Jessamine
Everyone’s watching me. I try to ignore it at first but it becomes evident when I head to the kitchen for my daily duties and I am. . .sent away.
Odd, isn’t it?
“What do you mean I can no longer work here? Where will I go?” My voice takes on a desperate edge as I point at the kitchen, ignoring everyone going about their daily duties, pretending that I do not exist when they are in fact, inching closer to listen to my conversation with the Head Maid. “That is all I have,” I whisper, tears pricking my eyes.
The Head Maid glances to the side. “I’m afraid, this has nothing to do with me. Alpha’s orders. You are not to work in the kitchen, or the stables or dabble with the servants anymore. You are not to return to your quarters either.”
“Why?!” I cry. Alpha Kier is throwing me out? My temper flares. First, his mother has me whipped, destroys my back, as well as my image, and now, he’s throwing me out of the pack.
The Head Maid shakes her head, her lips drawn tightly. “I do not know. You are, however, to report to his study for further orders.”
I start to argue with her, but she turns from me, giving out orders for someone else to take my place by the sink. Just like that, I have been dismissed and stripped of my job. Add homeless to that list too because I can only have access to the servants’ quarters if I am indeed a servant.
Turning on my heel, I head down the corridor.
“Jessamine,” Lovette calls out behind me and I pause, wondering if I imagined it.
But I haven’t because Lovette jogs up to where I stand and her eyes seem to be unable to meet mine. “There’s a cottage, near the outskirts of Tindor. I was going to move in there when I was banished. You can stay there.”
I stare at Lovette. “I saw you.”
Her huge brown eyes rise to mine before dropping to the ground. “I don’t under—“
“I saw you in the crowd. You watched me get beaten. You. . .you did nothing while I screamed.” It had been for a fleeting moment, but my gaze had drifted to the crowd by the entrance of the square. And I had seen my best friend, my sister of many years, standing and watching as lash after lash hit my skin and tore it.
She’s known me for the longest, and she didn’t even try to plead for me.
“There was nothing I could’ve done. There is no way I could have stood up to Luna Renae at a time like that.”
“Why?” I ask, my voice sounding foreign even to me. “I would’ve done the same for you. Had you been accused wrongly, I would have fought for you, even if it meant getting punished. Let us assume that your hands, truly, were tied. I walked right past you, on the verge of collapsing. You didn’t try to help me, and not once in the past two days while I recovered did you visit.”
“Jessamine—“
“I also found it odd that someone snuck into my room and planted the bracelet in my dresser. Only two people know I keep my keys beneath the chipped floorboard. You and I.”
Lovette bites her bottom lip and silver lines her eyes. “I’m sorry, Jessamine. Luna Renae made me do it.”
I swallow the painful lump in my throat. “She forced you? Or did she offer you an envelope to betray me?”
Her silence is answer enough. Devastated, I turn to leave, but she grabs my hand, forcing me to look at her. “You can’t possibly judge me, Jess. I need the money. Unlike you, I have real problems to solve with them. Problems you increased when you dragged me down this hole with you.”
I yank my arm from her grasp. “Whatever happened to sharing my cut every month with you because yours was never enough? I never craved or needed material things. One dress, one shirt, one pair of worn pants and boots that are near death. That is all I own because I would much rather give you my salary to take care of your needs. Yet, all that was needed to turn you against me was a fat envelope!”
“That’s not fair!” she cries and I snort, boxing up my feelings for later as I respond, “No, it’s not. Not to me at least.”
Red rimmed eyes meet mine and hold. “I don’t care what you think, Jess. I’m only trying to help. You have nowhere to stay when you leave—“
"Leave? You must have me confused with someone else, Lovette. I'm never leaving," I say before continuing my walk down the hallway, heading for the Alpha's study.
These past couple of days, I had myself wondering if I had dreamt the entire thing. Alpha Kier being in my room, the slight pressure of his back against mine as he had meticulous sniped the back of my dress off...
I don't recall anything after that, and the only evidence that I hadn't hallucinated was the coat I had been wrapped in when I woke up at dawn, fever completely gone.
Then I started to worry. What if I said something in that delirious state that drove him away?
Well, knowing myself, I must've, because I see no other reason to why I am being stripped of everything I have here.
Upon reaching the oak door, I knock softly. Twice, and a muffled response comes from inside. "Leave. I'm occupied."
I enter anyway, slamming the door shut behind me. Occupied, it would seem, is the new word for drinking.
Take note of that, because from this day, Alpha Kier will be very occupied in the afternoons.
Alpha Kier groans upon seeing me and he leans back in his seat, kicking his foot atop his desk that has piles after piles of scrolls and books.
Shelves line the walls, all holding scrolls that outdate Alpha Kier's rule. There are a few things out of place, which is not odd since he has little time and many servants to put his things back in order.
Off to the side, there are unwrapped gift boxes, towering just below the windowsill and wide enough to encompass the entire wall. Gifts, tributes from the villages and the people. Everyone adores him. I can't blame them.
My eyes snag on a particular gift wrapped in a worn purple fabric. My gift for Solstice last year. He hasn't touched it. Not that I expected him to. If he had, he'd have seen the sweater I spent months knitting in my free time, and the note I attached to it.
Because the cold gets you very often...--JH.
I walk across the room, pulling out a seat.
"I didn't ask you to sit," he says, eyes trained on the window.
"You didn't say I couldn't either," I reply, lowering myself into the chair. "I got kicked out of the kitchen. Your orders, they said."
Alpha Kier faces me, and the full weight of his stare pins me to the chair. Hazel eyes bear into mine with a thousand questions dancing in them, yet he asks only one. "I take that your back is completely healed?"
I stand from the chair and turn around, fingers reaching for my zipper. "See for yourse--"
I instantly feel him behind me, yanking my hand down and twists it behind my back. "You would undress in front of me?"
His mouth is on my ear, and my heart drops and flies and drops again, like a stone being levitated and flipped. "It's just skin. Surely you've seen plenty of backs that are classier than mine."
One. Two. Three. He is silent for all of three seconds, his nose dangerously close to the nape of my neck before he pulls back, releasing me.
I turn around to find him refilling his wine glass, and a couple of rings flash on his slim fingers. "The dress looks good on you," he says as he brings the glass to his lips and I catch him stealing a glance at me.
My fingers grip the sides of the skirt. It's a pretty plain thing. Violet, like the colour of my eyes, billowing like a fountain. When I woke up from the fever, I found it in my dresser and I had hugged it to my chest, giggling for five minutes straight. "Of course it does. You gave it to me."
"Are all your words planned out to wring a reaction from me?"
I caress the width of his desk as I walk around it. "Are my words getting to you?"
His hands trail my fingertips as the move on the smooth mahogany surface and something in his eyes darken as they rise to mine. "Not particularly. Your lack of self-respect amuses me."
I grin as I raise my skirt and plunk down on his chair. "Whatever amuses my Alpha."
I half expect him to hurl me out of his chair, but he merely looks down at me, unmoving. I wish I wasn't so scared. I wish I was as bold as I pretended to be. Then I'd stand on my toes and kiss his lips that are pulled down into a frown.
That'd make me seem desperate, which, of course I am, but that isn't what I'm trying to achieve.
Mother would say to me in the rare moments when she was sane, "Jessamine, men are like intricate melodies waiting to be discovered. Once you find the sweet rhythm that sets their hearts ablaze, you can lead them wherever your desires may take you. Bring home an Alpha, will you?
I've had twelve years to learn Alpha Kier's tune. It's not because I'm the most beautiful or the smartest in Neredia; it's because I hold a secret they'll never understand—the way to my Alpha's heart.
"You're bold, for an Omega," he murmurs, settling on the table's edge. He drops his glass beside him and when I reach for it, he smacks my hand off. "I'll only indulge you today because I am..." He glances up at the ceiling, like it holds the word he is searching for.
"Bored? In need of amusement?" I whisper, heart picking up that unhealthy speed again. Maybe...if I could just...
What had mother said about kissing? Right. Approach him slowly, let your eyes draw him in, and when the moment is ripe, let your lips meet his with a confidence that leaves him craving more. It's not just about the touch; it's about the promise of what's to come. Seduction is an art, and a kiss is your masterpiece.
Like he can hear my thoughts, Alpha Kier's gaze drop to mine and lower to my mouth. "You will be given chambers, like the rest of the contenders throughout the Selection. When it is over, the compensation for your loss will be more than enough to help you start over somewhere else."
My stomach drops. "You truly do not think me capable of winning?"
He picks the glass again, elegant fingers flexing around its width. "You cannot."
I reach out, intercepting the glass before he can drink from it. He lets me take it from him, and he watches me down it completely. It burns my throat, the awful liquid, but I don't flinch or cringe as I swallow it.
Draw closer...
I let my lip curl upwards in a way that has my dimples deepening, and I push the chair back as I rise from it with deliberate slowness. The corset has done wonders to my breasts and they look inviting enough to make Alpha Kier look at them.
His eyes harden before they rise to mine. Goddess, my heart is a freakin' cannon.
Let your eyes meet and linger as your words grown softer...
I take one step closer and he goes still. Another step and all that's left between us is a few inches. I whisper, reveling in the fact that my breath smells like his--rum, "But i've already won, Kier."
Let your lips tease his ever so slightly, leaving him yearning, wanting...
One more step and I stand on my toes, abandoning mother's advice as my lips crash into his with a confidence that I truly do not possess.
And Goddess help me, I suddenly remember that I do not know how to kiss.