Approaching Alpha Zeke Sterne

Chapter 8: It’s Me

“What now, Jane?" I spat out as Jane and her friends circled me as I was folding laundry . These past couple weeks had been a living hell. I did everything to steer clear of Jane, but she and her posse relentlessly hounded me.

To make things worse, ever since Jane's birthday party, the entire pack treated me differently. Some viewed me like a disease and stayed away from me as far as possible, and others would whisper behind my back when I walked by.

Even Carlos, who normally would have my back, seemingly was nowhere to be found recently, too busy with his own business to pay any attention to me.

“Look at you, thinking you're so clever hiding out in the laundry room," she sneered, her eyes scanning the piles of the clean linens I had just folded.

Shit. I didn't even need to use my imagination to know what would happen next.

With a malicious grin, Jane reached out and pushed a neatly folded stack of linens off the table. “Oops," she mocked as the fabrics tumbled to the floor, scattering across the soaking wet, dirty tiles. One of her friends kicked the linens further apart, stepping on them as they walked around me.

I clenched my fists and bit my lip. These brats!

“Don't you dare look at me like that!" Jane stepped forward, her hand raised to slap me. “Ruining my birthday party wasn't enough for you, was it? You had to go and ruin my engagement too!"

Her hand swung toward my face, but I subtly slid sideways, dodging her strike, making it look like she missed by accident, so her friends wouldn't suspect anything. Her eyes widened and her face turned bright red as she glared at me in shock.

“You b***h!"

“I've told you many times, I didn't do a damn thing!" I declared once more.

“Shut up, Mira! We all know your game. You tried to seduce every male in sight. Do you think we're blind? First the Alpha, then Alexander, and—"

“Mira…" Carlos froze at the laundry room entrance, his eyes wide.

“What the hell are YOU doing here?!" Jane snapped at Carlos immediately. Great, now Carlos was dragged into this mess because of me. I wasn't about to let Jane bully Carlos on my account. If she dared to hurt him, I would have to fight back.

“Jane, this has nothing to do with Carlos!" I interjected quickly.

“Who the hell do you think you are, telling me what to do?" she shrieked.

I was ready to step between Carlos and Jane when, to my surprise, Jane did nothing further but issued a command at me. “You filthy b***h, listen up. You'd better have that warehouse on the outskirts of the city cleaned up by tomorrow morning, you hear me?"

“That's too much work," Carlos hesitated for a second before protesting for me, but Jane didn't spare him another word and stormed out. Carlos chased after her, calling, “Miss Allen, wait!"

“Carlos—" I tried to stop him, but he was already gone. I bent down to pick up the scattered clothes and tossed them back into the washer when I heard footsteps returning to the room.

I didn't even bother to look back as I sighed, “Carlos, you shouldn't have gone after Jane for me. Anyway, I need to head out to clean up the warehouse. Do you mind switching the laundry to the dryer? I'll fold them when I'm back tomorrow morning—"

My words caught in my throat when I realized it wasn't Carlos who had returned, but the last person I wanted to see.

“Mira," Alexander blocked the doorway as soon as he saw me trying to get away from him. “I think we need to talk."

“There's nothing to talk about, asshole. Move!"

“Mira!" He continued to block my exit. “I've been looking for you, but you've just been so busy that I haven't been able to find a good time to—"

“Yeah, and whose fault is that?" I snapped back and eyed him up and down. “Jane tripled my workload thanks to this asshole standing in front of me!"

Alexander raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay! I know you're upset with me because you were shocked, but it's been a couple of weeks, you must have calmed down by now."

I clenched my fists, trying hard not to punch him in the face. For some reason, the bastard took my short pause as encouragement. He said, “Mira, I know Jane has been causing you a lot of pain, and I'm really sorry about that."

Finally, an apology! It took him long enough to say something any decent person would, but then he continued, “I know I took you by surprise at the party, so I get that you were upset. But if you think it through, the whole thing wasn't that bad."

Wasn't that bad? What the hell was this f*****g i***t talking about?

A charming smile climbed up Alexander's face as he pulled out a black credit card and handed it to me. “You'd be doing me a huge favor if you could pretend to be my girlfriend for just a little while. Look, I'm not a stingy man and honestly you don't have anything to lose. I see this as a win-win situation."

Was he serious?! He took my first kiss without my permission in public and that was totally no big deal to him?

My patience snapped, and I couldn't help the need to punch his face any more so I did. He dodged it but that wasn't my real target. As expected, he couldn't escape my furious elbow strike at his ribs.

“Ou—ch, Mira!" he gasped, “That hurts!"

“Good!" I took the opportunity to walk past him. “Then learn your lesson, you arrogant asshole! I'm not one of those women you toyed with! If you dare to show up in front of me again, I swear I'll break your d**k!"

I couldn't tell if Alexander looked more surprised or confused, but it didn't matter to me. Just because he was rich didn't mean that he could get away with such arrogance! He can f**k himself.

***

“Here you GO!" I heaved another heavy box onto the stack that seemed to grow taller by the minute in the expansive warehouse.

I straightened my back and rubbed my sore arms as I glanced at the towers of boxes and discarded items that had accumulated over the years.

“Well, it had to be done," I muttered to myself. Not that I was afraid of Jane, I just much rather doing some manual labor than dealing with her drama. Besides, being here alone actually gave me a mental break from the strange looks from people in the pack.

It was dark in the warehouse. None of the lights worked and the only thing that helped me see was the moonlight, slicing through the grime-coated windows and casting long shadows across the concrete floor.

Just as I considered setting the box down and taking a much-needed break, a swift movement at the periphery of my vision caught my attention.

“Hello?" I asked, but no one answered.

That wasn't my imagination just now.

I set down my load and crept forward, my eyes straining to pierce the darkness that filled the vast room. Someone…or something was there. Something dangerous. I was sure.

As I tiptoed closer to where I'd seen the swift movement, my heart rate sped up.

My eyes narrowed as I grabbed a nearby wooden club. The mysterious presence seemed just out of reach, always a shadow flitting just beyond my line of sight.

“Uhmmm—!"

Without warning, I was seized from behind, a strong hand gripping my arm and yanking me into a dark corner of the warehouse. Panic surged through me, adrenaline flooding my system as I twisted and turned, trying to escape the iron grasp.

I was just about to let out a scream for help when a familiar voice whispered in my ear.

“Shhh, it's me."