Chapter 5

LAKE:

By the time I was done with my morning workout, I returned to my room. I was in a good state of mind that morning, and it also meant it would be the best time to reject my...mate.

However, when I slid the glass doors of my room open, my eyes scanned it. She was nowhere to be found. I stepped into the room, closed the door, and headed straight toward the bathroom. I knocked first, no response. Then, I pushed the door open, there was no one in there.

Where had she gone?

I stepped out of my room and called out to Neil, my assistant, standing beside my valet. He turned towards me and began his cute little race towards me.

"Alpha Lake, morning." He bowed, but his courtesy was not the least of my worries.

"The lady in my room, the one I came with last night. Where is she?"

His gaze was flabbergasted, he stared at me like a moron and I hissed and pushed past him.

I headed straight for my valet and watched as he bowed at the sight of me.

"The lady of last night, did you see her anywhere?"

"No sir, I haven't seen her."

"Well, she is not in my room, so where the hell could she be? There are so many of you, but you can't watch one girl?!" I did not know when I had raised my voice, but my temper had visibly flared. How could they have been so careless?

Just when I was wanting to reject her and get everything over with. Now, I had lost her!

"We would find her alpha, we would."

"Oh, you had better! Otherwise, be prepared to find your next employer." I spat out.

But, the search party proved futile. None of it made sense. How could she have slipped out without notice?

JOJO:

Fortunately, Valerie fell asleep in no time, just before I left for work. I planted a soft kiss on her forehead before leaving her alone and making sure to lock the room door before I left. She still had a spare key, just in case, she woke up before I returned. I had to make sure that my Aunt and cousins did not come close to her.

My night shift was at a hospital, where I worked as a receptionist. I sat behind the counter with a huge, yet fake smile, plastered on my face. I mostly just directed families to their relatives in their respective wards. Nights like this made me think of my mother a lot.

At that moment, I remembered my Aunt's words when I turned eighteen.

"So what do you want? Keep the vegetable alive or let the oxygen be removed, so we could have lesser bills to pay, or take up the bills yourself from now on because either way, I'm done wasting my money on her."

"I'll take up the bills, auntie." I had said. I wasn't ready to go through the agony and shock people who lost their families went through. I wasn't ready to lose my mother just yet. Which was another reason I allowed myself to drown in a sea of jobs.

So, I worked my way through the night, returned home, hid away in my room, and slept all morning, before making my way to the restaurant.

It was my afternoon shift at the restaurant I worked in.

I felt a piece of paper hit the back of my head and I jerked up from the calculator I had been staring at, looking around frantically, only to see my best friend, Mel, glaring at me. I adjusted my gloves. They were a compulsory accessory to cover my scar.

"JoJo, attend to tables 8, 11, and 13," Viktor yelled out his order.

I wanted to ask for the location of the tables again, but I was able to remember them before I could embarrass myself.

I walked across the room to the designated tables. I quickly took down the orders until I got to the last table. Armani suits and Rolex wristwatches, I could tell these men were rich just by the scent of their cologne, and the cuffs of their sleeves. I cleared my throat loudly.

"Good day Sirs, can I take your orders?" I asked, flashing them my signature smile.

They turned their heads to look at me, without saying a word, as if my face had aroused their interest. I felt uncomfortable with such attention but kept my composure on the surface. I should have learned to deal with such a situation because it was not the first time or the second time.

Men in general.

"Hey, beautiful." The blond guy started. His eyes raced through my skin, looking me over and stopping at my name badge.

"JoJo," he recited.

"I'll have steak and baked potatoes. And a glass of cold orange juice."

I scribbled down his order, my eyes fixed on my notepad, deliberately avoiding any form of eye contact, and looked over to the second man.

"Same order." He paused.

"Are you on the menu, though?" He spoke with confidence, the false sense that I would even be a tad bit interested in his nuisance, licking his lips.

I wanted to smack his face with the notepad in my hands. But, I broadened my fake smile and managed a retort.

"Unfortunately not, Sir. Would that be all?"

He nodded.

"If that is all, I'll get your orders now."

I left their table. When I handed the orders in and waited for them, by the counter, Mel walked up beside me.

"Those kinds of men pay a shitload amount of money for one night, JoJo. When are you going to stop rejecting them?"

"Never. Not in any of their wildest dreams Mel. I value my body." I bit back.

She scoffed and rolled her round eyes.

"Well I do too, and so do the men that pay me to use it. You already know I've never taken lower than eight hundred dollars for a night. And I took eight hundred only on my first night out with them. With this body and face, you could earn much more than I do. You need the money; you know you do."

Well, she got me with that last sentence, but it didn't stop me from leering at her. How did she find giving herself away so easy?

"How could you sound like it's so easy?"

She answered my question with a shrug.

"A girl's gotta do what a girl gotta do," Mel replied, her ever-smug smile on her face.

"Well, this girl..." I pointed at myself.

"...has one million problems, and a man ain't one."

"But if a man had money, a handsome face, and a good body, would you still refuse? You refuse, just because the temptation is not big enough now. JOJO, money and pleasure can also be had at the same time." MEL said and took out a magazine and flung it in front of me.

"Look at this man on the cover... God is partial. How can some people just be able to have a good-looking face, money, and a body at the same time? A man like that, I could sleep with him for one night, for free!"

We both laughed at the same time. I looked at the cover and he was indeed very different ..........

He was about 6ft 4 inches tall, with broad shoulders, I was sure there were smoking hot abs behind the clothes, dark raven hair, intimidating onyx eyes, and perfect skin. His face was so sharp you could never forget it in a hurry. He looked like a god carved from the heavens.

And the man’s name on the cover: Lake

But the word man, which disgusts me, my father gave me the initial impression of a man. Then there were my two cousins. For men, I should stay away.

She shook her head at me and chuckled, giving me a playful push on my right shoulder and I joined in her short laughter, although not too loud, we couldn't let the customers hear us.

When she stopped laughing, her eyes narrowed at me with concern.

"Jo, about that morning you called..." She trailed off her sentence on purpose, giving me a chance to explain without being asked. My spirit dampened as I thought of it.

"Well, it was Mykel, as usual."

"Did the bastard hurt you?!" Her tone was slightly defensive and overly protective. I shook my head, a sign for no.

"He could not. I mean, the money I had worked throughout my five jobs in that was gone, but I can't be sure he took it. I mean, there's no evidence against him anyway." I paused for a while, my mind wandering back to the strange figure that pulled him off me.

"He was going to hurt me, I know it. But, someone saved me that night. I... I woke up the next morning in this very strange room, you know? I didn't know where it was, or anything even who took me there. I couldn't wait because I needed to get home fast, but I would have loved to say thank you. I don't know what Mykel would have done to me."

When I finished, her lower jaw dropped open, her mouth stayed ajar.

"You woke up in a room, and you did not know who took you there?" She repeated my statement, but as a question. My reply was a short nod and she shook her head vehemently.

"Girl, I don't even know what to say. I..."

"Mel! Tables 3 and 4!"

Mel sighed and threw me a short glance.

"We would continue this later, girl!" She turned her back towards me and swayed her tiny hips out of my sight.

Honestly, I still wondered why I had not taken the time to find out where I had been taken.

But I was not hurt there...

The host might be a kind-hearted man.