Chosen as the Cursed Alpha's Seventh Bride

Chapter 274: Chapter 274 First Day on the Job

Emilia’s POV

By ten o’clock I felt like myself again, more or less.

Sebastian was already reaching for the car keys. "Come on. I’ll drive you back to the beach house so you can rest."

"Rest?" I swung my legs off the bed and stood up, testing my balance. Steady enough. "It’s my first day at Simons Imperial Group, in case you forgot. I feel fine now, so I’m going in."

"You’re not going anywhere. I’ll mind-link Fynn and have him handle it."

"I don’t need Fynn to babysit my job." I grabbed my blazer off the chair. "I told you, I’m fine. I’m going to work."

He stared at me for a long moment, then dragged a hand down his face and muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like "impossible woman". But he grabbed the keys and drove me in anyway.

The second we stepped into the office, though, something felt off.

Fynn was slumped at his desk, staring blankly at a stack of papers he clearly wasn’t reading. His eyes were rimmed red, like he hadn’t slept.

"Fynn?" I asked. "You okay?"

He snapped upright and forced a smile. "Yeah. Fine. Long night, that’s all."

Sebastian frowned at him, sensing it too. "You look like hell."

"Thanks, boss. Really needed that."

I decided not to push. "Fynn, would you take me down to Marketing? I want to meet the team."

The department heads were polite, even warm. They pulled out a chair for me and walked me through the current campaigns. Whatever they thought of a new supervisor dropping in out of nowhere, they kept it professional, and I appreciated that.

By noon my phone buzzed. A message from Sebastian: [Come to my office. Lunch.]

I headed up. But as I passed the break room, I caught voices through the half-open door, low and sharp.

"...heard she’s the Alpha’s mate. That’s how she landed a supervisor spot on day one."

"Figures. No way someone walks in and runs a department like that on merit."

"Please. She’s just another pretty face who climbed into Sebastian’s bed and skipped the line."

I stopped. Eve bristled inside me, a low growl curling through my chest. "Let me remind them who they’re talking about."

"No," I told her quietly. "We don’t argue with gossip. We bury it with results."

I didn’t walk in. I didn’t say a word. I just turned around, sent Sebastian a quick text saying I’d already eaten, and went back to my own office.

Let them talk. They’d choke on their words soon enough.

The afternoon flew by. Around three, my new assistant, a bright young thing named Priya, knocked and stepped in.

"Luna Emilia, there’s a birthday gala tonight. One of our biggest partners is hosting. Corporate would like you to attend and discuss the next phase of the collaboration."

"Understood. I’ll be there."

She’d barely left when the mind-link hit me, sharp and irritated.

"Do you ever look at your phone?"

I blinked. "Sebastian?"

"I’ve called you six times. Texted you more than that. Did you decide to ignore me for fun?"

I glanced down. My screen was still on silent from the meeting, crowded with missed calls and messages.

"First day," I said. "I got a little absorbed. That’s all."

He exhaled. "I have an important event tonight. I want you to come with me."

"Can’t. I already have a work function of my own."

Honestly, his events bored me to tears. Rich Alphas circling each other, pretending it wasn’t all one long game of who had the bigger territory.

"Why don’t you just bring Fynn?" I offered, only half paying attention. "It’s literally his job."

"The problem," he said dryly, "is that Fynn is a man. At these things I’m expected to arrive with a woman on my arm."

Ah. So it really was a rich man’s money game after all.

I snorted. "You don’t need a woman for anything. Take Fynn and stop whining. Now let me work."

By five, I arrived at the address on the invitation.

I stepped out of the car and just stared. The mansion rose up like something transplanted straight from European royalty, all soaring stone and glowing windows. The circular drive was packed with luxury cars, most of them the kind you only see in magazines. One look at the guests filing in told me the host was no ordinary partner.

Inside, I spotted a familiar face.

"Lily?"

She turned, then grinned. "Emilia! What are you doing here?"

"Working, apparently." I lifted my invitation. "You?"

"Here with Scott." She nodded toward Scott Hanson, who gave me a polite smile from a few feet away.

If Scott Hanson himself had shown up, this partner really was someone with serious weight.

The ballroom stole my breath. I’d thought the pack house was the height of luxury, but this was something else entirely. The hall could easily seat six hundred, every guest assigned a proper place. It was nothing like the loud, sloppy parties Sebastian usually dragged me to. Here everyone wore formal attire. The men in tailored suits, the women in sharp business dresses. I scanned the room twice and didn’t see a single plunging gown in sight.

You could read the elegance of the whole evening just from what people were wearing.

Lily and I took our seats in the third row with the others. She kept fidgeting, watching the endless stream of guests.

"Hey, isn’t that your husband?"

She pointed toward a devastatingly handsome man in a designer suit near the front. I followed her finger, and sure enough, it was Sebastian, with Fynn standing beside him.

What in the world was he doing here?

"I have no idea," I muttered. "I’ll go ask him."

I got up and cut through the crowd to the first row, which was clearly all VIP seating, guests personally invited by the host. A different world from ours, sitting back here with our generic invitations.

I tapped his shoulder. "Hey. What are you doing here?"

He turned on instinct, and when he saw it was me, he froze for a full beat, like his brain refused to process my sudden appearance.

"Idiot," I said. "I asked you a question."

That snapped him out of it. "Wait. This is the "work function" you mentioned?"

"Yep. And this is the "important event" you mentioned?"

"Yes."

He nodded slowly, then turned to Fynn beside him. "You. Move to the back."

"Why?" Fynn eyed the massive crowd behind us with open reluctance.

"Do you not see Luna Emilia standing right here?"

Fynn rose with a long-suffering sigh and gave up his seat. But he couldn’t resist a parting shot. "Careful, you two. A few hundred pairs of eyes are watching."

I sank into the chair beside Sebastian. "So. How do you know the big person m throwing this party?"

"She was my mentor. Taught me most of what I know."

"So you’re close?" A little spark of hope lit in my chest. With Sebastian in my corner, sealing the next phase of the partnership might be easier than I’d feared.

"Close enough."

"Then can you do me a favor?"

"What favor?"

But before I could get another word out, a figure drifted through the entrance, and my whole face went cold.

Sebastian caught the shift in my expression and followed my stare. The second he saw Abigail Tanner, he was already talking.

"Don’t misread this. Her being here has nothing to do with me."

"Then what is she doing here?"

"How would I know?" His jaw tightened. "I already told you. This has nothing to do with me."

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