Enthralled By Silver

3. IT'S YOU

“Ninaaaa…” singing an absurd song, he staggered into the living room. The putrid unkept stench rolled in the garbage, emanating from him, along with the smell of alcohol and... the unmistakable scent of too many she-wolves to count, which could only come only be explained if he had returned from a brothel.

“Get me something to drink…” he shouted, starting to strip right there in the hall until he stopped in front of me. His expression changed slightly into a frown, his eyes blinking a couple of times to see clearly. “Nina? Why do you look like my sister…” he drew closer to my face, his hands on my waist.

I pushed him away, delivering a harsh slap across his face. His face snapped to the side as the burning sensation spread across his cheek waking him up. “Sibyl!” he gasped, placing a hand on his cheek, his eyes wide in surprise. “How come you are here…”

“How can a person that is supposed to smell like sweat from working all day at his restaurant smell like wine and she-wolves?” I raised an eyebrow.

He broke out in a cold sweat at my question. “I… I…” He couldn't find the words and exchanged a look with Nina, who stood to the side with an ugly expression.

“Don’t tell me you lied to me all these years about running a restaurant,” I remarked, realizing from his expression how correct my suspicion was.

During all these three years, I hadn't returned to this apartment due to my duties as a Luna and my busy life. However, Jonathan used to come and meet me every three months. He begged me for money to rent a restaurant so that he could run it to make a living. I thought he was beginning to understand responsibility, so every time he came for money, I helped him with funds from my own pocket. I even lent him money for Abraham, as he used to bring his son along every time. Though as it turned out everything had been a lie. That had been why Nina was so nervous earlier.

“What did you do with all the money I gave you?” I demanded, walking over to him.

Still holding his hand to his cheek, he took a nervous step back, avoiding eye contact. My blood boiled at the thought of him squandering my money on wine and brothels. I had trusted him and he had betrayed me.

I clenched my fists as I glared at him through my glasses. “Get out of my home, I’m giving you a month,” I ordered.

“What?” Nina's jaw dropped, her expression akin to someone who had just heard shocking news. I paid her no mind, my attention was solely focused on Jonathan's pale face.

“Sibyl, what are you saying?” Jonathan panicked, moving closer to me. “I'm truly sorry for lying to you, but please don't kick me out. Where will I go? I have a family to look after.”

“It's laughable that you suddenly remember you have a family. Do you think I give a damn about that when you don’t even care about your own family or life?” I glared at the person who was a stain on the term man. It had been foolish of me to trust him. “You've enjoyed being a freeloader in my place for three years, but not anymore. Crawl out into the city or become a rogue in the woods, I don’t care. I need my apartment empty. And yes, if you have guts then leave Abraham with me. I will gladly take care of that innocent child. You have a month to move out,” I declared, turning sharply to enter my bedroom, noticing Nina's horrified expression from behind my black glasses.

The terrified look Jonathan and Nina were sharing didn't seem to be solely because of my statement, there seemed to be something else that I found quite unsettling.

***

After taking a shower to clear my mind, I applied a patch over the mate mark on my neck to cover it. If I could not get rid of his mate mark, I was going to hide it, not wanting unwanted attention.Then I lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. It felt as if I had traveled back in time to when I had bought this apartment after my old pack had been destroyed, I had been struggling to make a living as a lone wolf. I had no pack, no support, and no love...

Edwin once again crossed my mind, and a feeling of disgust rose in my heart. I had to move on and start my new life. The best thing I had ever done was never telling him about this apartment, so we were never going to see each other again in this lifetime. Curling up on the bed, I fell asleep on an empty stomach. I didn't even take a dime from Edwin with me so I was in a bad financial condition. I had to earn money before my dwindling bank account became completely empty.

At least that was my thought until a month had passed.

"Here is your cat food and collar. Is there anything else I can help you with, sir?"

I intentionally placed the items on the counter with a loud thud, hoping to draw the attention of a man that had been staring at me incessantly.

"Are you blind?" he asked, his sickening excitement evident.

Behind my sunglasses, I returned his gaze with my wolf-like eyes. Only I knew how I managed to refrain from ripping this man's tongue out after enduring his repetitive question for the past week. Did people normally visit the pet store daily like this guy?

"Your bill comes to $250," I remarked as I began to pack up his purchase. Once he paid, I promptly moved on to assist another customer. However, the manager of the pet store that I worked at had observed the entire interaction and called me in for a chat at lunchtime.

"Sibyl, your sunglasses make everyone uncomfortable and could tarnish our pet store's image. Is the infection in your eyes still not healed? You mentioned it would be fine in a few days, but it's been over a week. Your sunglasses are really disconcerting. Some of out customers even think we've hired a blind person," he said, frowning.

My heart pounded in my chest. Did he already suspect something?

"If you don't take off those sunglasses, I'm afraid we can't continue employing you," he said helplessly, sighing with resignation.

I clenched my fists at my sides. So, the day had finally come.

"Alright, I resign. Please deposit my pay into my bank account," I said firmly, grabbing my phone and leaving the pet store.

How many times has this happened to me? By my count this was the fourth time, I guess. Finding this job has been difficult enough. I had obviously lied about the eye infection to secure the position because there was no way people would hire someone wearing sunglasses. They would demand I remove them, something I could never do because it would reveal my blindness. They had no idea that I could only see when I allowed my white wolf eyes to surface.

On the way home, I checked my bank account, where I had accumulated some money over the month from part-time and odd jobs. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to cover bills and food expenses. Every job I landed seemed to come to an end within a few days, with the demand to remove my glasses.

Lost in thought, I returned to my apartment. The upside was that I owned the place, so I didn't have to worry about paying rent. Thinking about that, Nina’s ugly attitude for the past month surfaced in my mind. She had finally shown her poisonous character as soon as I ordered them to get out of my home. It was clear that she never wanted to leave my apartment, that she already thought of the place as hers. I had been generous to let her and Jonthan stay for the month while they looked for another place to live because of Abraham. Jonathan had packed his luggage last night. When I entered my apartment, expecting them to have left already and for my house empty, what I found horrified me.

“What the hell is going on here?” my voice was barely above the whisper but it caught the attention of every werewolf in the room that had surrounded Jonathan. He had been beaten to the point that blood was oozing from various places on his body and his face was unrecognizable, the scariest thing was… A man with sharp brows was aiming his claws at Jonathan’s neck. Everything and everyone paused as soon as they spotted me in the room.

“There she is!” Jonathan suddenly pointed his finger at me, “She is my sister!! Did not I tell you I really have a sister! There she is!!” He cried. My muscles instantly tightened. Why was Jonathan telling them about me? Who were these people? And why were they in my home?

“So she is the one,” the man let go of Jonathan’s head and looked at me from head to toe with another werewolf in the room. Their eyes stopped at my sunglasses.

A very bad feeling settled in the pit of my stomach, “What are you people doing in my apartment?”

“Your apartment?” the man frowned at me. He seemed to be superior to others though he was not an Alpha blood. I guessed he was Beta and for some reason his voice sounded familiar.

“Yes, it’s my home. Now get out,” I sternly ordered. I did not know what kind of mess Jonathan had brought into my home but I did not want to do anything with it.

“It seems you don’t know,” he chuckled, walking over to me. “This apartment was sold to the Eclipse Moon Pack when your brother could not pay the installment on his debt,” he grinned.

“What did you say?” My phone slipped from my hand as I stared at him with wide eyes in shock. He simply shrugged his shoulders as if he was letting me process the shock. Zara shook me back to reality as I glared at first Jonathan then at the man, “THIS IS MY APARTMENT! NO ONE, THAT MEANS NO ONE CAN SELL IT TO PAY THEIR INSTALLMENT OR DEBT, WHATEVER IT IS OTHER THAN ME!” I declared, my voice echoing in the small space.

The expressions on all the men’s faces turned bitter from offense then the sound of shoes came from behind me as someone entered the apartment. Every wolf's eyes turned to whomever had just arrived, their eyes fearful. Suddenly I felt someone’s presence right behind me, a familiar dominance that I had felt a month ago slammed into me hard.

“The installment has been taken care of, how about paying me the principal?” a deep sexy voice entered my ears.

Surprised, I turned to look behind me, my blue eyes intenstally locking with a pair of hazel ones. An extremely handsome face came to my view. Never in my whole life had I seen such a handsome man before, he looked like pure sin. However, his cold aura surrounding me finally made me realize that it was the same Alpha that I had bumped into a month ago.

“What Principal?” My feet took a step back of their own volition, wanting to put some distance between us when he suddenly pulled me to his chest.

“Of course, it’s you,” he whispered, locking eyes with me as if he could see through my sunglasses.