Chapter 28

Celine absently sipped her drink as she sat in the private room of the bar, she half-hoped that Asher would come to see her or she would get to see him but Jael showing up again told her that wouldn’t be happening. She got up obediently when he told her that they would be returning to the mansion, questions about Asher dancing on the tip of her tongue.

The journey back was quiet, Celine fiddling with her phone the entire ride. Her phone charger was still back in the hotel with the rest of her things so she had to wait to be able to charge it. Jael had said nothing about the device so it meant that she was certainly allowed to have her phone with her, she didn’t know why she thought she wouldn’t be.

When she got back to the mansion, she fortunately didn’t have to wait for her things to arrive before she got the chance to charge her phone. A maid was really helpful in getting a spare one. She had also wanted to discuss where her things would be kept when they arrived with Jael but she had been too nervous to, pushing the discussion to when her things actually showed up.

There wasn’t a lot on her phone, she had next to zero contacts as she had no friends. All that was supposed to change when she moved to the city but she just managed to get herself captured by the Mafia. She had access to a lot of ebooks so she was glad to have her device back regardless because the fictional books in the library were limited.

She noted that she hadn’t gotten even a single text or missed call, she still had Noah’s contact but she strongly doubted it was the same for him. She deleted his contact without remorse, deleting his parents’ contact as well, because they knew she was disliked by the Pack and yet they made her the Luna and then left her to face the consequences of their decisions.

With all that out of the way, she settled in to read, completely losing track of time until a maid showed up to remind her about lunch.

“…I was also told to inform you that your things have been moved to a guest room.” The maid added, “I’ll show you to the room after lunch if you want.”

Celine was already on her feet when she was informed that lunch had been ready for a while so she nearly tripped over her feet at this additional piece of information. “Y-Yes, I’d like that, thank you.”

“Just doing my job,” The maid nodded politely before leaving.

Celine went to the dining room with a perk in her steps, grateful that they had bothered to get her a guest room for her measly luggage.

+

Jael watched Asher’s mood worsen considerably as the day went on, he just quietly waited for the Mafia King to get out with it because he knew he would eventually. The mission to retrieve Celine’s things had gone without confrontation which was rather disappointing but Mafia King Nolan’s men had already cleared out and the cashier was nowhere to be found, leaving the dingy hotel completely deserted.

“I have to personally oversee the next shipment,” Asher suddenly spoke, a dark scowl on his face.

This made even Jael frown, “If it came to that, I could just go in your stead.”

“Notable sizes from our supplies keep going missing, and the supplier is demanding a personal meet-up.”

“Then I better tag along,” The Beta grimly said.

Asher didn’t refuse, the supplier was a mouthy bastard who got cocky because he was currently the main supplier for all three Mafia Kings, and he was already in a shit mood so it could only go badly if he went alone.

He still couldn’t predict Nolan’s plans and it had him constantly on edge plus the fact that he felt increasingly bad for Celine who he had plunged into a world completely alien from her. If she remained with him, she would constantly be put in danger but he couldn’t bring himself to let her go.

Every time he remembered her fragile blue eyes, it felt like he was getting sucker punched in the gut. He also couldn’t keep her locked up in his bedroom like a doll in a display case and through all that, he constantly had to fight his magnetic attraction to her, and the maddening need to claim her - so *yes*, his mood was completely in the shitter.

“I’ll handle the arrangments,” Jael immediately got to work after getting the silent confirmation from Asher, “It should take two to three days including travel time, and there’s no major incident that requires your attention in Reef. Everything can run smoothly in your absence for longer than a couple days…”

Asher listened to his second-in-command swiftly make plans, not about to tell him that the reason he was pissed about this impromptu change was that it would put too much distance between him and Celine. She would be perfectly safe in his mansion, so he wouldn’t have to worry about Nolan pulling anything in his absence.

“We can leave first thing tomorrow,” Jael went right on, already taking out his phone to make appropriate calls.

It was already dark out and they were currently in one of Asher’s clubs, having left the bar hours ago. He left the Alpha’s office to make the calls because Asher always had a slew of people that wanted an audience with him. Jael had to make sure to amp the security around the mansion - it wasn’t that Mafia Kings didn’t know the locations of each others’ bases but that it was common sense not to invade each other’s territory.

Mafia King Nolan wasn’t as impulsive as his Alpha but did unhinged things regardless which made him a much bigger worry because he planned out his madness. He didn’t want to be around to see what would happen if any harm came to Celine in their absence.