wall was the desk of the CEO where my father was sitting. Right across from it stood the lounge stools and a small glass table. It looked far too fancy for a normal office. I haven´t seen my father's office ever before and I had to admit it was luxurious. It was the essence of everything comforting and work smashed together into this cosy room.

An irritated sounding cough interrupted my thoughts, and I turned to look toward the desk. My father was leaning on his elbows as he stared at me.

Oh boy.

He looked pissed.

“You´re late.” He growled.

Here we go.

“I thought I made it clear to be on time when I called you yesterday and told you I needed to see you. You are my daughter and I expect you to show an example of how to be on time or rather early rather than on time or late. You know I don´t hate nothing more than liars and latecomers.”

I walked up toward the desk and flopped on one of the chairs crossing my legs and rested my arms on the armrests. I knew better than arguing when he was in this kind of mood. I didn´t know anyone else who would get their knickers in a twist because someone was one minute late. But then again, this was my father and his freakish ways of trying to control the situation.

“Anything to say Artemis?”

I merely shook my head. It was useless trying to explain why I was one minute late. My car didn´t start when I was leaving, so I had to alert my neighbour for a jump start and that took over half an hour. It surprised me I didn't get a ticket for speeding and quite frankly; I was impressed I was only one minute late. Yay to me.

No, I wasn´t going to waste my breath explaining that to him, he would only start babbling about asking one of my neighbours to drop me here or how I should take better care of my car and make sure it would start when I needed a car. No matter what I would tell him, it would be still my fault.

Yup people, that´s the kind of father I have.

My father sighed leaning back rubbing his forehead.

“The reason I asked you here…”

More like summoned me here, I thought to myself as I studied the carpet under my feet but bit my tongue and waited for him to tell me the reason. I had a bad feeling about the reason and something told me I wasn´t going to be happy.

“…there is a position available in our sister company in Austria, I sent an application and I got a reply two days ago.”

I snapped my eyes on him lighting speed narrowing my gaze and pressed my lips tightly together. I seriously hoped the application was in his name but I doubted it. An eery feeling crept down my spine and cold sweat formed on my forehead while I fisted my hands to stop the starting shaking.

“Congratulations Artemis, you got accepted. Your job starts in a month.”

“What?!” I screeched jumping up from my seat glaring at my father whose expression darkened at my outburst.

“What makes you think I want to move to Austria?? My life is here, my friends are here! My job is here, which I am not quitting because you say so. You can´t just do something like that without asking me first, dad!”

I was seething at this point. How dared he trying to decide on my behalf and expect me to roll over and obey him like a good little girl. Hell no! This was my life, I made my choices of how to live it, not him.

“Artemis,” he warned me while standing up but I had had it.

“No, I will not accept it. This is bullshit! You don´t get to choose how I live my life.”

“My daughter is not working in some lowly archery school as a mere teacher! As a member of the Griffin family you have a reputation to maintain and this is how you do it! End of discussion.” he bellowed making me take a step back stunned. Lowly school? A mere teacher? Family reputation? He was that ashamed of my choice of career he went behind my back and send a work application to their sister company in another f*****g country?

I stared at him feeling the familiar burning sting behind my eyes and my throat tightened as my breathing was getting shallow. Saying nothing I stormed out of the office, the last thing I needed was my father starting to yell at me for showing weakness like crying in front of him. I ignored his shouting to come back and ran toward the elevator seeing someone stepping out of it.

“Hold the doors!” I cried almost startling the person who looked up from their phone and extended their arm just in time before the doors closed. I hopped into the elevator muttering thank you and pressed the button to the first floor catching a glimpse of my father stomping out of his office but luckily the doors closed and the elevator started its descending.

Releasing a shaky breath I didn´t know I was holding in I leaned back against the cool wall and closed my eyes. I needed to gather myself before stepping out. No one needed to see how upset I was, especially Sandy who thought my relationship with my father was based on mutual respect. I nearly let out a chuckle when that thought slipped in my mind. Respect. What a joke. He didn´t respect me, let alone loved me so why the hell I should respect him? Respect should be earned, not demanded, but that was just my opinion.

The elevator came to a halt and the doors opened. I took a deep breath collecting myself and lifting my head I stepped out heading toward the main doors. Halfway through the lobby I suddenly felt like I was being watched and I slowed down glancing around with narrowed eyes before I locked gazes with the most stunning looking man I have seen in my whole 25 years of life.

The man was staring at me with a hungry look in his eyes but that wasn´t what got my attention. It was his aura. It was powerful, I almost could see the golden energy waves surrounding him, oozing from his muscular, tall body making him appear more dangerous than the rest of the people in the lobby. He dominated the space around him and people clearly gave it to him without asking. I couldn´t help but let my gaze roam on his body for a good minute.

He was wearing black jeans and a white t-shirt underneath the light brown leather jacket. His legs looked strong the way those jeans hugged them tightly and even with the t-shirt I could see his sixpack. Jet black hair was messy but still stylish, how some men could pull that off was a mystery to me, but this guy was quite the eye candy. His face got my attention next. His strong jaw was covered with a dark short beard and he actually had a well-trimmed moustache, which suited him, oddly enough. Dark, thick eyebrows were slightly lifted up and then my gaze focused on his eyes. s**t, that look was dangerous, making my skin crawl, in a good way.

He stood proudly in his spot his intense gaze travelling up and down my body. A smug grin formed on his face when he noticed I was checking him out. I raised a brow at his expression as if challenging him to do something about the fact that I was caught on checking him out.

Then a group of people walked between us and I used that opportunity to slip away and managed to head out without any trouble. My heart was beating fast in my chest as if trying to burst out and I was shivering. Why? Why that man had such a strong effect on me? I didn´t know him, I have never seen him before and yet, just looking at him I felt like a deer in front of a predator waiting to be attacked and devoured. If he had done that, I would have let it happen. And that scared me the most.

Shaking my head I tried to forget about the moment. I had made a promise to myself not to get involved with men, I didn´t need drama in my life. Nothing good came with getting into any kind of relationship, so I chose to live alone and I was fine with that. I was a loner. Plain and simple.

Fishing out my car keys I pressed the button to unlock the doors as I walked toward my cobalt blue BMW coupe and saw an expensive-looking sports car, dark grey ford mustang, parked next to my car.

“Nice ride,” I muttered to myself as I walked between the two cars and carefully opened the door to get behind the wheel. I threw my bag to the passenger seat and put the key in place starting the car. I shifted the gear in reverse and slowly while looking at the mirror I reversed the car from the spot when I saw a guy walking toward me but I didn´t pay much attention to it as I shifted the gear again and pressed the pedal driving out the parking lot.

Turning on the radio I hummed along with the song called “Live Like A Warrior” blasting through the speakers as I drove home feeling mentally exhausted but physically I was beyond frustrated and needed to release some steam. Nothing a good exercise with some self-defence movements wouldn't solve. Maybe I should drive to my secret location to practice the movements our teacher had given us to learn in yesterday's class.

With a bright smile, I changed lanes and started driving toward the city's border. My secret location was just outside the border where a vast forest spread throughout the landscape as far as the eye could see. There was a small resting spot for travellers on the side of the road where I was going to park my car and take a walk into the forest. Not too deep, maybe a fifteen-minute walk until I would come across a small field where I liked to practice or just take a moment to meditate.

That place always soothed my nerves, and it had become my secret haven. Nobody knew about it and I wanted to keep it that way. But the guy from earlier kept popping into my mind no matter how hard I tried to forget about the brief encounter.

“Who the hell is that guy?” I huffed, annoyed at how easily he had wormed his way to my head without even trying.

“I need some serious meditating to get him out of my mind.”

I sighed. I made it sound so easy. He seemed the type to make a lasting impression, boy he had made an impression for sure and I was afraid I wouldn't get him out of my mind anytime soon.

Then my father came to my mind and the anger started bubbling in my veins again. The future I cherished and had planned so carefully was slowly slipping through my fingers, I could feel it but there was no way in hell I was going to let that happen without a fight.