The Alpha's Bride

Chapter 7 - Becoming Luna - Part 2

Alicia’s POV

“That.” I glared at him, making sure he was listening for once. “Is none of your damn business!” I wasn’t going to tell him about my damn delicate emotional state! Not for all the damn money in the world!

“I will not allow you and your fu.cking city manners to ruin my reputation!” Caspian stormed into my room and grabbed the bottle from my hand. What the hell did he mean by “my city manners”? I was in shock. Not only had he insulted me, but he thought he had the right to decide what medication I needed and what not! My mind was frozen as I watched him leave my room, and only after he was long gone could I think of what I wanted to say to him! That has always been my biggest problem. I always thought of what to say after the fact! I felt tears stinging the back of my eyes and refused to cry.

“Sweetheart, are you okay?” I blinked and realized that the Luna was standing at my door gaping at me and I nodded. It was bad enough that Caspian knew about my meds. The last thing I needed was for his mother to find out. It would take all of three seconds and the entire pack would know. I cared about Luna, but she was the biggest gossip of them all. From the way she looked at my clothes I knew she wasn’t happy. When I was younger, she had a lot to say about my dress sense, but this time, she just pulled her nose up without saying a word. Caspian was right, a lot had changed since I left. For instance, the fact that they were pretty close to my dad before I left … But when I returned, he was discarded as if he never really meant anything, but that could also have a lot to do with Caspian … “We had a lunch with some of the other Luna’s on Tuesday,” My fake mother-in-law informed me and I resisted the incredible urge to roll my eyes. “I will make sure my assistant gives your assistant the details.” I opened my mouth to tell her that I didn’t have an assistant and she co.cked her very delicately contoured left eyebrow at me. “Caspian has already found you someone.” She gave me one last once over before leaving and I was just flabbergasted.

I had never been able to figure out if she liked me or not. It always felt as if there was something going on that I didn’t know about. Some invisible reason she disliked me that I could just never figure out, but then again … As I’ve had to remind myself countless times over the past couple of days, our pack wasn’t really the caring, nurturing type. I pondered for a moment if the Luna was the reason for this, since every pack took their lead from their Luna when it came to these things. I sighed, throwing my hands in the air and finished unpacking, knowing that I would probably never find out the real reason behind the way we were. Damn! A Luna event?! Seriously?! A soft knock on my door dragged my attention from my thoughts and as I looked up, I found the young omega that was helping my father before, standing just outside my door.

“Luna,” She bowed her head before stepping inside. What was it? Bug Alicia as much as possible day?! “The Alpha told me to assist you with your duties.” The girl shrugged and I realized she probably knew just as much as I did, which basically amounted to nothing … Absolutely nothing, so I suggested she find Caspian’s mother’s assistant and ask her where to start. That way it would look as if I was interested, wouldn’t it? I mean, she did say her assistant would contact mine … I thought to myself as I put the last of my things away and looked at the room. It was really huge … And unnecessary. At least, Sophia wasn’t allowed on this floor, or I didn’t think she was … Goddess only knew who Caspian was into these days … Come to think of it … That would explain why Sophia has been so much more volatile towards me than usual. I rolled my eyes at my own train of thoughts, yet again.

I hadn’t been up here for more than an hour and my IQ probably dropped by fifty points! I had a story to get done, and I seriously had to decide what I was going to tell my boss. With my father settled, I finally got around to pulling out my laptop, but as I read through what I’d written so far, I frowned. It was really bad. Deciding to scrap it, I started from scratch.

“You shouldn’t frown like that,” Caspian’s voice sent a cold shiver down my spine. I was so lost in trying to figure out how to word the next sentence without insulting half the population on planet earth that I had clean forgotten where the hell I was. “I will have to send you for a face lift at a younger age than my mom, had hers.” He pushed away from his leaning position and walked closer reminding me of a wolf stalking his prey.

“I won’t be going for plastic surgery. You will have your Luna soon enough,” I sighed as I looked at my article and decided to close my screen before he could read any of it. “And I will be on my way back to the city.” I stood up and walked in the opposite direction. He always made me feel so damn trapped that I couldn’t keep sitting in my corner and have him looming over me!

“I guess we will just have to wait and see about that, won’t we?” He looked amused and I hated that he could find such humour in this ridiculous situation. “Come on.” He grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of my room. “It’s lunchtime and I’m starving.” I wasn’t even going to fight him on this one. My stomach was on the verge of growling. As expected, tongues were wagging wildly until we walked into the dining room. I wondered if Caspian had made an announcement I didn’t know about. With him anything was possible, but from the whispers, I figured out that he had simply moved me to the Alpha floor and not explained a thing. I looked around the room for my father and his parents, but since they weren’t there, I breathed a sigh of relief. That meant Caspian wasn’t going to announce us being mates just yet. If I were lucky … He would never announce it!

“I hear congratulations are in order!” I closed my eyes for a moment to take a deep calming breath as I felt Caspian whip around and drag me along.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” Caspian hissed at her, and I could feel the anger radiating off him. Since he hadn’t let go of my wrist yet, I was forced to stand beside him, but when he put his arm around my shoulders, I saw a flash of hatred in Sophia’s eyes and a huge smile burst out over my face.

“Well, we haven’t made it official just yet, sweetheart,” I moved a little closer to Caspian and stroked my hand softly over his chest. “But I’m sure telling one or two of our close friends wouldn’t hurt, right?” I looked into his eyes and saw something strange. I couldn’t make it out because it disappeared so fast, but …

“Well, I wouldn’t call Sophia a close friend …” Caspian suddenly looked amused and pulled me a little closer. “But yes, Alicia has agreed to become my Luna. In fact, we are going out to celebrate tonight.” He smiled as Sophia’s face couldn’t hide her shock. So, maybe they weren’t as hot an item as she pretended to be. Turning on her heel, she huffed and disappeared. “Well played.” Caspian sounded amused. “If I had known getting rid of her would be that easy, I would have asked you to be my Luna years ago.” He laughed as he guided me to our table and I sat down swallowing hard to try and get rid of the sudden knot in my throat. I had just done what our parents should have! What the hell was I thinking, announcing our union?!

Yup, my IQ dropped the moment I moved onto that damn Alpha floor! After lunch, Caspian gave me fifteen minutes to check in with my dad and, to my utter surprise, he suddenly had a qualified nurse taking care of him. She made sure he had a perfectly balanced meal at lunchtime, and she made sure he took his medication on time … The fact that she was pretty also didn’t hurt! I hadn’t seen him smile this much since I got back! I grabbed my bag and nearly bounced down the stairs feeling hopeful for the first time in days.

“You are late.” Caspian didn’t even look at me as he walked out of his office the moment my foot touched the foyer floor. I suddenly wondered if he had a tracker implanted in my body while I was sleeping, since he seemed to always know exactly where I damn well was! Walking ahead of me, he slipped behind the driver’s seat of his very expensive car and as I was about to open the door for myself, Marcus appeared out of nowhere to open it for me. I smiled at him and slipped into the passenger seat. Marcus had hardly closed my door when Caspian pulled out of the driveway. Over lunch, he told me that we would be leaving for this mysterious dinner date right after lunch and I wondered how the hell one filled four to five hours. If I was still in the city, I would probably spend my time working, but it made sense the moment we pulled into the parking lot of an exclusive clothing boutique. His mother!

To my surprise, as we climbed out, Caspian explained that his mother thought I should dress like the Luna of the pack and that he didn’t mind paying as long as I kept to our agreement. My eyes grew wide at the price tags the second I started paging through the clothes, and I turned to tell him that there was no way in hell I could afford anything in this store when I was met with Caspian openly flirting with the salesgirl. It seemed some things never changed! I was instantly furious and cleared my throat.

“I don’t see anything I like.” I pouted and the girl quickly dropped her gaze to the floor.

“Maybe I can find you something in the back,” She sounded out of breath.

“No! Not you. Is there anyone else in this shop that can help me?” I was a damn good actress even if I had to admit it myself.

“Yes, Luna,” An older woman stepped out from behind a cream double door. “I am the manager. I will be glad to help you.” She glared at the girl whose face dropped even further as she excused herself and disappeared. I wasn’t jealous. I couldn’t care less who the hell Caspian bedded. He just wasn’t going to humiliate me in front of anybody in public. If he wanted me to play the damn role, he would have to do the same! The manager brought in outfit after outfit and I picked one that I really liked, but as soon as I tried it on, my heart broke. I really couldn’t afford it, and I wasn’t going to allow Caspian to pay for it.

It would just feel weird wearing clothes that never really felt as if they were mine. What was he going to do? Make me leave them in the closet when I leave? Give my hand me downs to his new Luna when he eventually finds her?

“No … It’s not working for me.” I handed the outfit back to the sales manager, pulling up my nose. It was really sad, since it was the only thing I really liked in the boutique.

“We’ll take it.” Caspian was looking at me in that strange way again as he told the manager to wrap it and send it to the packhouse.

“No, Caspian, I won’t let you pay for my things.” I softly growled between my teeth and he smiled, opening his wallet and pulling out a card. He handed it to the manager and she looked slightly confused.

“I’m not paying for it.” He smiled. “You are. Your Luna allowance has already been transferred to your Luna card which I’ve just given to her … Now, we have more places to go, or do you want to spend all afternoon arguing about it?” My eyes grew wide. When the hell did he arrange for me to have my own card? How did he even get my details?!