Chapter Eight:
Seraphina's POV
Why would my cousin hand over the company to such a rude handsome man? I'd rather take over my company instantly than leave it in his hands!
"Or will be when I hand it over to him." My cousin added, while running ran his hands through his hair tiredly. I could tell he was exhausted and something really worried him.
"Did you get a threatening letter? Why do you want to step down from your position?" He was older than me so would have more mental capability to handle this company for now. Or so I want to believe.
"And you? Did you get a threatening letter too?"
With the 'too' he added, I confirmed that it might just be the case. I've received threatening love letters from members of my pack who told me to step down from being the Alpha's betrothed and let a werewolfess with a wolf do it.
They'd told me that I was a desecration to the pack and I could kill myself while I was at it. Those things messed up my mental health and made me stronger along the way.
"If you step down, they'd win. If you stay up and keep fighting, it'd prove more dangerous but you'd have more chances of winning." I truly believed this.
If I had stepped down and let those bullies trample my pride then I'd not have had a chance to a rebirth. "You would also put that Percy in a dangerous spot if you let me take over the company." I added, not that I cared.
He hummed while nodded. "But Percy has the mafia behind him..." He murmured. "That's why I wanted him to have it in the first place but..."
Mafia? I inclined my ears to hear more of his mumbles but there were so low. I cleared my throat so he'd still remember that I was still here. "I'd like to help in anyway I can."
He paused then furrowed his brows. "No, you shouldn't."
What? "Why not—"
"You are the real heiress of this company, aren't you?"
So he was aware? I tried not to smile. "Well, I am but as things are right now, many people don't know that and you are at—"
"You think they don't know?" He shook his head. "They killed the creator, your mother, and are probably looking for you now. My mother got threatened to step down but didn't, and now I am being threatened as well. Your mother wasn't even part of the company when she was killed. Don't you see? You are even at worse disadvantage than I am."
That made a lot of sense. They must be currently digging for those with close relationships with the company. "I am not going to take the company yet then, let's handle these conspirators –"
"Let me handle it." He started prancing about like a tensed mother. "You should... You should stay with Percy at his mansion. The mafia will protect you."
I chuckled, shaking my head. My cousin was quite a jester. "Not in this life again. I couldn't even stay ten minutes in a cottage with him. A totally unbearable young man."
He looked confused and I knew why but I couldn't accept it. I still had better options. "Not ever. I can stay at my pack if its too dangerous to live alone." But that didn't make sense since my pack could easily be used against me.
I couldn't even depend of Alpha Sebastian because we aren't even betrothed now. That connection happened when he saved me and its already too late. I didn't regret it one bit though.
"Is there really no other option that Percy? What does he have to do with the Mafia?" I asked to be clear.
"His mother inherited her father's gang to find out who killed Percy's father. She succeeded and is currently helping us now so don't worry, Percy might be a bit rude but he means well."
That's very hard to believe. He has an issue with my pack and with poor people. Staying with him would drain my patience and I might really attack him.
I stared at my cousin and he really seemed to be pleading with me in this. I barely knew him but I didn't want the only protective family member I had to think I was a pain.
I might've been a bit spoiled by my parents but after three years of being ridiculed and used, I could tell when not to raise my voice and just accept things. Though, I'd be doing that less times than I used to before.
"Can I know your name?"
He smiled broadly. "Luther Jr. Zen. I'd tell Percy about you staying with them and he'd agree to it. My younger siblings are staying with him too." He looked around the company.
"Just so you know, Xexi Studios is currently worth $450 billion, so its worth being fought over like this. The primary streaming platforms and majority of movies and toons watched on the internet and TV, came from us."
I tightened my jaw so it wouldn't stay open. The company worth billions? And I was thinking it was a multi-millionaire company. Could I really handle all that at eighteen?
I had the experience from my past life because we were actually a streaming platform but our last celebration was getting to $10 billion worth. This was many times ahead of me.
"Also," his voice deepened. "We once had a dating site added to the platform five years ago. It was basically my father's experiment. The majority of users were CEOs and Alphas of different respectable packs. They were the only ones who could pay the outrageous $150 dollar fee per week my father had arranged in hopes that no one would take it seriously."
I nodded slowly. So that's why we were getting so much hate? A successful company and a fallen dating site. "In other words, when the site was taken down, the user data remained and many people want it." So these CEOs and Alphas were probably the ones after us.
"I didn't even get there and you understood?" he smirked.
My knowledge of dramas and politics within the corporation shined through. Any little dirt people got on the another was usually leveraged. "Can't we threaten them with it? To leave us alone?"
"My mother has no access to it and her guess is that my father cleared it, but the files is with my father's other works so she doesn't want anyone checking it to be sure. This made many think she was actually hiding this."
A smirk crawled to my lips. A hacker, I was not, but I had knowledge of retrieval of data and I could study further if need be. I would hope the data wasn't cleared.
"I think we should use that data to threaten them to be at least a little quiet. If we set them to fall, we'd be able to know who'd be coming after us." I suggested.
It was better to point the guns at those pointing at us, than wearing bulletproof vests and wait to get shot anywhere. We could be hit our blind spot and that's game over.