Enslaved To The Alphas-Chapter 247: Meeting The Lords

"What are you doing?" Mira almost jumped out of her hiding place at the sound of the loud voice from behind her.

She turned around, ready to scold whoever had dared to sneak up on her, but the words tangled on her tongue. She blinked once. Then again. Was he an angel who had come down like it was described in some books? She stared up at the grey eyed man and hurriedly looked away as she felt a blush coming onto her face.

For a brief, ridiculous moment, Mira forgot to breathe and then she saw him laughing at her. No one was allowed to laugh at her! She gritted her teeth and lifted her chin. "Don’t you know how to use your eyes? What does it look like? It’s not like I am riding a horse here or dancing. Of course, I’m hiding."

He raised a brow, gaze flicking pointedly to the stack of grain sacks she’d squeezed herself between and shook his head, "You’re doing a very poor job of it. I could spot your golden hair from the moment I entered the kitchen, which also means that I can make good use of my eyes."

That snapped her back to herself. This man definitely would not be an angel. Fates would not make angels so argumentative, right? He must be a devil... She narrowed her eyes and whispered, "I didn’t ask for your opinion. And you’re not supposed to be here. This place is for residents and staff. Not for guests."

The man smiled and then flicked her forehead," I don’t think this place is for you either or you wouldn’t be doing your best to hide here."

Mira scowled. Actually, she had been ordered by the master to hide. And because it was so cold to hide outside, she had chosen her usual place in the kitchen, thinking it would keep her warm. But now, there was trouble. She could not possibly tell this man that Master had ordered her to hide from the Lords who were coming to mate.

Before she could say anything or ask him again to leave, he pushed through the grain sacks and lowered himself beside her, close enough that the narrow space seemed to shrink around them. The sacks shifted, rustling softly, and his arm brushed against hers.

Mira stiffened.

The contact sent an unwelcome flutter through her chest. She shuffled away at once, trying to press herself closer to the wall, but there was nowhere to go. His arm stayed where it was making her acutely aware of just how close he was sitting.

"This-this is not proper," she tried to assert in a low voice but the man did not seem to understand the differences between men and women and looked entertained.

"Not proper?" he repeated, "What exactly isn’t proper? Even as he said the words, he leaned close to her staring at her with a smile.

Mira swallowed and pointed out, "You. Sitting here. Like this. Next to me."

"Like what?" His tone was innocent, but she could hear the amusement in it. Why was he making fun of her? She was not the one making rules.

She shot him an exasperated look. "So close. A man and a girl who are not related should not—" She stopped, heat rushing to her face. "It’s improper."

That was the wrong thing to say.

He laughed at her again and said, "You worry far too much. If we were sitting in the banquet hall then it could have been improper, but we are hidden. Of course you have to sit close if you are hiding together. And since we are in hiding no one is going to judge us about propriety, okay?"

Mira frowned at that. There was some kind of a twisted logic in that...But then she realised," We are not hiding together!"

She was hiding alone and he was the one who had intruded!

He gave her a look that called her a fool and she opened her mouth to argue, but his hand moved before she could form the words.

His fingers brushed her cheek lightly, as if testing whether she would pull away. Mira froze, breath caught in her throat.

"How can something so soft be so improper?" he murmured.

Her heart leapt painfully. "Don’t—" she whispered, finally jerking back. "Don’t do that."

He withdrew his hand at once, though the amusement never left his eyes. "Ah. That is improper," he said lightly. "I understand now."

"You don’t understand anything," she snapped, though her voice trembled despite her efforts to steady it. She folded her arms, angling her body away from him, trying to regain some sense of composure. "You should keep your hands to yourself."

"As you wish," he replied smoothly. Then, after a pause, "But you should know-if anyone walks in, they’ll assume far worse than a hand on the cheek."

Her eyes widened. And she almost wanted to curse this man like Aron had taught her. Just a little bit of nausea and diarrhea would be good for him. The only thing that stopped her from doing it was because he was probably a guest and she didn’t want him to complain to master later. Praying to the Goddess for patience, she asked him, "Then why are you still here?"

He smiled then and taped her nose, as he added meaningfully "Because I found something interesting here."

Mira frowned. What interesting things could he have found? She narrowed her eyes and looked around before hurriedly shifting her stance and blocking a large sack from his view...

"You cannot take the golden treasure!" She watched as the man blinked and tried to look over. But she was not going to budge. Master had paid a heavy price to secure this sack of wheat. She would not let anyone steal it, even if they were a guest.

But the man laughed at her and unknown to her, as he looked at her shining golden hair and the way she was protecting a sack of wheat, he could only shake his head and mutter," I am suddenly interested in a gold treasure."

With that, he sent her a wink and then leapt over the grain sacks again, leaving her worried about the ’treasure’ and not realizing that he meant the grains...