Anderson
"Darla!!!!!!"
The nerves in my voice was the first fucking snitch before I even got the chance to act right. My voice went almost a whole octave higher which was abnormal for me considering everyone could testify how incredibly unsettling and low my voice was.
"I know something is going on, that voice and you are putting excess cologne…did you even take a shower Ander??" She asked, sniffing my neck, making me take a terrifying step back before I did a reality check.
Last I checked, I was the next alpha…at least until someone else summomed enough balls to face me on a one on one on mount kai, till then, I'm going to keep claiming the glory I spent my whole life trying to earn and live by.
"You know what…I don't got time for this, they are downstairs right now sitting in the meeting area and they need to hear a briefing from you before anything else is done so please, your majesty, Your lord and your highness his gracious—"
"Stop it Darla," I commanded, realizing she was in her stressed mode now and if I didn't stop her now, she would keep on going till she actually managed to boil out the anger in me.
"Sorry…" She muttered as she looked me in the eye briefly before looking towards the door behind me and then me again.
"We should be going," She said in a low force going back down the hallway she came through. The click of her heels made definite tick sounds as she headed towards the stairs and I watched her. She obviously felt hurt by the way I spoke to her and I groaned. I fucking hated my life sometimes.
Scratch that shit…all the fucking time.
As the next possible alpha, I have had my mates respect me more than they resoected their parents or teachers in scholl because the system and the way they were brought up thought them to respect a royal blood that didn't really give a fuck about them was just trying to live their life over that of their parents who cared for them over the years.
I was trained in this manner so it wasn't a habit that I could just easy unlearn at my will, I had to do a lot of self conscious task through my journey so that I didn't lose friendships in the name of being the next alpha but moments like this still made reality pay a cold visit every time I got to high on my horses and forgot just how rough, brutal and honest the dirty road could be.
"Are you coming or what??" She asked from the end of the hallway and I physically shook my head out of thoughts that clouded my mind and eyes and went towards her taking short calculated strides that gave me enough time to think of what the hell I had to say to them.
It wasn't my strong suit and Darla knew this. I wasn't the type of guy who loved public speaking or generally just speaking to strangers, that's exactly how I was raised and protected growing up. they always had someone keeping an eye on me while I did whatever I did, not the same amount of attention was given to Bella growing up and it really affected her negatively.
"Yeah, coming…" I replied mindlessly.
My main issue at hand was that now I actually had to face the man that was the reason why I was in all of this mess in the first place. He was going to be in the same room as me and I had to pretend like I didn't make an utter fool of myself yesterday at his apartment.
My refusal to carefully evaluate my displayed characters at his abode has absolutely nothing to do with me. I was choosing to totally consciously and intentionally ignore it for the main time till it was safe again for me to think about it as just another high trip that caught me off guard.
Somehow, the woman found her way to appear by my side while I was in thoughts, I unfortunately remembered someone doing the same exact thing to a certain someone yesterday at their certain apartment and making them beyond comfortable.
"What are you thinking about again??" She asked comfortably, already shading the initial look of hurt that trailed along her face while she walked faster than I did.
"Just thinking about what to say to them, you know how bad I'm at public speech or just talking to a bunch of strangers that I have never been accustomed with." I lied equally comfortably because if you gave it much thought, it wasn't that far from the truth to be candid. I did hate talking to complete strangers and I absolutely sucked balls, I mean sour hairy balls at public speech and even private in house speech with the people who walk for us.
It was what made being an alpha a considerably easier job for me. As an alpha, I didn't have to worry about do or saying it right, my word goes and it was in my blood to act irrational and not get shitted on for it. In this world, it was way different. I had to be considerate, I had to worry about gender misappropriation, microaggression and micro racism. I had to worry about the marginalization of intersectionality and I had to be careful that I held every party present with a good interest.
Not that these things were bad things or totally horrible or unnecessary but they were good things. It was the world becoming a better place and it was making privileged people like me feel stressed out or worried that we might lose relevance. A truth that was never spoken and will never be spoken because werewolves, vampires, witches, creatures of the dark (COD) and humans will forever have one horrible thing in common: greedy delusion.
"Are you also thinking of Hakeem??" She chipped in after a short silence of me rubbing my shoulders for being a smooth talker there and all my resolve lost its grip on the leash for a second As I let out a little choking sound.
"What are you talking about Darla??!" I asked in a nervous tone. I was a hundred and fifty percent sure that she knew not of what happened with Hakeem the previous day because no way this woman would know and choose to have a logical conversation with me or pretend to when she could have been comfortably yelling at me every second of the day for the next two months because somehow, she's convinced that that was a better way of solving an issue.
"I mean, you guys haven't been on good terms for all the times you have met. You guys literally fought and rolled around the grass like freaking toddlers arguing over a crush and the funny thing now is I have zero memory as to why y'all are even mad at each other. I can't even remember him visibly pissing you off," She explained waiting for my supposed-to-make sense explanation when I absolutely had non…zero.
"I don't know Darla, he just gets on my nerves and he loves it I tell you. He knows he gets on my nerves and the fucker sees it like a fucking flex. I don't know how to fucking make it make sense but then again I don't really see any reason why I should make it make sense to anyone considering I'm the one that it's affecting," I said completely ignoring the fact that I sounded ignorant and stupid.
"Yeah, you are wrong about that one. Have you forgotten we are a group now which means anything that affects him affects us and everything that affects you guys affects the whole group and our name as a brand as a whole. So next time before you act all high and mighty, think of how your little fits and careless decisions affect everyone else around you in ways you can't bring yourself to understand." She dropped before walking ahead of me to the final part of the stairs before I heard her offer a little apology to the guest we kept waiting down stairs.
The words she spoke echoed in my head and they could have been a cold slap if it wasn't the hard truth she just gave me. It was like I had to make myself adjust to her words echoing in my head before I made an appearance. At this very moment did I appreciate my stone cold and emotionless face. I spent years freezing of life and emotion.
Reaching the hall leading to the meeting area, I took a final deep breath before Making my presence known to them and the first person who caught my eyes was a very feminine, yet masculine woman with deep brown eyebrows and a pale face but properly defined shape. You could easily tell she was related to Hakeem just from the strong energy she was emitting.
He had to admit, she was very presentable and beautiful, pulling off a full gray business suit and black heels and a brown pulled back and straightened out hair. While Hakeem just looked….comfortably stunning if I was being modest. His dressing sense was as monotonous as ever, same style, same hair style and same shade of clothing choice, ranging from a grave gray to a new light gray beanie which was a new accessory I was seeing on his which gave very emo boy vibes except his body and the energy he exuded said otherwise.
"Sorry for my late appearance…" I apologized in my public speaking voice which was usually a deep baritone that vibrated through the room. A pleasant smile appeared on the face of the woman sitting close to Hakeem as she stood to her fit.
"Hey Mr Anderson, Big fan. I'm Isis Solivan," She stretched her long slim delicate fingers at me which I took before facing Hakeem who had a bored look on his face.
"Hakeem…" I said in acknowledgement.
"Took you long enough junkie…"