Desire for you - ALPHA ILAY

DELILAH

The coffee talk with Ilay was funny. It was almost a nice gesture, if you ask me honestly.

May looked just as puzzled and frowned at me "What on earth did he want from you early in the morning?" May asked me in surprise.

I shrugged my shoulders and didn't know exactly what to say. That I overslept and he woke me up would be the wrong answer, I think. That I was dreaming about Ilay and we were quite close would be even weirder.

I swallowed: "He asked me to have a coffee too..." I replied, which only made her frown even more.

"Well... We have to get breakfast ready before we're all late," May left it at that, even though she probably felt the need to tell me something else. Her shocked, puzzled look was written all over her face.

I just nodded and got to work. The silver cutlery was in a separate drawer. Some people would only use cutlery like this for special occasions, but in this house it was different. The silver cutlery was used in the morning, at lunchtime and in the evening.

The table was covered with a white cloth with gold decorations. The napkins were neatly folded and the cutlery was laid out according to etiquette.

May positioned all the food in the centre and arranged it beautifully.

I wondered why so much food was being cooked all of a sudden, because on other days the quantity was a lot less than today and there was one more place setting than usual.

Did Achira have a guest we didn't know about?

Not a second later, Achira and Ilay entered in the same room while May, I and other servants stood in line waiting for them to sit down.

Ilay was at the top of the table, Achira next to him and May sat next to Ilay so that she was opposite Achira. I sat down next to Achira like any other day and waited for them to start eating.

No wonder, May had taken me with her. Since Ilay was eating with us, the tray was no longer necessary.

Ilay's presence made the air in the room thick. As a rule, me and Achira were fooling around while May tried to put us in our place.

I thought back to last night and forced myself to stifle my laughter.

Apparently Achira was thinking the same thing and giggled quietly for a moment as she looked at me from the corner of her eye. I blushed and lowered my gaze to avoid laughing in front of everyone.

Ilay looked at us with raised eyebrows as he shovelled the scrambled eggs and avocados into his mouth.

Suddenly Achira burst out laughing and held her hands to her stomach.

"S-sorry... I just had to laugh for a moment... I just had to," she said with a grin and almost couldn't contain herself.

Ilay rolled her eyes and sighed "We've lived long enough to know that you need a screaming fit every morning. What's the occasion today?" Ilay said, leaning back comfortably in his chair.

Achira shook her head hastily: "It's nothing... I just had a great time yesterday, that's all," she replied and continued eating.

"It was obvious that you had a good time last night," Ilay said, glancing at me.

Did I mention that his looks could be bloody poisonous? They were especially deadly if you made eye contact. It was a Medusa effect every time. You stood petrified at the sight of his eyes.

Especially since eye contact with a noble, high-ranking and royal demon was also an invitation to challenge. That was never a good idea. I realised that I usually called Ilay sir. Even that was probably wrong. Surely he should be called Your Highness or Your Majesty? No?

I caught Ilay with a small grin on his lips, which quickly disappeared again.

Wait... Had he just read my mind?

Damn!

My cheeks couldn't get any redder. I stared at my food and couldn't get another spoonful down.

However, he thankfully stood up and cleared his throat "If you'll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do," Ilay said and if I'm not mistaken, he gave me a very inconspicuous wink at that moment.

"Yes, yes, you can get back to your bourbon, I'll see you later," Achira said and finished eating.

God, I was embarrassed... I was grateful that Ilay had disappeared so quickly, because I probably wouldn't have eaten any more and would have had to do my list of chores on an empty stomach.

After we'd all eaten, we cleaned everything up. Achira grinned at me and came up to me "I'm sorry for yesterday's disaster, I shouldn't have left you alone," she whispered to me.

I shook my head "It's not that bad... Nothing happened," I replied, to which she nodded.

"I think we'll leave the parties for now, I don't want to upset Ilay. He's not interested in giving us a hard time at the moment and preaching to us about why it's all bad, but he's not indifferent to us." Achira winked at me. I wonder what that means.

"Yes, you're right... We can't let this get out of hand," I muttered and finally looked after Achira as she disappeared from the room.

Since Ilay was safely in the office, I ran into his bedroom and changed his bed linen like any other day.

A red thong fell to the floor. I raised my eyebrows and lifted it with the gloves I had on. I shook my head with a sigh and threw the thong in the bin. "The blonde certainly won't be looking for it... " I muttered to myself and cleaned everything up.

After I'd finished with the bathroom, I breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the beads of sweat from my face.

Damn, that was exhausting! After that long night and all the alcohol, the work was an imposition.

I was at the end of my tether and wanted to take a nap...

I never thought I would always be a prisoner in life. Even though Ilay put it nicely with "employee", he had told the truth the other day. At the end of the day, I'm his slave and nothing more. Even when I was well, I was still a prisoner.

The fact made my hair stand on end. I wished so much that I could turn back the clock, when I was just me and nobody had anything to say to me...

ILAY

I wasn't planning on drinking bourbon. The only thing I was going to do was blow up the ruby in flames.

I changed my clothes in my room. I had put on a black jumper and jeans, and I grabbed my black shoes and a mid-length black coat. I threw my Louis Vuitton scarf over my neck so that both ends hung forwards over my coat.

I took one last look in the mirror and scrutinised myself.

Now the show could begin.

I teleported into the city, two streets away from the ruby. This neighbourhood was known for its whore status and in every corner there was a half-naked woman waiting to seduce a man.

It was clear that I stood out in this neighbourhood. Everyone knew who I was and even the whores lowered their eyes when I walked past them.

I spotted an older lady taking a drag on her cigarette and blowing out the smoke.

Sighing, I took the cigarette she held out to me and looked at the ruby in the distance.

"I didn't think I'd see you again, Prince Ilay... What brings you here?" she asked me, also looking at the ruby.

I took a deep drag from the cigarette and clearly felt like Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders, standing outside his burning bar in Birmingham, smoking a cigarette for the first time to calm down.

The difference between me and Tommy was that this time I would be the arsonist.

I looked at the lady Kheira: "Some people never learn... Does the name Zamiel mean anything to you?" I asked her as I held the cigarette between my fingers.

Funnily enough, Kheira looked like Polly from Peaky Blinders and almost had her voice. She was my personal informant who was out for money. Having me as a client was very lucrative for her.

"Zamiel... Son of a judge, high status, nothing behind it, if you ask me..." she replied and took another drag on her cigarette. She knew everything and everyone here. No wonder, she was a thousand years older than me.

"The name Churchill, what about it?" I asked her, to which she frowned at me.

"You don't mean Chris Churchill, do you?" she asked me in amazement, playing with her hair, which she kept wrapping around her fingers.

I bit my lower lip: "Does this Chris have a daughter?"

"Oh yes... He did, until she disappeared one day and never came home again," she said.

"Why would his daughter disappear before him?" Delilah was probably a woman full of secrets.

"You are curious, my prince," she paused and took the last puff of her cigarette.

"She was in love, but her father refused to accept Zamiel as her mate. He gave her the choice of the family or Zamiel and so she chose Zamiel... Who knows where the poor thing is now. They said she'd been sold." She dropped the rest of the cigarette on the floor and sighed.

I listened to her and nodded in understanding "Thank you very much, you've helped me," I said to her and pressed a bag of gold coins into her hand.

She accepted it gratefully "Always happy to help," she replied with a smile. Her coat came down to her calves and was a brown colour. Underneath, she was wearing a knitted dress with a turtleneck. Her bob was smartly styled and her perfume also smelled enchanting. You really could have thought she was Polly Grey.

"As all hell is about to break loose here, I'd advise you to get out," I warned her, glancing around me. The streets looked empty except for a few whores. This neighbourhood really did resemble old Birmingham.

She nodded slightly and ran her fingers through her brown hair "As for Churchill's daughter... There's a bounty on her head. Her father was very angry when she left. It didn't matter to Churchill that Zamiel would bring her back, because to him he was a dead man from the start. Churchill wanted a decent man for his daughter... Zamiel may have come from a wealthy and well-known family, but he himself was incapable of anything. Churchill knew that from the start..." Kheira turned round and waved to me before disappearing into the distance. Mhm, fathers-in-law were always hard to convince ... As far as Catherine's father was concerned, he had indeed been difficult to convince.

After Catherine jumped off the cliff because of me, it was an arse card I'd played on him anyway. He had never forgiven me for that... Fortunately, werewolves don't live very long... I could live with the guilty conscience Alexander had given me for a century.

I threw the cigarette on the floor and remembered Delilah's past. It made my blood boil again and my eyes turned red. I let my demon out of me completely and a devilish grin formed on my rigid face.

Everything I touched began to burn and everyone who saw me coming ran away screaming.

I marched into the ruby like an army of one and set most of it on fire.

"LEROY COME OUT!" I shouted angrily. This was no wishful thinking. My powers were forcing him to stand in front of me.

In a moment, Leroy would wish he'd never been born.