Chapter 4 Nobles High

" The deal is off Artems. Forget I ever communicated with you."

Artems eyes widened incredulously . " What??? Alpha Ulmea. You..you can't be serious." He chuckled fearfully" C'mon, this little squabble between my two pack members? Surely it iz not what we should have issues about. We...we need to secure this deal. It is more than important for both our packs."

" Important for YOUR pack, because clearly it seems there's some fishy shit going on.

You heard me." Ulmea's eyes waxed colder. " You should count yourself lucky I didn't decide to leave you half dead too. Clearly you don't seem to be remorseful for what your beta did to this beautiful lady."

Artems face fell. " You cannot possibly fault me for dat idiot's blunderrrrs!"

Ester pulled her hand away from Ulmea's grip and moved in between the two men.

She first gave a quick courtesy bow to Artems. "I am really sorry I caused such a commotion for you and your business Alpha..I will be really careful from now on."

Then she did same to Ulmea.

" Alpha Ulmea. Please I am really sorry. This has all been a terrible mistake. It was my fault I should have been more careful. Please don't take it out on Alpha Artems. Please continue business talks with him."

She had to do this; regardless of what had transpired, because this was still her and her family's business.

Whatever affected it, affected them. That was why she was taking this step.

" I am not forgiving you, little bunny." His sky blue gaze burned into her. " My deal with him is off and that is final. He should count himself lucky I didn't kill him."

A low menacing growl erupted from Artems throat as he glowered at Ester .

Murmurs of the crowd that watched drifted into the air.

"Who knew Beta Ramon was such a cruel human?"

"A pervert. That's what he is "

" How can our Alpha have such a person as his beta?"

" Maybe he's that way too. "

" We have the beta to blame for this. Not him, but he's so irresponsible. Can't even discipline and school his beta to be a good role model."

Without another word, and with humiliation on his face, Artems stormed off, leaving behind a tacit threat that blanketed the air.

Artems hurried out of the building, the gamma following with a limp Ramon on his shoulder, blood painting a trail of red dots behind them.

Ester felt strength leave her legs; she wasn't sure she could keep standing.

But she still stood.

Ulmea pulled something out of his pocket.

It was a card, goldrimmed on the edges as the other guys in black suits and glasses she hadn't paid much attention to, began coming towards him.

"Here, that is my business card, " he placed it in her hands. " Call any one of the numbers there if he or anyone tries to harm you in any way or form again ."

" Alpha, should we get the cars ready?" One of his men asked.

" Yes, I'm done here."

They all trudged along, like black soldier ants on a marching routine.

Ester forced a sad smile. "Thank you, but I think that he still has need of us... he's benefiting too much from us to harm us."

Ulmea narrowed his eyes. " Benefitting what exactly?"

He was confused, what could it be that Artems was getting? And who were the group of people she was referring to?

She gave him back the card and lowered her eyes. "I am sorry Alpha. I have to go. "

She turned to leave but a hand wrapped against her arm stopping her.

He went around and placed the card in her reddened suit pocket. " Discard it when you get back safely then. Just don't do it where they are."

She nodded and left.

Ulmea sighed as he watched her.

.........

Ester hadn't cried again since Alpha Ulmea wiped her tears off.

In fact she couldn't even if she wanted to, but now, waiting for Debbie at Nobles High brought back the memory afresh, of how she had fucked things up.

Artems had being their plug, their channel to the werewolf world, what would he do now? What would she do?

What action would he take and how would it affect Dad, Mom and Debbie, Wolvencore?

Freshly-mown lawns permeated the environment, the tang of new grass hanging in the air.

Under a maple tree, a big-for-its-size stone bench nestled into the ground, as two students played tennis, scoring themselves by how accurately they pitched the ball on the bench.

She studied them, and embarrassment briefly kissed her features.

She had sat on that very bench and said something very foolish, very many years ago.

The faint passing hum of an airplane's engine filled the late afternoon sky as about four students passed by her car side, chattering to themselves; a mix of fading perfume and body odor drifted to her.

A running silhouette dragged her attention back to the main walk and there was Debbie, running towards her, her purple bag bobbling up and down her back.

A sad smile spread across her face, as Debbie reached the car and opened the door. "Hey Este."

She called her Este, sometimes.

" Xup kiddo, how was school today?"

Ester started her car as she shut the door close."Uhgg. Terrible. Lots of assignments I'm just gonna loathe doing."

She pulled the car out of the driveway and back onto the streets. " This life seems to be full of a lot of things we loathe but still gotta do."

She put on the AC, keeping her gaze on the road. " Hope you're not too cold."

"How did it go? The meeting" Debbie turned to her.

Ester noticed out of her side vision, the girl was watching her intently

" Not bad. I guess "

"You're lying." Debbie said, her tone flattening gravely.

" What?" Ester turned to her and Debbie pulled her frontal hair away to reveal the small red-lined crack sitting comfortably there.

"Hey. I need to keep my eyes on the road you know, you're not helping. That was nothing by the way. I just slipped, got a little cut, that is all"

Debbie was silent as she reclined back into her chair.

The silence was maintained by the slow humming from the AC vents.

"What happened?"

Ester spoke after a brief silence, narrating what happened and sidestepping around the sensitive parts so Debbie wouldn't be terrified or know what wasn't necessary for her age.

Debbie couldn't respond as they got closer to home.

Loud barks of dogs, chased them from within a fence some distance away, as they drove.

Those were Artems greyhounds which he used for his race games.

"Don't be scared Debbie. We will all figure this out." Ester said reassuringly, as she gently squeezed Debbie's shoulder.

"He's going to do something terrible to Daddy, to you. He'll make things hard at Wolvencore; he'll take more from us, he'll leave us starving." Debbie said, worry lacing her tone.