The Descendant and Her Mates

CHAPTER FOUR

IVAN

I was standing near the bed in the suite where I was residing for the duration of my stay in this pack. The suite had been tastefully furnished to suit me but I didn’t think about any of that as there were other pressing issues on my mind.

I was stunned. Really stunned, even. I didn’t think Alicia would have the audacity to reject me, a whole King of the East, seeing as she was just a maid in this pack.

I knew for sure that she felt the mate bond, so why had she rejected the offer of being my mistress like that? I was sure that she would say yes and she had said the exact opposite. I was really dumbfounded and this was not something that ever happened to me frequently, as I always knew what to say at any given time.

But one thing I knew was that I was a bit relieved because she hadn’t rejected me outright. She had only rejected the idea of being my mistress. At least, there was still something to stand on. There was still hope for us. And that meant I could try again. She was probably in a bad mood when I asked her the first time so I had to tread cautiously the next time I did.

I made a mental note to seek her when she was in a more cheery mood so that I could pose my question to her in a better way this time.

Yes, that’s what I will do, I thought.

As that thought washed over me, the next thing that came to my mind was carrying on with the rest of my day.

ALICIA

One day had passed since the King asked me to be his mistress and I declined, and since then, many things had happened. I had been shocked multiple times because no one wanted to associate with me anymore. It wasn’t as if anyone here ever liked me, but the way they related to me now was totally different.

People had been avoiding me like the plague and even the little girls that used to come to me before to have a chat no longer did so. When they saw me now, they hesitated to even look at me before they went on their way as if we never used to talk before.

I was usually in deep thought these days as I thought about the reason people no longer wanted to talk to me or even associate with me. Was it because the Alpha King singled me out and hugged me in the presence of everyone? Maybe the others were jealous of that and had stopped talking to me because of it. Was that the reason? Or was it something entirely different?

Or maybe it was because word had suddenly gotten around that I declined the Alpha King’s request to be his mistress and they couldn’t believe that me, a maid, of all people had said no to a man as powerful as him?

If that was it, then they didn’t understand anything, and they didn’t know the full truth either. The King was my mate, so how could I accept the offer to be his mistress when I would have to share him with other women? I couldn’t do that. He was my mate and he was supposed to be mine alone to have. If only I couldn’t have him, then I didn’t want him at all. That was it.

And for now, I chose to shake that off and try to push it out of my mind. I was going to ignore all of them and I really hoped the whole issue died down very soon. It would only be a matter of time until another drama came to take over this one, making everyone forget about it as the new drama trended for a week or two.

As I looked out through the windows, I realized that it was time for me to begin my duties for the day. I had to go and meet the task master for a briefing of my chores for today, and I was already dreading the chores because I knew that he would definitely give me all the hard ones especially since I was now in everyone's bad graces.

I quickly made my way over to his suite in the pack house and knocked on the front door. He came out almost immediately and swung the door open.

“Ohh, it’s you, Alicia,” he said.

I blinked my eyes in surprise because he hardly ever used my name and he had never acknowledged me like this before.

“I have come to get the list of my chores for today,” I said.

His lips turned up. “About that, you just have to water the garden in the front courtyard.”

“Which other things do I have to do for today?”

“That’s all. You can leave now.”

I was thrown into further shock at his response. How could he give me only that single chore to do? He had never given me anything even remotely simple like that so I had every right to be surprised. Why was he doing this?

Before I could ask him the reason for that, he went back inside his suite and closed the door behind him, leaving me outside with my mouth almost hanging open in shock.

Well, that was it, then. That was all I had to do for today. And I had been thinking that I would get difficult chores because I was in everyone’s bad books, but it had turned out to be a different case entirely. To say I was surprised right now was even an understatement because I had finally realized that this was real. I only had to water the garden in the front courtyard of the pack house. How marvelous that was!

This was something I knew I could finish within thirty to forty minutes and since I was a skillful and fast worker, it would take even less time. And this was also something that required minimal effort.

So I managed to close my mouth completely and turn around, and I headed for the tool shed to find a watering can. Thankfully, I encountered no one else along the way because right now, I didn’t want anyone asking me what I had to do for today before they decided to add to my chores.

***

Thirty five minutes later, I was done with watering the beautiful flowers in the garden. It was a really soothing activity to carry out, and I really couldn’t help but wish I could do it everyday. But the thing was that I knew this respite from my normal routine was short lived. Tomorrow, the taskmaster would assign the normal difficult chores for me to do, and I couldn’t do anything about it.

But for now, I had nothing to do so I had to find a way to keep myself busy. And I also had to prepare myself for the barrage of chores that were sure to come at me tomorrow. There was no escaping it.