Stripping For The Alpha King

Chapter 27

The tied pillow case was tossed on the passenger side between Ajax's legs and I was clutching the steering wheel as I blipped the gas pedal. The car lurched forward for the hundredth. When Ajax had tossed me the keys I thought he was trying to joke around with me to lighten the mood. But now I was driving the expensive car on a paved road after we had exited the palace gates. I had tried to pay attention to how Ajax had commanded the terrifying gates to open, but I had been too busy trying to manage my gas to pedal ratio. Then we drove for twenty minutes on gravel before we finally hit pavement.

"Turn right," he instructed as we came to an intersection.

I just remained stopped and turned to stare at him, "You understand I could crash this car and kill us both."

"You wouldn't," he said, "You might not like to admit it but you would be devastated if anything happened to me."

"How can you be sure?" I challenged, but finally pulled onto the road like he had asked. The car speed up gloriously and I almost lost my breath with it.

"I know how I would feel if any harm came to you. I imagine that you would feel very similarly," he replied. For a statement like that I expected him to be soft and sweet, but he was only factual with steady eyes, like this was something that everyone experienced. "Ease up on the gas, speed racer. my mom would kill me if I got a ticket in her favorite car."

I rolled my eyes but my foot lifted anyway. "I could drive this car to the airport and demand to get on the next flight."

"You could, but you don't have enough money or know your way around the city. Good luck reading German, I lived her my whole life and still struggle sometimes. So, you'd need me to get there and you'd need me to pay for the plane ticket so there would be nothing stopping me from buying my own and tagging along. Well, aside from the fact that Holly will be arriving soon and I have some questions for her."

"Holly has nothing to do with us," I barked, immediately becoming defensive. But I wasn't sure it was warranted. The last time I had seen Holly she had sided with Ajax and pleaded with me. It seemed impossible that that woman was my best friend who preached feminism. I wasn't sure how I would take seeing her again and I also had no idea why Ajax would want anything to do with Holly.

"How did you meet Holly?" Ajax pressed, cocking his head as he watched me.

"My mother introduced me to her when I moved to Denver. We've been very close since we were very young. My mom really wanted us to be friends and we were both super resistant to the idea of being set up by our moms. But, she's great and I'm lucky to have her in my life. Now, how does Holly know you?" I demanded. The way she had recognized him and stared at him with scared eyes had unnerved me. I didn't like the idea of anyone having power over Holly.

"I'm going to be king, everyone knows me. Well, everyone other than you."

"King of what? Germany has no active monarchy, right? And you said your family was planning on moving to America. I feel like it's stupid to move out of your own kingdom."

"Think of it as me being the ruler of a group of people, not a place," he suggested. "Take the next right. I know that the palace has some of the best chefs employed there, but I just want a cheap, greasy burger."

I felt like a ton of baggage had just been dumped on to me. It would take days to sort through the information I had received and decoding all the hidden meanings would take longer. But, it was still progress and that meant that I deserved a burger too.

"Why did you just tell me that you were royal?" I pressed.

"You didn't really seem like the kind of girl who was swayed by money. I mean, you constantly made fun of me for being a rich kid. And it would open up all these questions that I can't answer just yet."

"Like who you rule over? Shouldn't you be proud of that? And shouldn't it be common knowledge?"

"Yes to all three. However, what I rule over isn't exactly common knowledge. It takes a special breed of person to understand and believe in the people I lead. Now, it's my turn for questions. Have you ever taken any unusual medication?" while he spoke he also pointed out a burger joint down the street.

"You mean other than the drugs you made that park ranger give me?" I jabbed.

"Yes, besides that."

"You already know the answer to that."

"I want more details. So you can either tell me now or I can wait for Holly and ask her."

"I've been taking the same pill once a week for almost as long as I can remember. I started by taking it once a month, but I was having strange dreams and every now and then I would get wild flashes of pain. After that my dose was upped to once a week."

I glanced nervously at Ajax when we pulled into the parking lot. He just shot me a tight smile before sliding out of the car.