Five
Alpha Killan furrowed his thick brows, looking at Cameroon and his wife. They dared sell Camilla to him? Well, he wouldn't have had any problems with it if she wasn't his mate. They had definitely crossed the line.
"Pardon, Alpha Cameroon. What did you just say?" He asked, hoping he had heard his own words.
"To repay the loan we took from you two months ago, I would like to offer my daughter Camilla to you as a mistress." You are quite drawn to her, right? "You couldn't pull your hands off her." Cameroon grins like someone who is offering something major to the alpha of alphas.
Alpha Killan knitted his brows together, pressing his lips into a thin line. "And what makes you think I will agree to that offer?" "Yeah, she is beautiful and pretty, but what if she isn't my type?"
Karina, who all that while was looking at Alpha Killan with hope brewing in her eyes, chipped in to try and make him agree to their offer: "Sir, that girl is exactly your type." She hasn't been touched yet, and also, you like petite girls, don't you? And yes, when it comes to BDSM or whatever it's called, she is a slave. "We've heard you are a master." She lied. She would say whatever she wanted, as long as he agreed.
Alpha Killan, who didn't want to shame her by asking her how she knew about Camilla's sexual preferences, hummed while watching Camilla run away from them. Perhaps she didn't like the way he touched her. He was sure about that though, because he had heard her call him a pervert in her thoughts. There was something he couldn't grasp about her. Although Cameroon had said the girl was a werewolf, he couldn't smell her. It's like there was a barrier created around her, blocking her scent from wafting to others. It was the mate bond that had drawn him to her. The moment he saw them walking through the door, his wolf growled, trying to sniff her, searching for her scent, which was to calm their raging nerves.
Her physical state caught his attention as well. Although Karina said she was petite, he wasn't a fool. He had seen petite ladies, dated them, and fucked them, but Camilla was nothing like petite; she was starving. He could have guessed maybe her family was going through financial problems, thus they couldn't afford some proper meals, but the rest were healthy, unlike her.
Her brown eyes were dull, and although she had worn some make-up, he could still see some bruises on her face and neck. Her exposed hands and back had some lash marks as well. He wanted to pull her to him and ask her who did that to her, but he had to retain himself because she looked scared. Although she had her head held high and had a bright smile on her face, he could still smell fear from her. She was uneasy too, and she coiled every time Karina or Cameroon tried to touch her. He watched her slip out of the crowd and crawl herself to the garden far away from the mansion where she sat, pulling her knees to her chest and burying her head in her palms.
All that time, she was looking around, and if she was afraid that someone was following her, Alpha Killan had to sit on one of the chairs to stop himself from following her and assure her that everything was alright.
"Alpha Cameroon?" He turned to face him and asked, "What would you do if you found someone selling your mate to a ruthless Alpha as a mistress?"
Alpha Cameroon furrowed his brows in confusion, looking at his family, who all shrugged their shoulders and exclaimed, "Huh?" He asked even though he was aware of the fact that Alpha Killan doesn't like repeating himself.
"I asked what you will do when someone tries to sell your partner to be used as a sex object?"
"I wouldn't tolerate such a thing!" He laughed nervously.
"How would you punish such a person?" He watched his face closely, tightening his grip on the glass he was holding as if his life depended on it. "Let alone that," he paused to take a sip from his glass, "tell me the truth now." "Who is Camilla to you?"
"She is my daughter." Alpha Cameroon shifted in his seat. According to him, Killan wanted to be sure that Camilla was of his blood. He had been denying her as his daughter all that time, but not anymore. If telling the world that Camilla was his daughter will make Alpha Killan accept her as his mistress and forget about their debt, then yeah, he will say it again and again, be it a million or trillion times. Whatever the case, he just wanted to get rid of her and settle his debt. Say you're killing two birds with one stone!
"She is my daughter, Alpha Killan." "My blood daughter." He grinned widely, facing Karina, who nodded in agreement.
Sipping the last drop of his wine, Alpha Killan called for attention from everyone in there. Grabbing one of the wireless microphones, he called, "Attention everyone!" When a pin drop silence clouded the room, he cleared his throat, his orange eyes glowing under the purple lights, and asked, "If you were to find out that someone was selling your mate as a mistress to a rich man, what would you do?"
Mummers broke out in the crowd as people tried to understand what he meant by asking that question. A few clever ones shook their heads in pity when they figured out what had happened. "Someone must have tried to sell his daughter to him as a mistress, not knowing the fact that she is his mate." Someone whistled from the crowd. Everyone was aware of the fact that Alpha Killan had no mate. It was known that he had been waiting for her for seven years, but she had yet to arrive.
The elders of the pack were rumoured to be planning to get him engaged to Alina Mellow, his childhood best friend who was his rumoured girlfriend, as she had rejected her mate when he came because he was a traitor. He had revealed some of their pack secrets to an enemy. Alina wasn't there at the party because a month ago she had travelled abroad to do her master's, but she was coming back soon.
"Alpha Cameroon, when I asked you that question, I didn't give you a chance to respond. "Would you mind doing it in front of everyone?" He asked, causing all eyes to be fixed on him.
"I don't mind Alpha Killan." "Not at all," he smiled, taking the microphone from him, "back to your question." "If someone had tried to sell my mate to some rich man's mistress, I would have them killed on the spot." His voice rose, causing people to break into fistfuls of laughter, which stopped on Alpha Killan's next sentence.
"Then I should kill you and your wife right now!"
"What?" He gasped, looking at his wife, who had mouthed him to give that response. "Why would you kill me and my wife?" We haven't done anything, have we? Besides, regarding the loan, we agreed that I'd give you my lastborn daughter."
"She is my mate, Alpha Cameroon." "The girl you are trying to sell me is my mate; don't you get that?" He yelled, causing people to flee from the crowd and squeeze themselves into corners. All eyes were now fixed on Cameroon and his wife; the music stopped, and all that could be heard was the rapid beating of their hearts. "F———forgive me, Alpha Killan. "I didn't know she was your mate. Besides, she.."
"Just shut the fuck up, Alpha Cameroon." Bullying her all her life wasn't enough, so you are now trying to sell her to me? What if you could have sold her to another person? "Does that mean I would have never found my mate?" He asked. "Guards!" He called. He wanted to instruct his guards to take them to the dungeon. He wanted them to rot there, but a scared, trembling girl caught his attention at the door.
"Mum, dad, what is going on?" Camilla asked, rushing towards them. "What's going on?" She asked the crowd when they failed to answer her. In fact, they didn't even raise their heads to look at her.
"Alpha Killan," she turned to the only person who she was sure would scare her heartless father like that.
"They were trying to sell you to me as a mistress, angel." Alpha Killan's gaze and voice softened at the fragile girl in front of her.
"S..sell?" Camilla stumbled backward, "but they said they would love me." They promised to take care of me as their daughter and not as a slave anymore. She returned her gaze to Cameroon. "Right, father? Tell him that you promised to love me.“
"I…" Cameroon stammered, trying to form words in his mouth. His voice box had run dry, and he didn't know what to say.
Forgive us, Camilla. "We didn't know he was your mate," Karina chipped in, confusing her even more.
"Mate?" "I don't have a mate." She reminded them but none of them got to answer her because she was interrupted, “maids! Take her upstairs and make sure she is comfortable. Alpha Killan ordered.
"What of my parents?" She asked, looking at them with teary eyes. They were so pale that a person would think they were deprived of oxygen.
Alpha Killan pressed his lips together, knitting his brows together, wondering why she would think of them regardless of what they had done to her in the past. He had sent out his beta, who was told by some birdie everything they had ever done to her: "They tried to sell you, angel." "I'll have them hung!"
"No! Don't kill them, Alpha Killan. "Please, I beg of you." Camilla cried, holding Alpha Killan's hands and sending tingling sensations all over their bodies. Camilla was too broken to feel them, but Killan did. Camilla was determined to save her parents from his wrath. They might have bullied her, pushed her mother to be killed, and made her go through the worst of her life, but they still gave her food, although it was leftover; they rarely dressed her, although in tattered dresses; and they gave her a place to rest her back, although it was shabby. Mostly, she didn't want her stepsisters to go through the trauma of growing up without parents. She had experienced its sharp daggers, and she wouldn't want them to go through the same.
"Are you sure, angel?" "You just said they promised to love you, but here they are trying to sell you to me." "Are you sure about this?" Alpha Killan wiped her tears.
"Yeah, I am sure." "Don't kill them..please," she choked on her tears. Cameroon and his wife raised their heads to look at her in shock. They couldn't believe the person they had been bullying all her life was now trying to save them from their enemy. Although Camilla looked genuine and said she would do anything to save them, Alpha Killan had a different expression on his face.
"I can spare them, angel, but under one condition," he said, turning to face the trembling Cameroon with his family.