Chapter 8

• Yvonne's POV
• A loud cheer and applause emanates from the audience, most of them rise to their feet to clap and congratulate me but I keep my head high lest this makes my defense grow low. I smile in appreciation for the acknowledgement they are giving to me.
• On the podium are two seats which I sense are for me and Nelly. I don't think they should be there, I would rise in delivering my speech and once I'm done, I'm off the stage, there is no need for these seats which are positioned as if I'm here for an interview.
• Nelly steps up to the platform to use the mic. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen," she pauses to receive the response. "Today is a great day because today I will be introducing our highly esteemed CEO, who is also our queen to you. Help me welcome Her Majesty, Queen Yvonne, the current winner of the Miss Werewolf America. Let's welcome her to the podium to make her speech with a round of applause."
• The entire room vibrates with the sound of clapping hands, heavily falling like some heavy rain from the sky, beating against the top of the roof. It sounds exactly like this but still I don't let it get into my head.
• Nelly steps down from the podium and gestures to me to take over. I take a deep breath before moving up amidst the cheers and claps. I wait for it to subside, then I bring my mouth closer to the mic and I begin to speak.
• "It's a great honor and delight to have you all here. With all protocols duly observed, I stand her to introduce myself to you as the CEO of this company. You have my name as Miss Yvonne, I'm not married and as you all know, I was the winner of the annual pageantry contest, Miss Werewolf World. Standing before you is a great honor. Today is my first day in office, as you welcome me to this position, I also welcome you to your various jobs and wish we will all cooperate to take Berryville or BerryBeauty to a greater height. I have a lot to say but I didn't intend to consume much of your time so that you all can return to your respective jobs. All will be communicated to you as due by my Personal Assistant in the person of Miss Nelly here." I turn to look at her. "Thanks so much for honoring this invitation and giving me your listening ears. I think from today you will be seeing me more, when I'm coming and also when I'm leaving work, home."
• Laughter erupts from the audience, they actually know what I'm talking about. I felt like adding a tone of joke to my seriousness to make me more interesting as a CEO. I smile at their reaction.
• "Thanks, I love you all." I blow them a kiss before stepping down, giving Nelly the opportunity to continue.
• "As you all have heard, she has said it all. I'm here to conclude it. You have a very good CEO, you have nothing to fear, at the same time, you have everything to fear." She chuckles and whenever someone says something as serious as this, but ends up laughing, chuckling or smiling while saying this, I fear it more than someone who keeps a serious face because you don't know what is going to happen next.
• "I say this because intentional bad attitude towards work wouldn't be tolerated, anyone caught would be fired, nothing like a second chance." Everyone gasps, holding their breath.
• "No, don't bother. You don't need to worry as long as you do the right thing, second chances and more are served by mistakes but not intentional acts." She adds and relief flies into the atmosphere, the tension which had filled the audience fades away and that smile which had existed before on their faces comes back.
• "Okay, thanks so much.. I love you all. We love you all." She blows them a kiss as well, and steps down walking in front of me. I wave to the audience as I walk out of the room.
• "Come with me, I'll show you to your office," she says and walks me to the office we had come from, opening the giant glass door for me. Apart from being the Miss Werewolf America, she gives me super treatment making me feel like a queen. I smile back at her in gratitude upon entering the office.
• I remember what we wanted to discuss before actually going out for the introduction. Now that the introduction is over, we need to return back to the issue at hand.
• After sitting on the couches, she brings fruit drinks from the refrigerator, pours a mixture of three which can actually be combined due to his component into the glasses, it makes a better taste from what I've experienced before.
• She takes a deep breath, looks at me. "You said your relationship with Jack and Jeff is like what? I'm shocked with what you are really telling me, that…. It's just so confusing."
• She throws her gaze to the floor and shakes her head. It's not as painful to her as it is to me who is the one feeling a greater percentage of the pains.
• "Loving Jeff could not be compared with loving Jack, yet he has thrown me away, treat me like a slave even while in Jeff's wing of the palace, he doesn't wants to see me again, this started immediately after he had sex with me, I thought things would be better but he returned to his girlfriend. Jeff on the other hand wouldn't want to set eyes on me, saying I'm a traitor but between my fated mate and gifts, which should I choose. Even the moon goddess would be angry and strike me with a curse if I chose any other person apart from Jack, it's just so surprising that he wouldn't want to have anything to do with me."
• I continue from where I had stopped to have a little rest, not only does this burdens my mind, but my body. "Fated mates are never like that, they are meant to serve as each other's buddy, love and cherish each other even when they had a woman in their lives already but instead of Jack doing this, he turned to a beast using me and afterwards not wanting anything from me. How am I going to survive this in the palace, it's a totally different world right now to me."
• "Hmmm," Nelly sighs. "This is so bad, I can't imagine you being in such a situation because they are going to be rude to you. Can I come live with you?" She asks.
• "No, no, why do you want to do that?" A stern look appears on her face and she directs it at me , making me fear her. I have never seen her look this way before.
• "Why are you looking at me that way?" I can't afford to ask because it's unusual. She sighs, flinches her face and then returns her gaze to me.
• "Do you know what I send would happen if you live alone, how can you live alone in a place full of enemies, what about the loneliness, the depression and the fact that you are pregnant, who is going to take care of you when you fall sick, who would fight for you when you are bullied or taken advantage of, you know I'm a feminist, as well as an activist. I can go as far as suing the Alphas for you, they are not bigger than the law."
• My entire body re-vibrates hearing the word 'sue.' Is she out of her senses? I smirk, shaking my face. "What do you expect to be the outcome of you suing any of the Alphas?"
• "Nothing!" She mutters with so much confidence.
• "Nothing?" I repeat. "Nothing? Do you even know the power an Alpha has in his pack or you are trying to behave like a foreigner?"
• "No, I'm not!" Tension arising from trying to convince Nelly to think the way I do makes me start to breathe heavily. There is no need in trying to convince her, she is so hard hearted when it comes to uploading women's rights that she doesn't look back. No matter what she does, I see the heavier consequences coming on me if I do the same. Everyone, including the Alphas seeing her do this, fight for my rights would naturally take her to be doing her job but such is not the case with me. A Luna is supposed to be submissive to her mate, talk less of an Alpha where total submission is the case.
• Now this is the reason I don't want Nelly around me even though she's quite an intimate friend, if I'm mistreated, she would see it all and it will make her feel bad. I don't see this causing her to do something which would land me or both of us in trouble, it's good she lives at the estate I was given together with the car for winning the pageantry.
• She still persists to live with me but I bluntly refuse. "It's for your own good, I don't want us to be separated from each other, we might both be arrested and locked up, is that what you attempt to feel?"
• "No, I don't." She replies but still with that determination. Oh Nelly! She can't be changed.
• "Then you don't bother about coming now, you may, I don't know, later on when my pregnancy is in the second or third trimester. I have an idea!" I say excitedly. This is what I'd been planning to say right from the house but immediately I entered the car and drove out, it went out of my memory. Thank God, it's now back.
• "What's that?" Nelly asks me with full interest, whoever I say something like this, she knows it's gonna be some new idea or news she hasn't heard of. This makes me happy, even when she hasn't totally accepted the idea of not coming to live with me. Whenever I want to speak and someone is there to give me listening ears, I'm always so happy, delighted.
• "You know of the new therapy which stops nauseated feeling and makes you walk about freely or sleep well without having symptoms of pregnancy like vomiting, feeling dizzy and the rest?"
• "No, I haven't heard of that, I don't think such exists." I laugh at this response of hers.
• "Are you really sure of what you're saying?" I ask her with full conviction because I know that what I'm saying is absolutely real, I have friends who are using it and according to the doctors, they aren't side effects since they are from herbs but why most people wouldn't be able to purchase this service is because of its cost.
• A package which is just medium size and would last for only two months goes for about a hundred thousand dollars and together with the therapy, we are heading to three hundred and fifty thousand, the therapy is even costlier than the main drugs.
• Nelly is my friend but I don't have to mind her when she says something. I know we have different mindsets and our thinking style differs, not even identical twins are the same when it comes to non-physical traits, here we have the emotional, spiritual and mental.
• "So how do you see it?" I ask afterwards, now she knows all I'm talking about because I have taken out time to explain the concept to her and she now knows.
• "Well, it will be good but are you willing to spend such an amount of money? You have eight months left to be specific, I would even say nine months because you are just starting your first trimester, so would you be willing to spend approximately one point million dollars only on this therapy and the drugs, wouldn't it have been enough to do something better with it, with the money. Now you are going to be enduring the Alphas, why don't you learn to endure the nausea too?"