It took me almost an hour before I changed from my work attire and wore one of my dresses I had gotten, and did my party makeup. Once I was done, I stood motionless, glaring at my own reflection and feeling a little disheartened. Knowing Dumeny, I was already prepared for something fancy. He never hosts just dinners. Dinner was just for the sake of name for him.
Dumeny came behind me and stood silently, looking at my reflection. "You look great."
"Thanks," I whispered back, the undazzled look still not leaving my face.
"What's wrong?" Dumeny asked, voice laced with concern.
I shook my head; I didn't want to spoil his mood. I couldn't talk to him about Reed. God knows what he would do then.
"Nothing." I faked smiled and held his hand. "Let's go to the dinner," I said quickly changing the topic and intertwined my hand with his. We walked through the stairs of the hall only to enter into the hotel's dining room.
"You booked it already?" I asked, grinning ear to ear. I had always fancied great dinners, like the royals' ball and dance.
Dumeny’s reflected mine. "Yup."
I looked through the room and found Diaz and Darek drinking wine and laughing like old friends. Who could have thought some food and wine could change these two crazy alphas? Dumeny chuckled and shook his head.
The remaining alphas who couldn’t make it to the meeting earlier were also sitting there with their betas and families. But I was looking for certain ocean blue eyes.
Dumeny interrupted my train of thought and handed me a glass of wine. I took a sip; my taste buds got a sweet remnant of sweet tobacco on the finish. I grimaced. "Surely, you had developed some class," I remarked. Dumeny chuckled lightly.
I reminded myself to ask him more questions. I had to make it look like it was oblivious, or it wouldn’t be long before he found out I was hiding something.
We sat on one of the tables at the center; I could feel the eyes of people. Dumeny sensed my hesitation.
"It's nothing; they are just scared. Two alphas sitting together having dinner and they both are mateless; the possibilities are infinite." Dumeny winked and smiled.
"So, am I a threat to them?" I asked laughing.
"Maybe. Maybe not. I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt."
Sensing it would be the best chance to get answers to my questions, I sipped from the glass and looked straight at Dumeny.
"So, how did you get to know so much about this mysterious alpha?"
"You know, I had my ways," Dumeny said proudly. These were the moments when I wanted to punch him square in the face. Relax Esma, try another way.
"You and your ways." I scoffed. Dumeny looked at me hesitatingly for few seconds before he spoke.
"Okay, listen, nobody knows about him, and if I said nobody, it means exactly that."
He took me to the nearest seat, and after ensuring nobody was eavesdropping, he continued.
"Ten years ago, the world's strongest pack fell to a single crazed beast. Nobody knew how one person could topple an entire pack; nobody believed that. Nobody talked or nobody knew much of the one who became a tyrant in a blink of an eye. After he gained the title of an Alpha, he held it quietly and connections were cut off. Five long years this went on and suddenly he came out from his den." Dumeny said every word with contradiction as if he knew this was not the only part of the story. And for some reason, I believed there was more to it.
"What made him come out of his den?" I asked further. Dumeny shook his head.
"Same fucking obsession to rule the world." His voice gaining the same hatred I have seen in other alphas.
"But if he wanted to rule on us, he could easily do that, he had the blade," I thought aloud. Dumeny rubbed his neck.
"I don't know, but he suddenly dropped his quest last year. I don't know maybe he was in search of something. Maybe his mate.”
"What happened to the blade?"
"He had told everyone that he got rid of it and that it was gone for good. Until last year, the alpha of Sophomore pack died under mysterious circumstances."
I hummed in response and searched for him in the crowd, but he wasn't there. Everyone hates him, hell, even I hated him, but still some part of my heart wasn't ready to accept that he was evil.
"How did he get that blade?" I asked, getting more and more curious.
"Don't know. If someone had told us that some lunatic would come and kill one of us with just a blade, we would have laughed it off. Nobody knew how he got his hands on that blade and how suddenly it had gone missing."
Just when I thought the evening would not be with any more surprises, the door burst open.