Clara's pov

  "I told you, you shouldn't have trusted him. See where you've gotten us now?" My wolf who had been prominently silent while I was being kicked out finally stirred into action.

  I was taking one laborious step after the other. The rain had toned down, but the storm in my heart intensified. The few passerbys I saw had umbrellas over their heads and passed by me without second glances.

  Within my heart, I sighed, and those people probably had a home to go back to... a family waiting for them.

  I never did.

  I was abandoned at an orphanage at birth, tossed around through the system until I turned 18, and came to Twilight City; the land of opportunity and power. There wasn't a single day that I wasn't busting my a** off.

  Who could have thought that after everything, I'd end up right back at square one; being homeless with a backpack slang over my shoulder, holding only the most basic of necessities?

  "I KNEW IT WAS GOING TO TURN OUT LIKE THIS FROM DAY ONE!" Veil screamed within my subconscious, "HE WAS ALWAYS SUCH A FREAKING DEADBEAT BUT YOU FELL FOR HIM JUST BECAUSE HE HAD A SUGARY TONGUE EVEN WHEN I TOLD YOU NOT TO CHOOSE HIM AS MATE!"

  "Veil, please not now–" I tried to reason with my wolf, but she was determined to tear me a new one.

  "It has to be now, b*tch! I told you a million times over that there was something off about that guy, but you dismissed me every single time! Now look where it's gotten us we've–"

  I was so engrossed in the arguments happening in my subconscious that I didn't even realize when my footsteps had derailed right into the road, neither did Veil.

  Then suddenly, headlights poured all over my body, and a horn was blaring high above the rumble of thunder. In that split second, I didn't run my feet, remained still like they were glued to the asphalt.

  I simply shut my eyes and held up my hands in front of my face, waiting for my impending fate. Tires screeched, and my body clenched up for an impact that never came.

  After a second or two, I slowly opened my eyes and saw that I was completely unharmed. The car that almost hit me must have swerved at the last minute and then accidentally crashed into the nearby pole.

  My feet wobbled like jelly.

  I had already become dirt poor overnight.

  What if the person inside that car was seriously wounded?

  I would have to take care of the hospital bills, I... who didn't even know when my next meal was coming around would have to handle hospital bills?

  Subconsciously, I moved closer to the car, recognizing it to be a rare model that only three people owned in the country. This person must be loaded! But without realization came another crippling thought. If I took this person to the hospital, wouldn't they sue the life out of me? And since I don't have money to pay, I would probably spend the rest of my life rotting in prison.

  The weight of my leg shifted between doing the right thing and saving my own skin.

  After all, where had all these years of selflessness gotten me in the end? Drenched in the rain, cold and alone.. but. If I leave here now, will I ever be able to forgive myself for doing this very thing?

  Veil was troubled, probably feeling guilty and scared.

  Before I could make a decision, the car reversed from the pole.

  The weight on my chest immediately lifted. Whoever was inside must be okay–right?

  My thoughts came to a hault when someone stepped out of the car. He was built, with a fine muscular body outlined through his white shirt that had gotten sticky and translucent because of the rain. He approached me with a coat in arm and held it over my head.

  "Are you okay?"

  To think that those three simple words were the last straw for me, I crumbled every defence mechanism, my heart crashing down in flames. I just couldn't be strong anymore, didn't know how to.

  But as I was melting away, he picked me up, and His touch felt oddly warm while we were surrounded by the cold, Veil seemed relieved.

  I didn't ask the stranger any questions. He carried me to his car like I weighed less than feather. Then he opened the backseat door, holding me with just one arm, dropped me slowly into the seat, and got in after me.

  By this time, I had already been in the rain for too long, and I was shaking hard. Seeing the luxury of the interior of his car made me stand out like a sore thumb, to say the least.

  This man should be disgusted, I was a mess of rainwater, mud, sweat, and tears, yet he carried me in when he had no obligation to.

  I was going to get pneumonia and die if I remained in my wet clothes, but I didn't want to seem like a pervert.

  "I need to take this off," my breathless tone from crying and cold made it sound sultry, and I blushed but waited for his response.

  He nodded at me, and his blue eyes turned away. I struggled with the buttons until I realized that I might just die of cold before I even get halfway with this.

  "Please..." I gasped out, holding his collar and tugging it for his attention, "... help..." I said, pointing at the buttons with my free hand.

  His eyes slowly reeled over to me, shifting from a deep hypnotizing blue to an overwhelming golden hue. His wolf must be coming out, my ample chest was already fairly exposed when he reached for the first button, and I gasped when the pad of his finger grazed my skin.

  Instantly, his burning golden gaze met me. I started burning up. This was getting a little bit complicated.

Clara's pov

  I don't think he noticed the tip of his finger touch my cleavage, but I doubt he missed my breathy gasps.

  "You must be really cold," He said, and I gave him a nod.

  The glow in his eyes finally dies down, he hands over the coat in his hand, and I put it on. The coat covered my body, all the way down to my knees. I mumbled out a thank you before finally passing out. When I woke up, I was in a bare yet cosy bedroom, it hard minimal furniture but a welcoming atmosphere.

  That stranger must have brought me to his house, I concluded, scanning the room with my eyes before sitting up.

  "I thought you were going to be asleep for quite a while, but this is preferable," My heart jumped up to my throat when I found him seated by the side of the bed.

  "I don't think I've gotten the chance to introduce myself to you yet..." He said unbothered by my shock, "I'm Killian Stone, and you?"

  My jaw hit the floor with a thud, "Killian stone? Do you mean THE Killian stone?"

  "You've heard of me?" He asked with doubt, still evident in his voice.

  I wanted to scream and slam my head against the wall. How was he speaking of himself as if he were some random joe when he was the freaking Alpha King!

  Then again, maybe he wasn't the Alpha King? Yeah... Perhaps I just happened to run into someone with the exact name and–

  "Girl, stop lying to yourself, I'm 99% sure that's him..." Veil said in frustration, my heart pounded hard against my rib cage. Was I really in the presence of the Alpha King?

  Should I ask directly? Would I look stupid if I do so?

  "Probably," Veil said, not helping. "At least thank him first. We would have probably died because of pneumonia if it wasn't for him,"

  Veil was right. We could have died, but before I could even open my mouth, he stretched an envelope and placed it in my fingers.

  "Take this as compensation. It's still late, so you can leave in the morning,"

  I looked at the envelope stupefied for a second or more before I finally found my voice.

  "C-compensation?" I stuttered out, shaking down to my toes, "What happened between the two of us?Did we -"

  He suddenly sucked in a breath, "No, by goddess! I'm talking about how I almost ran you over because I was drunk driving," He confessed a wave of shame in his voice as he buried his face in his palms.

  "I nearly killed you by accident, so check. If the amount isn't good enough, then..." He took a deep breath, "... I'll add more to it. How does that sound?"

  I stared down at the envelope. It was thick and weighed heavily in my hold.

  This might be enough to get me by for a while, but then I'll find myself in a tight spot again in the blink of an eye.

  I need to think about this strategically.

  "Maybe you can compensate me in another way,"

  He looked at me with cautious curiosity.

  "What way?"

  ------------------

  He was the Alpha King.

  "Told you!" Veil echoched with confidence.

  But I was sinking with embarrassment. I can't believe someone like him saw me at my lowest. He must have thought I was pathetic .....

Or maybe not.

  His face was usually a taunt, blank mask that I could never get a read on.

  Looks like he only helped me out the first time because he felt guilty about his drinking and driving.

  I'm curious: What made the Alpha King get so drunk? especially since he was so stoic most of the time.

  Whatever it was, I decided to focus on other things, like my new job as his personal maid.

  The head maid, Martha, a plump, pretty middle-aged woman, drilled me about my responsibilities. I had a one week training period, during that time I stayed in the servant quarters, but I was informed that I would be moved to another room, a personal one that was close to the Alpha King so I'd be able to tend to him without delay.

  The first thing I had to do was bring him his morning tea. He liked his tea extra bitter with no sugar at all. I couldn't relate. That was his preference, not mine.

  I knocked on his door, heart thumping with tension. I was starting from the very bottom now, but even if I was set back, I wasn't going to give up, I'll forget all about Josh's betrayal and move on with my life.

  "Come in," he called in from inside. My heart was still racing as I made my way in, and I told myself to be courageous.

  I had to reclaim everything that was taken away from me, one step at the time.

  But no amount of mental fortification would have prepared me for what I saw when I stepped into the alpha Kings bedroom.

  My heart literally skipped a beat, and my wolf howled within me. It took all the self-control scrapped from every crevice inside of me to stop myself from dropping the tray and tea in my hand.

  He was only wearing pyjama pants. Everything from his waist upward was free to view. His abs were chiselled, his muscles defined, and his broad chests looked like they would make the best firm pillows.

  "My eyes are actually all the way up here, clara," he spoke up, gesturing with two of his fingers.

  I blushed, flustered, and stretched the faux silver tray towards his direction.

  "My deepest apologies, Alpha Killian I–"

  "I don't need an apology, I just need you to be more discreet. You'll see me more often, dressed like this more than you would see me in a suit and tie"

  He took the mug, took a sip, and said without warning, "I did a background check on you,"

Killian's pov

  I measured her reaction to see how she would take it, that is, me digging into her past.

  She was strangely neutral about it, "Well, what did you find?" She said to me.

  "Nothing that would make me terminate your employment," I was honest and straight to the point, "your record seems clean for now so you are free to keep working here, I just needed to check if you had a criminal record,"

  She seemed to release a sigh of relief. I guess she was more tense than she wanted to show.

  I drank the rest of my tea and watched her from the corner of my eyes. She was still gawking at my chest again. Normally, it got me irritated when I was being looked at like a breathing piece of meat, but when it came to her, I didn't seem to mind it, and Rex, my wolf, enjoyed it.

  "Do you think she's interested in us?" My inner wolf asked as I dragged out the last drops of the remaining tea to give her more time to look.

  "I hardly think there is another reason she'd be eyeballing my body other than that," I responded internally, Rex grumbled, "Not just that, I mean she seems like a good person to get to know and..."

  "She is a maid Rex, my employee, nothing more and nothing less, she might be easy on the eyes, but that's all I'm willing to admit!"

  "Ohhhh, so there's more?"

  I sighed, brushing my palm over my face. There was really no winning at all when it came to Rex.

  Finally, I was done with my tea, and I set the cup down on the tray she helpfully held out.

  It was good to have a personal maid again. The last one just upped and quit. I wonder why...

  "By the way, I'm overlooking it since it's your first time serving me tea, but there is much to be improved on,"

  "Madam Martha said I did alright," she replied and I paused, trailing my eyes over to my maid, she didn't seem like the type to have a mouth to quip back and I found myself slightly impressed.

  "Well, you're working for me... not Madam Martha, so you'll make the tea to my taste. do not make any of those mistakes after today,"

  I signalled for her to follow me, and she did so enthusiastically at first until we reached the door that connected my bedroom to the bathroom.

  I opened it and noticed that I wasn't hearing her footsteps behind me, I turned around to see her standing awkwardly and staring at me.

  "Don't tell me that Martha didn't inform you that you would be assisting with my baths,"

  "She did," her response came quickly even as she fiddled with her fingers.

  "But I didn't think that...well..."

  I didn't like moving around in circles when it came to conversations, I liked to just hit the nail on the head and get to the point.

  "If this makes you uncomfortable, then we can talk about the other compensation that you rejected earlier,"

  A resolve seem to wrap around her face immediately when I said that and she told me that it wasn't necessary so I went ahead and she came in after me, filling up the tub while I got undressed. By the time my pants hit the marble floor she spun around and gasped.

  "Discreetly, Miss Woods," I reminded her before briskly walking past her and dipping into the tub. The temperature was a little hotter than I liked it, and I had to comment on it.

  "Speaking on things you can improve on; the water's temperature..."

  "... it's not going to work," Rex came at me.

  "What's not going to work?" I shot back at him in my mind.

  "Nit-picking to make her seem unattractive. Just admit it! She's our type. Shoot your shot. She's clearly into us!"

  Rex might really drive me insane one of these days.

  "None of that matters, I'm not looking for another relationship. Out of everyone else, you should understand that most!"

  Rex was adamant, "That's exactly why you have to go after this girl. She doesn't look like she wants anything serious either."

  I reeled Rex to the back of my mind, he was great for advice most of the time, but when it came to things like this we always got too confident and then we eventually get burnt, I wasn't in the mood to lay my heart down anytime for somebody else to stump on it freely. As the alpha King, Twilight City was my domain and my responsibility.

  I had more than enough to worry about. Finding somebody to cuddle with at night could sit at the backburner for now.

  I thought I pulled myself back together when all of a sudden she brought a sponge and started scrubbing my chest, my throat clenched, and I couldn't breathe for a second. When I recovered myself, I wanted to tell her that it wasn't necessary for her to go this far, but the words failed to come out of my mouth.

  They remained tightly shut behind my lips as each scrub made my breathing more sparse. It wasn't long before the excitement began to run downwards, too.

  The water was up to my shoulders, so it was high enough to hide my member. Maybe by the time she was done, I would have...relaxed a bit.

  That's what I told myself, but more blood was flowing down, and I was aching with need, I needed to get her off me. This wasn't right since I wasn't sure she... but what if she does?

  "I think I'll take over from here," I said trying to take away the sponge, but like a person hypnotized she kept going like she didn't hear me not even an acknowledgement of what I just said, then suddenly her hand went all the way past my chest down to the place I wanted it most.​