Chapter 26

Celine fell back against the bed when the door shut, completely drained from doing nothing but asking Asher a simple request. He hadn’t even asked any questions about it like she had been expecting, *why did she hesitate for so long? She could have had her things days ago.*

It was difficult not to think about the night before, especially as Asher had looked to be in a hurry to leave. With nothing to occupy herself, it was so easy to nitpick and see patterns that were probably not there, it was why she needed her things to distract her at least.

She didn’t let herself mope on the bed, getting up to get dressed so that she could go pick up her things. She didn’t have a lot of casual clothes but she wanted to wear something that would be comfortable enough for her to do some heavy lifting. She still had no idea what she would do with her own clothes, reluctant to throw them away but unsure of what to do with them.

It wasn’t like she could wear them while she belonged to Asher, as a matter of fact, she had a lot of things that would need to be put somewhere, she couldn’t exactly just move her things into Asher’s bedroom. Fortunately, the mansion was huge, surely there was a closet room somewhere she could stash it to keep it safe.

Celine knew for sure that she wouldn’t remain with Asher for long, he would eventually get sick of how plain she was and kick her out. She shook off the cloud of sadness that hung over her head at that point, heading to the dining room with straightened shoulders.

She planned to remain in Reef if that happened, she still had no interest in being a part of a Pack, so when she was let go, she would just go back to her original plan of getting a job and living quietly.

She was startled to see Jael when she stepped into the dining room because there hadn’t been bodyguards out in front. She tensed up at his presence, walking forward cautiously. When Asher told her that he would have Jael take her to where she needed to be, she didn’t expect that it would be instantaneous. She had thought that maybe sometime around noon, they would head out.

“What do you need to get from a hotel?” Jael asked before she could even sit.

Celine didn’t need to look at him to know that he was staring her down with suspicion, “My personal effects,” She replied curtly, still wary of him.

His silence made her glance at him, and she didn’t expect him to look borderline uncomfortable. She paid no mind to it though, as long as she was getting her things, she wouldn’t be bothered by anything else.

Celine was pleasantly surprised and relieved that it was just her and Jael in the car and they weren’t being followed, she sat in the passenger seat, doing up her seat belt as the car drove out of the house. “I unfortunately don’t really know the hotel,” She started to say apologetically, all she could remember of the wretched establishment that had violently changed the trajectory of her life was the name.

“I know where it is, don’t worry.” Jael cut the rest of her sentence off and Celine started to sigh in relief until the implications of his words sank in.

If he knew about the hotel, it meant that he also knew that she had been drugged and forcefully sold off…* just how much did he know about her?* *Didn’t that also mean that Asher knew just as much? Was that why he wouldn’t touch her? Because she was mated to someone else?*

Celine was only pulled out of her thoughts when they arrived at the hotel, the establishment looked completely run down which was startling considering that it hadn’t looked that way the last time she was here which was roughly a week ago. The signboard in front that read *‘Woodview hotel’* was hanging off its hinges, and there were cracks in one of the front windows. The interior of the hotel was no better, the benches were gone and the tiles in the lobby looked like they hadn’t been mopped since she first showed up there.

She was shocked to see Max behind the counter amid the crumbling hotel, liquid terror in his eyes as they walked in. She couldn’t help but be curious about how he had gotten hurt because he was sporting a broken arm in a sling and several bandages, not curious enough to ask or find out though.

Before she could even speak, he hastily handed her the key, Jael reaching out to take it. She hesitated just for a moment after that, taking one last look at Max, she never imagined that she would be seeing him again and thus she wasn’t prepared for what she would do when she saw him. Deciding to just let it go seeing as karma was kicking his greasy butt, she started for the stairs with Jael in tow, worried that some harm might have come to her possessions.

As soon as they were out of sight, Max shakily took out his phone to make a call, a distressed look on his face. He should have never done anything to the Omega. Ever since he successfully sold her off, everything took a turn for the worse. It didn’t help that Frank immediately outed him to anyone who cared to ask, and the people who cared to ask were incredibly dangerous.

He knew that she would sell well but how was he supposed to predict that she would catch the attention of all three Mafia Kings? That very night he got a call from Jael, Mafia King Asher’s second in command, and then he had gotten a visit shortly after…

The person he was ringing picked up then and he put the phone to his ear with his good hand, trembling visibly. “This-This is Max.” He said shortly, trying to keep his voice steady and failing. “The Omega came back for her things.”