Almila
After he left the room, I tossed and turned in bed for a while. The air flowing in through the open window had made the room freezing cold, so I got out of bed and put something on.
I needed to find out where Atia was. This excuse would allow me to observe the house I was in and the people inside it. Since Kayra suddenly left, I didn't know where he went, but I didn't need to know where he was anyway.
After getting dressed, I opened the door and went outside. As soon as I opened the door, two women greeted me. Kayra had already told me they were the maids assigned to me, but seeing them suddenly in front of me took me aback.
"Good afternoon, my lady." They both spoke at the same time and bowed their heads. They wore the classic maid's uniform and their hair was neatly gathered. They stood perfectly still from head to toe, but there was no liveliness in their faces or voices.
"Hello," I said quietly. If these servants were going to follow me everywhere, I would have to abandon my idea of observing the environment.
Most likely, they saw me as their enemy, and my every move would seem suspicious. But if I move forward with the right actions without worrying about that, I might even learn something from them. I had to take the right steps.
When I didn't hear anything from the two maids, I spoke up. "What time is it?"
"It's two o'clock, my lady. The Alphas had lunch about an hour ago. If you'd like, we can prepare a special meal for you." The one with black hair answered immediately.
I raised one eyebrow. "Do alphas, betas, and omegas eat at different times? Why did you specifically mention alphas?"
The two maids glanced at each other without lifting their heads. The other maid was about to lift her head slightly to respond but someone behind them spoke first.
"Of course we eat at different times and in different places." The owner of the voice slowly approached me, the sound of her high heels echoing through the large hallway.
The servants bowed even lower the moment they heard her voice and stepped aside to make way for her.
With her snow-white skin and orange hair, she possessed a dazzling beauty that seemed to illuminate her surroundings. Her makeup wasn't excessive, but she had applied eye makeup that accentuated her languid gaze.
After scanning me from head to toe, she wore a rather insincere smile on her face and extended her hand. "Hi, I'm Aybanu. You must be Almila, right?"
I looked at the hand she extended to me. Her long nails shone, just like her well-groomed skin. Judging by how panicked the servants were and how they bowed even lower, this woman was clearly someone important.
I shook the hand she extended to me. "Yes. It's nice to meet you."
After taking my hand in her delicate looking hand, she began to squeeze it tightly. Her eyebrows were slightly furrowed, her jaw clenched. I could feel the threatening pheromones emanating from her body.
She was trying to dominate me. I struggled not to roll my eyes.
Everyone here would probably cause me trouble in some way, but I hadn't expected someone I'd just met to be so threatening.
I tore my eyes away from her honey-colored eyes, which were beginning to sparkle, and looked at the servants beside us. They didn't seem affected by her pheromones, they were probably betas.
She must have realized that her pheromones, which I likened to the smell of cigarette ashes, had no effect on me, because after a while she withdrew her hand. I turned back to her and spoke.
"The way you welcome your guests is admirable."
She offered a sarcastic laugh. "Let's say we treat every guest as they deserve."
I pursed my lips as if I'm thinking and rubbed my chin with my hand. "So I guess that's why you want a bride from a pack you consider as your enemy. Wasn't it enough to take the leader's head, did you also set your sights on his wife?"
She laughed again, but this time it was genuine. However, it was clear that this laugh did not stem from happiness.
"I see you're definitely tougher than I expected. But this arrogance of yours made me happy. Trying to catch the bug is more exciting than simply crushing it under my foot, after all."
When I heard her analogy, this time I was the one who laughed. "I see that you are avoiding my questions in a playful way…"
I turned and looked at the servants, who were beginning to feel uncomfortable with the tension between us. "...It must be easier to try to control people whose pheromones don't work with insulting them."
She was angry now. The feelings she had been trying to hide for some time had finally begun to show on her face.
When she didn't respond to what I said for a while, I reached into my pocket and took out my phone. It seemed easier to call Atia directly than to search this huge mansion for her.
After calling her, I held the phone to my ear. At that moment, this alpha woman I had just met began to stare at me from head to toe again but this time with furious eyes.
Atia didn't answer my call. After calling a couple more times and not getting through, I started to get worried.
I couldn't bring myself to ask the woman in front of me about Atia, so I took a step toward the maids waiting in a corner.
But she stopped me by grabbing my wrist. "You're too bold for a murderer. Of course, there had to be a price for all the lives you took from our pack. We could have chosen to take not just your father's head, but the heads of your entire pack. But we only took your father's life. Despite all this, we took the first step to end this endless hostility. Instead of seeing this as a favor, you stand before me and try to teach me how to behave."
She was wrong if she thought all this would upset me. I had already thought about everything she said countless times over the years and blamed myself.
I had engraved all of this in my mind. Hearing it from someone else now had no extra effect.
I grabbed her arm and pulled it hard to free my wrist from her tight grip. This movement made her stagger a bit and take a couple of steps back.
"Do you know where Atia is?" I asked, turning back to the servants. "The young girl who came with me."
The servants lifted their worried eyes and looked first at me, then at Aybanu beside me, who was about to explode with rage.
As long as this woman was here, they would not give an answer.
Sighing, I started walking away from them. The woman named Aybanu followed me for a while. She kept babbling the same things, but her last sentence made me stop and turn to her.
"Don't ever feel like you belong to this pack. Even after your arranged marriage is carried out, you will be nothing more than a murderer in our eyes. And Kayra, who marries someone like you, will never be able to become the leader of this pack."
When I suddenly turned to her, she stopped and took a few steps back. I walked towards her and came right up to her.
"I don't belong to anyone. That's why I don't care who's the leader or leader to be. But there's one thing you've forgotten... That night, your pack was the one who started this hunt between our packs by kidnapping a leader's daughter, me."
I don't know what kind of expression was on my face, but before I turned and walked away, I saw traces of fear behind the anger in her eyes.