Chapter 3

Arianna:

I got dressed, frowning as I caught sight of my pack’s mark on my left shoulder.

The last thing that I needed was for him to recognize where I came from, and though I knew that we rarely ever revealed who we were or our marks, I knew that as my father’s rival, that he could know what the tattoo stood for.

I shook my head at myself before running my fingers through my hair, throwing it over my shoulders as I let my curls cover my breast and shoulder. I was just going to find a way to lie about this as well, there was no true other way to do it, and this wasn’t something that I was going to back away from, not when I was this close to what I wanted to find.

I took a deep breath and walked out of the changing room, my eyes catching sight of the Alpha who was already inside the pool.

His eyes met mine and he smirked, eyeing me up and down for a second before nodding at me to come.

I jumped inside the water, diving in as I swam toward him, knowing that I had his full attention. I knew that it was what I had to do to get the keys. I had to distract him somehow, and to that, I had to use the one thing that a man like him would want to see in a woman. 

My body…

It was something that I learned the hard way, but it made me who I was. And I wouldn’t change it for the world, especially when I knew that now, I had nothing to lose. If anything, I aimed to gain, and I was going to start with the key.

I rose in front of him, making sure to cover the tattoo with my hair before my eyes met his. He smiled and extended a hand for me to take, and I smiled, standing on the step that led to the stool of the bar. 

“Boss,”

“Please, call me Dean.” He said and I blushed. The fact that I had to fight my wolf to ensure that she didn’t force me to give in to the mating bond was something that annoyed me, but I knew that it was something that I wouldn’t be able to help. The closer I was to him, the harder it would become, and that was one of the main reasons why I got the training that I had.

The one downside about my training was that no one, not even the man who assigned me to this, my father, knew that the man was my mate, and that was something that I intended to keep a secret. I didn’t need to lose the mission when I was this close to getting what I wanted, especially when I have been working my ass off, suppressing my instincts, and fighting my wolf off, for months.

The one thing that I could do was mask my scent, and that was something that I did well.

“Dean,” I said and he chuckled. I shook my head before he motioned for me to take a seat. His eyes met mine and I couldn’t help the smile that formed on my lips, fighting back the purr that my wolf almost forced me to let out at her mate’s soft side.

The mockery fate had for me was something that I didn’t like.

Despite the number of wolves that were around, and the Alphas that were around, the one person that I couldn’t stand most was my chosen one. How unlucky could I have been to be going through such a fate?

He walked behind the bar and I raised an eyebrow as he pulled out two glasses of wine for the two of us. I raised an eyebrow at the fact that he was the one serving me, and he smirked. “What are you doing?”

“You serve me almost every time I come to the bar, why is it any different?” He asked, and I smiled as he poured the two of us a drink. 

He handed me mine and I took a sip of it before setting the glass down. “Thank you,”

The man nodded in response as I noticed the necklace around his neck. And I had to avoid looking at it as not to drag his attention to the thing, but the fact that it was as close as it was told me that I couldn’t lose it.

“I have to admit, I have never seen a man, especially not a boss, serving at his own bar or club, especially not to his employee. To say the least, I know for fact that you have many things working for you and you could have assigned one of them to do it.” I said and he raised an amused eyebrow before walking toward me. He sat on the stool that was by my side before taking a sip of his drink.

“Well, it seems like both of us have seen something that we’ve never seen for the first time.” He said and I raised an eyebrow as I waited for him to explain what he was referring to. “For instance, I never saw a woman bribing a man to drug his date’s drink only to stop and threaten him in the middle of the bar.”

“What?” I asked, my heart racing against my ribcage as I held my ground, careful not to say or do anything that could cause a stir. His eyes met mine and he raised an eyebrow before pulling his phone out of the bar’s drawer, showing me a video of myself, giving the man and woman their money outside the bar.

My chest ached and I found myself frowning when I felt like the air was growing tight around me as it became harder for me to breathe. The Alpha pulled out a small bottle and put it in front of me. “This is the antidote, and believe me, unless you choose to explain yourself, you are going to end up losing your life.” 

“I didn’t do…”

“Now, now, your time is short. So, there is no use of using it on lying,” He said, stopping me. My chest rose and fell with each breath, and despite knowing that I was trained to be immune to the poison, I hated the agony that came with it.

“Who the fuck are you? And why the fucking hell are you here?” He asked, glaring at me. I held my breath, knowing that it was the way to get out of it. If the man wanted answers, then he wasn’t going to let me die. I knew that he wouldn’t.

My vision blurred and he cursed under his breath. 

The last thing that I felt was him wrapping his arms around me as the bottle opened before everything went blank…