Alpha Markus
Chapter 49

Celeste P.O.V.

“I want to cook all of Gillian’s favorites this week, though I am a little mad he’s been helping them this whole time without telling us, so maybe I should only make him one thing. I’ve been so worried about them. Feeling guilty that I was getting full meals every day when I couldn’t know if they were getting any food at all,” I said as we drove to the bank the next morning.

“That’s Gillian for you. He will never tell the extent of what he does for others unless you catch him mid act,” Markus explained.

“How did you meet him?”

“Dad always made time to visit the orphanage. He still does I think. His dad was not a kind man. He provided the bare necessities and refused to grant any past that. It takes a while to rebuild trust after having that type of Alpha and dad worked very hard to get it. He made personal visits to the Orphanage because he wanted to make sure the kids had a happy life despite their tragedies. One day, Mrs Quinn wasn’t available to babysit and dad decided that it wouldn’t hurt for me to come play with the kids. They were going to be my people eventually anyways…” He said as he got lost in the memory.

“I found Gillian in a corner of the playground. He was getting bullied by a couple of bigger kids and I threatened to call my dad if they hurt him. When they finally left, I realized that he wasn’t even protecting himself, he was taking s**t because he was protecting a little bird that they had been trying to pluck the feathers off of. We took the bird to my father, who allowed me to take it home to watch until it was better and could fly off. He arranged for visits from Gillian to come see the bird at the Packhouse. We have been friends since.”

“So he’s been helping since he was a boy.” I nodded. “OK, I’m back to cooking him three meals this week,” I said and Markus laughed as he parked the car in front of the bank.

“When am I going to get my favorites cooked for?” He demanded.

That was true, I had never cooked specifically for him. “What are your favorites? I can cook them for you next week?”

He smirked at me. “You.” I was confused and about to ask what he meant when Kara flashed me some images that made me realize what he meant and I swear I heard the capillaries in my face all burst at the same time. He laughed and pulled me over the seat and onto his lap. It was a good thing this was a big truck or I would have hit my head on the roof.

“Markus!” I said before he crashed his lips on mine. His k**s was hungry and electrifying. My entire body reacted and molded to him, wanting to feel him everywhere. I m****d as his lips finally left my lips and trailed k****s down to his mark. My core clenched when I felt his teeth gently scraped on the mark, sending jolts of pleasure through me.

“F**k….we should get this over with so I can get you home and take you properly,” he g*****d. We sat there for a few minutes while we got our l**t under control and then he opened the door and I jumped off the truck. He wrapped his arm around my waist and handed me the file folder we had put all of the documents in and led us to the bank.

“Mr Salonen! Good to see you sir! How is your father?” an older gentleman greeted us at the entrance.

“He’s great. Enjoying retirement, thanks for asking,” Markus responded, shaking his hand. “Thank you for meeting with us on such short notice, Mr. Ronin. This is my ma- ehh…partner Celeste.”

“Pleasure to meet you Celeste! And it’s no bother at all! We’re happy to have you. You’re one of our biggest clients. Can I offer you some water, champagne, some lunch?”

I looked at Markus and scrunched my nose as he walked us towards his office. He smirked, “No thank you, we have a lot of business to get done today.”

“Of course, of course. I would imagine the owner of a billion-dollar company has a lot of work to do,” he said as he sat down. “So what can I do for you Mr. Salonen. Do you have any concerns with how we’ve been handling your account?”

“No no,” Markus said, “In fact one of the things we need to talk about is adding Celeste as joint holder to my personal account. ” One of my eyebrows rose on its own accord at this. He had never mentioned this being part of the plan.

“Ha-have you talked to your attorney about this sir?” he said, darting a look at me.

“Why would I need to consult my attorney on a personal matter?” Markus growled. I put my hand on his leg where the banker couldn’t see, trying to calm his anger with the mate bond.

“I – I just thought, considering the size of your estate, that perhaps you should consult with your attorney before adding a young lady that isn’t yet your wif-” He shut up at the look that Markus gave as he stood up. I grabbed his arm.

“Markus, we can discuss this later. How about we go through my documents instead? That was the reason we came.” ‘Please love, I don’t care about what he thinks. He is human. He doesn’t understand the mate bond,’ I mind linked him as I rubbed my arm up and down his arm.

Markus sat back down, breathing hard. Clearly trying to calm himself. He gave a curt nod before he crossed his arms, not taking his angry glare from Mr. Ronin.

I pulled out the statements from the file folder. “I found these documents among some of my parents’ things. I would like to know if these accounts are still open. They appear to be in my name.” I placed the statements and slid them over to him. He took them from me and his eyes bulged.

“Dellarosa? The Dellarosa?” He asked.

“You are familiar with those accounts?” I asked.

“How can I not? They were the biggest accounts we had before Mr. Salonen here grew his into what it is today. It was a terrible tragedy what happened to your parents.”

“What’s been happening to those accounts since Celeste has been away?” Markus asked.

“Well, there were very specific instructions from Mr. Dellarosa. He had liquidated all of his investments and put them into a trust. We were to keep investing conservatively to help it grow and once Ms Dellarosa came of age, it was to be transferred over to her. I remember asking why he was transferring things over and he said that he had other assets with another bank but wanted to make sure your future was secure. A couple of weeks after the changes were completed, they died in that awful airplane accident of all of those people from that town over.”

‘Plane accident?’ I asked Markus.

‘We can ask dad, but I would imagine that it was the work of the council to try to cover the m******e to the humans,’ he responded.

“So the accounts are still valid?” I asked.

“Oh yes. They all have grown considerably over the past decade. We have a team of investors dedicated to your accounts. We take care of all of our clients here,” he said and shot a quick look at Markus, who was still glaring. He visibly gulped before he turned to his computer. He printed a document and was going to hand it to me before he hesitated, “I’m really sorry miss, but I need to see identification.”

“You have got to be f*****g kidding me.” Markus practically growled. I could feel the rage and knew Atlas was just under the surface.

“Sweetie, it’s fine. It’s procedure,” I sighed as I reached for my purse. I handed him the ID.

“Thank you for understanding,” he said. I could smell nothing but fear coming from him as he handed me the papers he had printed out and my ID. The door opened behind us.

“Everything OK Mr Ronin?” A security guard asked as he looked at us and the banker.

“Of course, yes. Everything is fine. Just a misunderstanding,” He said quickly, shooing him away from his office.

I looked at the papers he handed me and I worked very hard not to let my eyes bug out the same way his had. I handed them to Markus, who flipped through them with a raised eyebrow.

“She will need some debit cards and check books for her to finally have access to her accounts.” he said, glaring at Mr. Ronin again.

“Of course. I can order all of that straight away. I will need some paperwork filled out for the check books and she can select what she wants from it. About 70% of the funds are tied up in investments, the rest are in savings. We will need some advanced notice if you want us to withdraw any of the funds.”

“That won’t be necessary just yet,” Markus explained, “We will have to consult with my attorney if we decide to liquidate our accounts or transfer them to another institution.”

I sighed as Mr. Ronin became flustered. ‘You’re basically threatening to shut his bank branch down, my love. Is that really necessary?’

‘Yes, we can’t kill him for his disrespect to you. The least you can do is let me and Atlas watch this human squirm,’ he said. I tried not to laugh.

“I also have a safety deposit box key. Could we have a look at it please?” I said, showing him the key after he made me choose check templates, card look and had me fill out a bunch of information regarding some credit cards. All the information was making my head hurt.

“Of course. How could I forget? We had to restructure the entire vault to build his deposit box,” he said as he stood up. We followed behind him, Markus slipping his fingers through mine. I could see more than a few women looking at Markus as we passed. Kara and I both wanted to growl. I could feel it in my chest. Suddenly, Markus let go of my hand and wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close. I looked up at him and saw him smirk. I blushed, knowing I’d been caught.

‘You’re so cute when you’re jealous,’ he said smugly. I didn’t bother to respond.

“Here we are. I will give you some time,” Mr Ronin said as he motioned to a giant locker-style deposit box before he closed the door behind him.