17. Dante

17

"How are you doing?" Yesenia asks me. She's standing in the doorway, holding the back door of the Den open for me. We're here to meet with Jarik. Finally.

"The fucker made me wait a week. A fucking week! How do you think I'm doing?" I snarl back at her.

"Right," she lets out a heavy sigh. "Maybe don't call him a fucker to his face, though. Alright?"

I growl, but don't say anything else as I follow her through the maze of dark corridors that lead to the Alpha of Alphas office.

When we reach the dark stained wood double doors, she throws me a glare over her shoulder. A look that snarls, behave or else! When I give her a tight nod in reply, she raps the back of her knuckles on the wood before pushing them open. Just wide enough for us to slip through.

"Alpha," she greets him. "Let me introduce Dante Balam. He's come to speak with you about the last auction."

Jarik, the Alpha of Alphas, leader of all factions in our surrounding territories, looks up from his desk and scowls.

"Another one? You better be fucking joking," he drops the stack of papers he was hunched over and runs his hands through his thick, dark hair.

"Jarik," a soft voice warns from behind him.

The voice belongs to a plump blonde woman cradling a blue bundle in her arms. Oh. She must be the Alpha's mate. I'd heard they had a son recently.

Sitting on either side of her are a dark-skinned female and a fair-haired male I recognize as an incubus but can't place his name. Both are leaning over and giving the bundled baby their attention.

The male reached his hand out to cup the dark female's cheek before shifting his eyes to me. Mine. His expression warns.

I'm not interested in his female, so I drag my gaze back to Jarik, and the hulking male that materialized behind him.

Jacob. A bear shifter and, like Yesenia, one of Jarik's alpha advisors.

Yesenia nudges my arm with my shoulder. Oh, right. I'm here to beg for my female.

"She's my mate," I bite out.

"So?" he scoffs.

"Jarik!" his mate hisses at him again from the back of the room, "Stop being an asshole."

Suddenly I decide that I like his little mate very much.

"What? This isn't a dating service!" The Alpha huffs out a harsh breath. "Fine," he leans over his desk, lacing his fingers together in front of him. "What would you like me to do?"

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. I want him to fix this! I want him to give her memories back. To make everything how it was before she was ripped away from me.

My eyes dart over to the females and the male. The girls have their heads together and are talking quietly over the baby. The male's attention is locked on Jacob, who is returning his equally heated attention.

I want to point to them and shout, I want that! What they have with their mates!

"Dante would like permission to court his female without the penalty associated with the auction," Yesenia speaks up for me.

"Is this going to keep happening? Fuck, maybe we need to add a fated mate clause to the auction."

"That's not a bad idea, Alpha," the woman beside Jarik's mate speaks up.

"Neither is the idea of turning the auction into a dating service," the blond male sniggers.

Jarik's head snaps to the side and he lets out a low growl that has my chin dropping and my knees quivering. Slowly his attention turns back to me, "Is this what you want?"

"Yes, Alpha."

"Fine," Jarik says, as if it's of the utmost inconvenience and he points a finger at me, narrowing his golden eyes. For a moment I see the flicker of his beast behind them. "If she rejects you, you back off. If she wants nothing to do with you, you walk the fuck away. If I find out you've gone behind my back and forced her…" Claws appear at the tips of his fingers, "You'll wish for death before I'm finished with you."

I nod my head, "I understand."

The look he gives me is doubtful, but he nods once.

"Thank you, Alpha," I tell him, even as I'm backing out of the room.

The moment I hit the doorway, I turn and run.