Alpha's Possession by Jessica Hall

Chapter 24

“What do you want?” Raidon asks, startling me.

I bite my lip to keep the words from passing my lips and ignore Raidon. It isn’t like I have any money left

to buy anything to eat anymore. Because of those assholes and their stupid attempts to get me fired, I

had to give my last few dollars to Vadum to drive me to their stupid mansion. I didn’t want to lose my only

job, and all my attempts to go out of my way to keep it resulted in getting attacked by Leon.

Raidon growls at my silence and places an order at the window. He drives through to the next window.

My stomach growls in hunger, and at this point, I’m thankful that Raidon decided to turn on the radio to

kill the silence in the car, so he couldn’t hear how hungry I am.

He retrieves the paper bag with food, pays the worker and tosses the bag onto my lap, making me jump

in my seat.

“Eat your goddamn food and point me in the direction of that dump you live at,” Raidon says and pulls his

back on the main road.

A little shaken up, I show him the way to my old apartment building. Since that is the address, I put on

my resume. I can’t let any of them know that I am homeless. If Thane were to find out about my living

situation, he would use it as the reason to fire me and rid them of me for good. Despite the horror and

misery I have to endure next to my bosses, I can’t afford to lose my job, so I have to suck it up.

I don’t dare to touch the food he threw at me inside the car. I don’t trust my hands which are still

trembling from the entire ordeal ! found myself stuck in, the cold, and Raidon’s aura so close to me.

He parks his car out the front of the shitty apartment building and stares ahead at the road as if the view

around here disgusts him. “Get out and don’t be late for work tomorrow,” he says, dismissing me like a

servant.

I retrieved my bag from the footwell of the car and the paper bag of the now cold meal he bought for me

at McDonald’s.

“And make sure you cover your neck. The last thing we want is rumours. We have a feeder working for

us,” Raidon growls out right before I shut the car door. He’s speeding off before I manage to blink, let

alone snap back at him. Is it my fault now? How? Your stupid mate attacked me, and now I’m to blame

for his lack of control? Those men, they’re impossible! All of them!

Taking deep breaths to calm myself, I stand at the side of the street and stare after him, waiting for him to

turn off the set of lights at the end of the road.

I feel unusually numb, and an odd calmness overtakes me as I walk back to the office building. The

streets are also pretty quiet, providing me with a perfect atmosphere to think.

As I look around and notice a few darker alleys ahead of me, I quicken my step, a little scared to roam

alone in the streets in the middle of the night.

When I finally reach my workplace, I walk around the building to the hedges that run along the side of the

loading dock. I try to remember which hedge I stuffed my backpack in earlier, and it takes me twenty

agonizing minutes, but I finally locate it.

Once the backpack is in my hands, I glance around nervously to make sure no one has seen me slip

past the open gates of the loading dock.

I double and even triple-check my surroundings before I spot the smoke-mart store across the street

before I turn back to the door. Carefully, I place the key in, twist it, and shove the door open to race

towards the alarm panel.

I know that I have only forty seconds to shut off the alarm before it alerts the security company that

guards this building during the night. My hands shake as I punch in the code and let out a heavy breath

of relief once I see the panel light turn green.

At first, I wander around a little before I head to the storage locker I plan to use as my secret bedroom

and unlock the door. I slip inside and move right to the back, which has mostly filing shelves.

There is a slim gap behind one which is filled with old, broken computers and some parts. I drag the shelf

slightly forward to create a tiny space where I can make a mini makeshift den.

No one should be able to see me back here, behind all the broken parts, and I doubt many people come

here. The place is so overtaken with cobwebs that I could quickly gather them and stuff a whole pillow

with them.

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Chapter 24

I sit on the cold floor and rummage through my backpack. I rustle out my blanket and some extra layers

of clothing before grabbing my dirty laundry and making a bed out of it. It’s not much, but at the very

least, I have somewhere dry to stay and sleep.

I sit on the improvised bed and open the paper bag. I reach inside it and pull out the cheeseburger with

fries and don’t hold back from taking a bite off the soggy cheeseburger.

The food was ice cold, but I let out a heavy sigh of contentment once I started chewing on it. At the end

of the day, as cold as it is, it’s still food that I can’t afford, and I must be grateful for whatever I can get,

especially for free. Perhaps tossing the meal at me was a way Raidon tried to pay me off their back and

everything, but I feel like it wasn’t that. Maybe he showed a little more humanity by buying me the cheap

meal just because he felt a little guilty.

Besides, there is no way any of them knows about my financial troubles. I’ve been working my ass off to

hide those, and so far, I’ve been doing a great job. They don’t know and will never know.

As I swallow another chunk of cold meat, I can’t even imagine the wild things I could do for one delicious,

hot meal. As soon as I get my first paycheck, I will go to the little past joint down the street from the office

building.

It smelt like heaven every time I had to walk past it, and I had been craving pasta for days. Well, anything

really, for as long as it can fill my stomach. But for now, I devour the burger and fries instead of the food

of my dreams. It barely hits the slides, but it’s far better than nothing at all. At least I’m not going to bed

on an empty stomach.

Yet, as I lay on the pile of my dirty laundry and stare at the darkened ceiling, I can’t help but wonder if

Leon is okay back at the mansion. I had never seen him so out of control, so far away from his usual

giddy persona ever before.

Yes, Leon frightened and attacked me, but despite him almost killing me twice in a row, I don’t fear his

presence even half as much as I fear Thane’s wrath.