Chapter 94

Agnes

Thea glanced back and forth between the two of us, her teddy bear clutched tightly to her chest.

“You’re supposed to be in bed, young lady,” I said with an incredulous laugh. Her bedtime was over an hour ago. “And you have school tomorrow.”

But to my surprise, Elijah shook his head. “Actually, this could be good for her,” he cut in, glancing at me. “It’s important for the child of an Alpha to attend these meetings.”

I opened my mouth to say that she was too young for such things, but Elijah, as if sensing my apprehension, held up his hand to stop me. “Relax. I just think it’s good for her to be exposed to public service at a young age. I don’t have any expectations, but it wouldn’t hurt for her to hear some of the talking points.”

I hesitated and glanced at Thea. To be fair, she looked so excited that she was quite literally bouncing on her toes. “So I can go?” she asked, grinning from ear to ear.

Elijah nodded. “I’ll pick you up a little early from school.” He then turned to me. “Agnes, would you be able to meet us there? The meeting starts at three o’clock.”

“Alright,” I said, nodding myself. With that settled, Elijah took Agnes by the hand and led her back to her bedroom, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I sighed and carefully removed the book from beneath the blankets, then tucked it between the mattress and box spring once more before I flopped back down onto my pillows.

An Alpha meeting… It wasn’t the first place I felt like going tomorrow, what with the search for new models still plaguing me as well as my strange tension with Elijah, but it was still my duty as Luna.

For now, at least.

The next day, I left work early to meet Elijah at the Alpha meeting center. I had spent the better part of the morning making efforts to find new models for the upcoming fashion show, to no avail. It almost seemed as if Olivia had intentionally swayed even more of the pack’s models to her side in some twisted form of revenge.

Why was she doing this? My only guess was that she wanted to get under my skin and make my fashion show fail, but it didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Elijah knew that she was causing trouble by now, and it wasn’t making him any less frustrated with her than he already was. If her main goal was to bring Elijah back to her, then she wasn’t exactly charming him by doing this.

But then again, perhaps she didn’t need to charm Elijah. If she wanted to, she could simply turn on the mate bond like a switch, making him pliant to her every whim.

Which might be coming soon, for all I knew.

And maybe she was just trying to show me how much power she had before then. Not just with him, but with the entire pack.

She was taunting me.

Still, I decided not to let it get to me. I had other things to worry about, and as I headed into the meeting center, I calmed my expression into a placid smile. I was met with a crowd of Alphas, Betas, and Lunas—many of whom I didn’t recognize.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed my way through the crowd, searching for Elijah. Unfortunately he wasn’t here yet, although I did find Beta James.

But just as I was about to walk up to James, an Alpha who I didn’t know stepped in my way.

“Ah, there you are. We’ve been trying to find a member of the staff for nearly twenty minutes now. Would you mind preparing some coffee?”

My eyebrows shot up, my mouth opening to tell him that I wasn’t a member of the staff, but that I was a Luna myself. Just then, James walked up to me with his hands in his pockets. “Is there a problem here?” he asked.

The Alpha barely glanced at James. “I was just asking this waitress to prepare coffee.”

“Actually, she is—” James began, but I silenced him with a look.

To James’ surprise, I offered the Alpha a pleasant smile. “Sure, I can make some coffee.” And with that, I turned and made my way to the kitchen, where I began to brew a pot. James followed me, confused.

“Let me do it,” he said, trying to take the pot from me. “You’re a Luna. You shouldn’t be serving others.”

However, I shook my head. “I always made the best coffee at the diner. Besides, it’s just coffee.”

James stared at me, but didn’t argue further. Truthfully, I just wanted a good excuse to get away from the crowd for a few moments. And it would make a good impression—a calm and selfless Luna preparing coffee for herself and the rest of the group without fuss.

Something that Olivia would never have done.

As I waited for the coffee to brew, James slipped away momentarily to look for Elijah. I leaned against the counter with my arms folded and sighed. Is this what I’ve come to? I asked myself. A vindictive woman who only does nice things to look better than her husband’s ex?

I shook my head, trying not to dwell on it.

Just then, the kitchen door swung open. A Beta walked in, glancing around before his eyes landed on me. His gaze immediately roved my body without a hint of remorse, and he closed the distance between us in a few quick strides.

“They didn’t tell me that the help was going to be this good-looking.”

At that, I finally felt myself bristle. I lifted my chin. “I’m Alpha Elijah’s Luna. You’d do well to treat me with respect, Beta.”

But the Beta just smirked. “Oh, sure, and I’m the King of the Wolves,” he chortled, leaning closer. Before I could stop him, his hand reached around and cupped my ass.

My eyes widened, but I didn’t even have a chance to react before he was brushing past, heading through the other door. I felt my heart pound as I watched him go, completely stunned into silence.

“That little…”

Suddenly, the kitchen door swung open again. This time, Elijah walked in, James trailing behind with Thea in his arms. Before he could speak, I pointed at the back door that the Beta had disappeared through.

“That Beta touched me,” I said.

Elijah’s face went pale. I didn’t need to say another word for him to know what I meant, and without a response, he brushed past me and stormed into the other room. I heard the sound of muffled voices and clanging about before he returned with the Beta, quite literally by the ear.

“Apologize,” Elijah huffed, dragging the Beta over to me.

“O-Ow! Apologize for what?”

I held my chin high, although I couldn’t help but glance at Elijah. His expression was nothing short of thunderous, and something about it made my heart flutter more than I was ready to admit.

“What’s going on here?”

We all turned to see an older man stride into the kitchen, his sharp eyes assessing the scene. An Alpha. This Beta’s Alpha, judging from the look of outrage that crossed his face when he saw what was going on.

Elijah looked at me, and I cleared my throat and explained the situation. “Your Beta touched me,” I said, my voice coming out more clear than I expected. “I’m Alpha Elijah’s wife. The Luna of Silvermoon.”

The Alpha stared incredulously, glancing back and forth between me and Elijah, who was still holding his Beta firmly by the ear. Elijah simply nodded, confirming my statement.

The Beta tried to intervene, but it was no use. With a swift command, the Alpha dismissed him. Permanently. And with the utmost humiliation, might I add.

“I am so sorry for that, Luna Agnes,” the Alpha said once he was gone, bowing his head respectfully. “It seems you’ve dealt with more than your fair share of disrespect today. If there’s anything I can do, just say the word.”

Elijah went to speak, but I held my hand up, shaking my head with a small smile. “It’s alright. You’ve done enough.”

The Alpha looked a bit uncertain, but left. I cast Elijah a brief glance before we left the kitchen to find James, who had taken Thea away during the whole ordeal.

“You handled that well,” Elijah murmured in my ear, his hand brushing the small of my back as we joined the rest of the crowd.

I couldn’t help it. A small smile touched my lips, a genuine one this time. The butterflies in my stomach didn’t go unnoticed.

But my smile didn’t last long.

Because a moment later, the doors to the outside swung open, framing a tall, slender female figure in the light of the afternoon sun. I didn’t need to see her face to know who it was.

Olivia.