"Can you get the nurse?" All asked Anna. She left without saying anything, but took with her the feeling that something very important had been revealed in that room.
When they were alone again, Suzy turned to Allister.
"You should have spoken to that girl about her fate."
"Adam's hatred won't survive around her."
"We're both the same age and have the same information about Alphas. Are you so naive to believe that Adam will grow old? That he won't die before he's forty?"
Allister frowned.
"That's not what I said. I don't want Adam to die."
"Even if you did... Would it be possible? Because he won't live long after your death, All, if it's possible to kill him."
"What makes you think that?"
"Do you want to know the truth?"
"I thought that was the basis of all our conversations..."
"I've already planned several ways to kill Adam, and I'm his mother! Can you imagine what the people who work for him must be planning? At the first show of weakness, Adam will die."
"I'm sorry to hear that from you. No one is going to kill Adam. I took care of that, but I hadn't thought of you as a potential enemy of our son, and that leads me to believe that my youngest son's intuition is as good as mine, and you really should go and live somewhere else. Go to DreamsStone, the city of the werewolves. You'll be safe there and Adam won't mind you enjoying his property."
Suzy sat down.
"Allister, I will never lift a hand to hurt one of my children. You know we're not immortal. And you've been poisoned and you're not half as cruel as Adam. He's dangerous. We don't need to make him even more lethal. All the packs are responding to his call, and for the first time, I can't tell if it's out of love or fear. We can't predict where the hand that will kill him will come from."
Anna re-entered the room and had brought a glass of fresh water and handed it to Allister.
Suzy stood up.
"I'll leave after you... But I must warn you that what you've done has sealed Anna's fate. You're handing her over gift-wrapped, and she's going to suffer a lot more than the other girls who were bought for your purpose. What good did it do you to protect her from yourself?" She asked and walked away.
Anna waited to hear her high heels click away before asking.
"What did she mean by that?"
"You'll find out, but I hope you don't find out the hard way. Where's the nurse?"
"What's going to be harder is finding out that you could have warned me about something I can avoid today, when there's no longer any way for me to escape. The nurse will be here soon."
"I need you, Anna. It's Adam's only chance of becoming someone better."
"He'll never become someone better... Suzy, you're his mother and you can see that truth. And I feel like you're hiding something dark from me. Something I'm going to find out and I'm not going to like it."
Allister looked up at the ceiling.
"I love you, but I owe greater loyalty to my son, to my family. I can't help it, but... I'm sorry if it all goes wrong."
"If it all goes wrong, what will happen to me?"
"You'll be used for the purpose for which you were bought."
"Will I be your son's mistress?"
All smiled sadly.
"There is a worse fate, Anna. Adam won't spare you that fate, if I'm wrong."
"So you're leaving me as part of your inheritance so that your son can do whatever he wants with me?"
"Anna, from the moment you were bought, you became the property of the Lens family."
Anna's eyes watered.
"You threw my only chance of escape into the garbage pail..." She said, referring to the poison.
"Because you can't escape, Anna."
"I guess I can't anymore, can I?"
"If my intuition is right, you don't have to worry about anything bad. Adam will protect you."
"So that's your plan? Adam hates me. I heard when Suzy said he practiced torture. Don't you care? Don't you see that by leaving me in his hands you're exposing me to it?"
"I have faith that he'll be good to you."
"He already showed how good he intends to be, 'boss', when he had his foreman slap me."
"Trust my judgment, Anna. This conversation is getting boring."
Anna stared at him without recognizing the protective man she had fallen in love with, and was about to tell him so, when the nurse entered, followed by Sarah.
Sarah looked at Anna, while the nurse took care of Allister's medication.
"I managed to convince the boss to allow you to go with his mother to buy clothes..." She commented, looking at her own nails.
"How? Even his mother couldn't convince him..."
"Don't underestimate me, Anna. Never! Everyone here thinks that I'm nothing more than an ordinary pleasure to Adam, but I feel that he loves me, and that he's going to ask me to marry him soon."
"I'm happy for you, and thank you for helping me. I really didn't know you had so much influence..."
"Isn't it wonderful? I asked him and he gave in! I'm so excited that I'm going to do something special for both of us tonight..."
"I hope everything goes according to plan."
"It will be... Now go, Mrs. Lens is waiting for you, and I'm staying with the boss until you get back, so don't be long."
Anna was already leaving when Sarah called her back.
"Buy a black dress too, Anna. We don't know when the boss will let you out again."
Anna frowned. She didn't like Sarah's last words, but she had to be realistic. Sarah was right. Everyone, even Allister himself, was warning her to prepare for his end, and she wasn't listening. It was time to face it head on.