Thunk!!!
Deepti turned in the direction of the sound to check what that was about, only to see one of the oldest glass jars rolling on the floor.
"Eh? How is that even possible? Madam will not like this." She said as she rushed to pick it up, silently praying that this would not get her into any trouble with her boss, whom she's been working for for decades now.
*
'No. No. No!!!' The middle-aged woman, Laila Varmer, screamed in her dream before finally jolting out of her afternoon nap with a start.
She was panting hard as beads of sweat formed on her forehead.
"What was that about?" Laila asked out loud as she quickly got out of the sofa bed and rushed to her collection room in apprehension.
She found her old servant, Deepti, crouched down and was about to pick something off the floor.
"Don't touch that! Move away from there." Laila screamed once she realised that it was the very same jar that she had just dreamt about, startling her servant for a bit.
"Yes, ma." Deepti said with an apologetic bow.
Laila speedwalked to where the jar was and picked it up with both hands.
"Sorry, ma. I was cleaning the other side when I heard it fall. I don't know how it fell on its own."
"Leave! Now!"
Deepti didn't need to be told twice.
"What is happening? How is that even possible?"
She rubbed her thumb on it and said with a wicked smile. "What are you up to, little Kumar? Are you trying to defy me, or do you want to meet the same fate as your brothers then? Hahaha... Don't rush it, dear. For your time is almost up."
Laila felt uneasy as she stared at the thirty-year-old sealed jar, which was still intact with no cracks.
"Lalita, don't think that I'll allow you to win this time around. Never! Your child shall never escape the destiny that I've set for him." Laila said as she left with the jar to her workroom to confirm something.
*******************************
It was already nighttime when Renjith also woke up.
'What happened?' That was the first thought that came into his head.
"Why am I naked...oh." He stopped mid-sentence as the events from a few hours ago played in his mind. "Oh mine, what have I done? How is that even possible?" Renjith held his head in between his palms in deep thoughts and guilt.
"Hmm." He sighed and quickly got up when it dawned on him that he could've hurt his 'friend' or worse, cause harm to her. "Is Aiesha alright?"
"Where is she, even? We need to talk about this."
"Aiesha?" He said as he got off the bed and quickly put on his clothes before checking the washroom in search of her, but she wasn't there.
"Aiesha. Aiesha." The Alpha kept calling his friend's name as he opened the doors of the other rooms in case she might be in one of them.
He searched the rooms for a while but did not find Aiesha anywhere.
Rrring! Rrring! Rrring!
He was about to ring the bell in the living room for one of the servants to ask them about Aiesha's whereabouts when his phone rang.
He checked, and it was from Anant, his personal secretary.
"What?"
"Sir, it's only fifteen minutes left for your flight to take off, so I was calling to remind you of that, please."
"Cancel it. And send a message to Dr. Jayaraman. Inform him that I am on my way to see him right now; he shouldn't leave his office yet." Renjith instructed and then cut the call.
He found a piece of paper and scribbled a note on it before leaving.
He then sent a text message to his closest cousin and friend, Ryan McDermott, who is in Ireland.
It read, "Can't make it today. Will be there by the morning instead. I have a meeting with my doctor. There's something that I need to discuss with him. It's good news. I think I found someone who can withstand my pheromones while in a rut, cousin."
The Alpha smiled as he placed his phone back into his pocket. Judging from how the room was when he woke up, he was sure that he didn't harm his friend.
'Maybe she's feeling embarrassed after what happened. I'll leave her be for now.' He thought to himself.
Bing!
A notification popped up, so he took his phone and checked. It was from a message from Ryan.
It reads. "Really? Dude, then that is great news! Let me know what Dr. Jayaraman says after your meeting. Ciao."
His driver, Kamal, was already waiting by the car.
"Sir, it's good that you're here. I wanted to even come and check on you. It's been six hours since your last drink. Would you want to have it here, or should we get home first?" He asked while holding the car door as the Alpha climbed into the backseat.
"Yeah... but..." Renjith then realised that weirdly enough, he wasn't feeling as hungry and thirsty as he normally would by now. Nor is he feeling any pains. If anything, he seems to feel really good today.
"Never mind. I'm good. Just take me to the facility." He said, and Kamal did as told.
*******************************
Luna Lalita has called her son's head doctor to come over in order to talk about his deteriorating health condition.
"Why is he not feeding, Dr. Jayaraman? I went through all the loops to get him these people. Why will he refuse them? What is wrong with him? The Luna vented out her frustration over her son's situation.
"Hmm." The doctor sighed.
"Stop with the hmming and come up with something. I cannot have the Alpha know about our son's condition. You know what's at stake."
The doctor then looked at the Luna with a solemn face, thus making the queen more anxious.
"What is it, Jaya? Spit it out already!"
"Hmm." He sighed again before continuing. "There're more problems, my queen. His Highness' situation is only getting worse. Not just with his feeding but his rut as well. At this point, the only idea that I can think of is... um...never mind. I think that's a stupid idea."
"It's what, Jaya? I'm really desperate here, so you better be out with it now or I'll have your tongue cut out of your mouth for wasting my time this instance!
"I... I was wondering if we should get the services of a humanoid robot?" The old doctor stammered as he feared his friend wouldn't like his idea or call him nuts.
"How do you mean? What can a robot do? Will it help my son to finally be able to feed on people directly or it will help him to release some of his pheromones out so his system will stop deteriorating? Hm? How? Tell me."
"Um...as for the feeding on the people part, I haven't come up with anything yet since everyone's blood so far seems rather toxic to him. But I believe that we can do something about the rutting issues."
"How?" The Queen grew curious.
"I mean, we can order a customised humanoid robot that can assist His Highness during his rut."
Dr. Jaya paused to observe the Queen's reaction, but she seemed to be listening intently, so he assumed that she might like his idea and, thus, continued.
"I heard that there are some fully animated and humanoid sex robots that even have pheromone diffuser functions.
I believe that should his Highness be able to release some body fluids during his rut, this may help with his condition. At least until we find a more permanent solution. What do you think, Luna Lalita?"
"Hmmmm." The Luna nodded her head in deep thought while going through what she just heard.
"Okay. Let's try that in his next rut but don't tell my son anything about the sex part or the pheromones whatsoever. Otherwise, he'll reject it right away. Just tell him that the robot is to just take care of him during his rutting periods and let's see how it goes from there."
"Okay, my Queen. I'll make a call to an old friend of mine who deals in that then."
"Sure. I pray that this works out so Laila will be put to shame. The Alpha must never find out about any of this. Is that clear?"
"Definitely. I'll continue to keep your secret, Lalita." The doctor assured his long-time friend.
Beep. Beep.
Just then Dr. Jayaraman received a text about Renjith's secretary about his boss wanting to meet with him ASAP at the main facility.
"Speak of the devil. His Highness just sent me a text that we should meet."
"Alright. Try and convince to get on board with the robot thingy."
"Yes, Luna Lalita. I'll like to take my leave then." Dr. Jaya said and then left.
*******************************
Chandigarh (Haryana state, India)...
Sevina thought that she had slept for long and that it would be midnight by now, only to be disappointed after checking the time on her phone. She had only slept for under one hour and nothing more.
Going over the incident that had taken place today, she still couldn't help but feel very guilty while brooding over the fact that she had been such a loose girl.
These unfavourable thoughts were making her more and more depressed, not knowing how she would face her family with some degree of self-confidence.
She was still engrossed with her thoughts until the sound of some breaking dishes drew her attention.
She already had some speculations as to what could be the case, so she quickly rose up from the bed and darted into the kitchen.
Thump! Crush! Shatter!!!
The ceramic mugs fell off from the sink and shattered into pieces upon hitting the kitchen floor.
Charvi, who was now returning home after a long day at work, heard the noise, so she rushed to check on what that was about, but Sevina beat her to it.
'Heh, Anup! Arun! What are you two doing?!' Sevina screamed in her head as she hurriedly pulled the three-year-old twin boys away from the kitchen sink.
"This is your doing, right?" Charvi asked the boys with a stern look. She looked kind of scary to them in that moment.
Just then, their father, Parvesh Vishwakarma, also returned from the office.
"What is going? Why are all of you in the kitche..." He tried to ask, but the boys interrupted him with their cries as they ran to his side.
"Hiehheie! Papa! Hiehheie! Papa!" Cried the three-year-old, Anup.
"Papa! Papa! HiHiehheie!" Cried the three-year-old, Arun.
Parvesh automatically put his office bag and the polythene bag he was holding on the side and welcomed both of his sons into his arms and tried to calm them down while Sevina looked for a broom to sweep the broken pieces of ceramics.
"What happened here? And where is Nithya?" Parvesh directed his question at his wife, but she didn't look too happy, so he turned to his daughter for an answer.
"What did you think happened? Who else will do something like this other than them?" Charvi finally replied, pointing to the mess on the kitchen floor.
"Shhh! Now, stop crying. Otherwise, I'll not give you the Gulab Jamun (a type of dessert) that I bought for you two on my way home.
The boys stopped crying immediately.
But Charvi was not having it. "You'll not give them anything. There'll be no reward for their naughtiness."
Her statement made the boys start crying again, now that they're not going to get the dessert anymore. Only this time, they cried a lot louder.
Nithya is their live-in nanny but she was currently in the washroom.
Sevina, who was then done with the sweeping, went to her dad and took reluctant Arun from her father and put him down.
She then did the same with Anup before dragging the reluctant boys out of the kitchen for their evening baths.
Sniff. Sniff.
Charvi sniffed the air as Sevina passed by her while leaving the kitchen with the boys.
"Do you smell that, honey?" She asked her husband. It was only the two of them in the kitchen now.
"Smell what?" Parvesh asked. He moved closer and hugged his wife from the back.
Sniff. Sniff.
He too tried to also sniff the air but got no unusual scent.
"I can't smell anything. Let's go into our room and change from our work clothes first." Parvesh pulled his wife by the hand all the way to their bedroom.
As a beta just like his daughter, his nose glands aren't as sensitive as that of both omegas and alphas.
"Really? Is it my nose then?" Charvi still continued while wondering where the scent had come from.
"Why? What do you smell in the air?" The couple was now in their bedroom. Parvesh sat his wife on the bed as he unbuttoned his shirt.
"I don't know, but I believe it to be an alpha's scent. A very dominant one at least, but it's an unfamiliar scent, so I don't think that I've ever come into contact with the Alpha who owns the scent before."
Charvi seemed to be troubled, so her husband sat before her and hugged her from the side. He tried to change the topic.
"You and your sharp nose. Maybe it could be coming from the neighbouring houses. It will definitely die down soon. Don't worry about it. By the way, how was your day?"
"My day? Hmm." Charvi paused for some time. "Day was just the same. Nothing eventful at work. What about you? How was work?"
Charvi got up to also change so her husband continued with his as he responded.
"Work? Work. Hmm. Mine was very chaotic today."
"Hm? Why? Was there a problem?"
Parvesh nodded. "Yes. The company is currently in a serious lawsuit with some of its top AI researchers. For that reason, our current projects came to a halt because these researchers took with them their models and some other important documents."
"OK. But won't that also affect you, as you're also part of the research team?"
"Exactly! They asked me to lead and coordinate the projects for now, but that's not the main issue that I'm worried about."
"What is the main issue?" Charvi asked.
Parvesh turned to make eye contact first. "They want me to use Sevina's image for the humanoid robot project."
"How? Don't they have models for that?"
"Those models, together with the prototype, have been taken away by those who left, which is why the company is suing them."
"I don't know, but I don't like this."
"Don't worry, there's nothing dangerous about this. Sevina is going to be paid for that if only she agrees to it. So I was given the papers to bring to her to see first before she replies.
Now, can you help me to convince her to accept it? It'll be a nice deal too, and she can earn her first income from this. Wouldn't that be great?
"Hmm." Charvi sighed. "I don't know, but let's not discuss this with her today. From her facial expression earlier, I don't think that she's in a good mood. We can talk to her another time. Okay?"
"Sure. But what is the matter with her?"
"I don't know." Charvi shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, but deep down she wondered if Sevina's visit to her mother's place didn't go very well, but she couldn't voice out her concerns to her husband.
*******************************
"Ma'am, the Alpha just left. You missed him by only a few seconds." Bhumi informs her madam as soon as Aiesha returns.
"Did anything happen? How did he react after eating the food? Was he hyper? Did he destroy anything?" She asked while removing her shoes.
Bhumi shook her head. "I can't really tell, ma'am. Only he was here having his meals. He never rang the bell for any of us, so we remained in our posts. I only saw him leave with his driver a few minutes ago."
"Was he acting strange? Did he look very angry?" Aiesha asked again. Her eyes scanned the living room and the dining hall to see if anything was amiss.
Bhumi didn't understand why her boss was asking her all these weird questions, but she answered. "No ma'am. He looked the same as always. And I don't think that he was mad anyway."
"Alright. You can leave...wait, what is that? Bring it to me." Aiesha spotted the note left on the small table in the living room, in between the sofas.
"Here, ma'am."
She dismisses her servant and reads what the note said.
"I've to leave due to an emergency. Let's talk when I get back."
"Whew!" Aiesha exhaled in relief. "I guess the drug didn't work on him, which is why he was able to leave on his own quietly. Thank the universe!
I guess I'll have to try again next time, maybe double up the dosage, and make sure to be with him and not leave again like it had happened today.
Renjith will be mine, and so will the seat by his side as his queen. By hook or crook."