A man opened my car door for me and held his hand out for me to take it. As I place my hand in his, he smiles and bow slightly. I smile and he helps me out of the car,
"Welcome, Miss Bella,"
he says before letting go of my hand.
"Stop fidgeting with your bloody mask,"
Megan scolds me, but the mask is uncomfortable and keeps sliding down,
"the flipping thing keeps sliding off of my face. Why do we even have to wear these bloody things? Everyone already knows who we are."
Megan adjusted my mask while giggling at my discomfort,
"better?"
she asked after a moment and I looked to the right and then the left. The mask did not move around this time,
"much better. Thank you,"
She takes my hand and we walk inside the grand entrance and my mouth almost falls open.
The entrance was as big as my house and the floors and walls were all white, a golden chandelier hung from the painted roof and there was a red carpet under our feet that led down the hall.
I have been in this house before, but not on this side. Only on the side where we have pack meetings, daily pack meals and then the rooms where the single-pack males live. Only because my brothers lived there before they found their mates. All the males move into the pack house on their 18th birthday and move to a home they build themselves after they found their mates.
"Good evening, ladies. Names, please," a young lady asks,
"I'm Megan and this is Bella,"
Megan answers and I'm still awe-struck by the room and its beauty.
"Wow, there are quite a few high-profile people on the list,"
Megan whispered, but two young males approached us before I could ask her who these people were. I realize they are our escorts after Megan interlinks her arm with the male closest to her.
I do the same to the male standing next to me and he leads me down the red carpet to the ballroom.
"This is a little too fancy for me,"
I say to Megan and she gives me a small smile over her shoulder,
"Just enjoy it, Bella. You never go out, so enjoy the night because I plan on enjoying myself,"
We stop in front of two massive doors with beautiful stained glass and people dancing in old Victorian dresses,
"Introducing Miss Megan,"
someone says on the other side of the doors. Someone opens the doors, and Megan and her escort walk in.
The doors close again behind Megan and I almost roll my eyes. This is too much for me. I know the other half lived differently from us, but this is ridiculous. A shiver ran down my spine,
"nervous?"
My escort asked me. I looked up at him,
"No, I only came for her. I have no desire to find a mate."
his eyes widened in shock and I giggled.
"I have been rejected a few times before. So you can imagine the humiliation,"
he snorts and I hear him murmur,
"Who the hell would reject you?"
if it weren't for my enhanced hearing, I would not have heard him, but he has no idea. He only sees a pretty girl in a dress. He doesn't know how broken and damaged this girl is.
"I come from a poor family, and I-"
the doors open, cutting me off and fear grips me. I have made sure that my wolf is down for the count and that my scent is suppressed. There is no way in hell that I would find a mate here.
"Introducing Miss Bella,"
my escort took my hand in his and placed his other hand on my lower back before squeezing my hand gently before we walked in.
There are so many people in this room and Goddess, it's loud in here. We start walking down the stairs, 'thank you," I say as we reach the landing. With a big grin, he says,
"If you need a mate, come and find me. I would love to spend the rest of my life staring into your eyes,"
my cheeks heat and I blush. He chuckles as he walks away, but not before giving me a wink over his shoulder.
"Bella,"
Megan says, walking over to me,
"isn't this ballroom just the most breathtaking place you have ever seen?"
I nod, not even looking around at the place.
We go to the seating chart, which flickers a few times as it updates our information,
"We're at least on the same table,"
I say as Megan keeps reading through the names on our table.
"Ooooh,"
she cooed,
"there are a few very attractive males at our table,"
I see you can touch the name on the screen and it opens up a small profile of the person. Megan clicks on her name, and it's a photo of her from when she won an award for her job. She clicks on mine and I cringe. It's my military photo they took before I was deployed on my last mission.
"I hope I find my mate tonight,"
Megan says as she looks around the room, excitedly,
"I hope so, my love. I'm really sick of these parties,"
I bump her with my elbow and she smiles.
The moon goddess has a sick sense of humour. There are two ways of finding your mate. Like me, it's always instant. With every mate so far, I can just enter a room and the bond snaps into place, but for some other wolves, it only happens after a while. So you and your mate are clueless until the Goddess decides the exact moment the bond snaps into place.
I thank all my lucky stars as I look over the room and see all the males looking at us. Thank the Goddess. I still had some powder left. I bought it for my sister a few years ago. A lot of good it did her. She found her mate the day before the powder arrived. She seems happy with her mate, though.
"Let's mingle a little before we take our place at the table,"
Megan says, pulling me back to reality. Then I realized what she said, and my soul sank into the ridiculous shoes she had me in.
"I don't know how to mingle,"
I lie and she snorts,
"You're the best mingler I know. Have you ever noticed how easily you can strike up a conversation with just about anyone? It's fascinating! People seem to open up and share their most hidden secrets and stories with you, almost as if they feel a connection immediately. I'm the one that needs the social skills,"
I see a waitress pass us with some champagne and grab two glasses. I hand Megan one and then I down mine. The Goddess knows I need some liquid courage to get through this night.
"Bella, that is not ladylike,"
she says playfully,
"and snorting at my lies are?"
I tease her back. She blushed as she looked around,
"Ah, got a mark for you. The girl is a librarian, her parents are richie-rich. The tall man owns a dealership and the shorter man owns a computer company or some kind of security camera business."
I watch as she drains her glass and I struggle to hide my smile,
"Don't start with me, Bella. Let's go, please,"
I smile at her as we approach the group.
"Hello,"
I greet the female and ignore the males completely,
"Hello," she says back and I give her a warm smile,
"did you get any new romance books?"
I see the tension leave her body immediately,
"yes, we got a few. You must swing by and have a look,"
I nod,
"Megan and I will most certainly swing by. Thank you."
I squeezed her hand gently before turning away from the group and walking off.
We are not two steps away when I hear,
"Megan, I think I know you from somewhere,"
I smile. That technique never fails me. I deliberately did not say my name. I should get a trophy for being the best wing-woman ever.
As soon as I see the conversation flowing, I slip away with a tap on Megan's arm. I groan inwardly when I see no one sitting at their tables yet and Megan made it very clear that we will not sit when no one else is sitting.
So what the hell am I supposed to do now? I can't stand here alone like an idiot and my feet are already killing me. I don't know why she always has to put me in high heels so high and narrow that you can stab someone with them.
I look around and spot some chairs placed against the far wall and I am so relieved,
"Great,"
I mumble to myself when I see there is only one seat open next to a massive guy with a scar over his one eye.
Just don't piss him off, Bella, I tell myself and walk over to him. I plop down on the seat next to him and my entire body feels like it's about to explode with joy. Is he a mood changer? I wonder for a moment.
I sigh and lift my feet off the ground. Pure relief flows through me. The man looked over at me and raised one eyebrow. I smile as I look into one blue and one black eye.
I have 50 snarky remarks ready, but I remind myself not to piss him off. This is not the type of man you want to piss off. His bad side will make hell look like a walk in the park. His entire aura screams, fear me or I will show you what I'm capable of.
He kind of looks scary, actually, hot but terrifying. Like he can rip you apart with his bare hands. He kept looking at me, so I decided to talk to Mr. Scarface,
"If I take my shoes off and walk around barefoot, do you think anyone will notice?"
The poor man looked at me, utterly shocked,
"Nope, you're right. My feet will stink and everyone will smell that."
I tap my finger on my lips like I'm deep in thought,
"Well, maybe it will keep the males away from me,"
I look over at him again, and he smirks at me.
"So you came to a mating ceremony but want the males to stay away from you? how does that work?"
His voice is so deep, and it feels like it wants to invade my soul like a foreign nation.
With a smile, I say,
"I only came for my best friend, and I point to Megan, who is staring at me with an open mouth. Then I notice everyone is staring at us.
"Oh, the one that looks like she is about to throw up?"
"jip, that's the one,"
I watch as she tries to make her way over to us and literally everyone is staring at us.
"Goodness, are you famous or something?"
I whisper,
"Something like that,"
he says, and I wrinkle my nose,
"Then I better leave. You don't need to be seen with me,"
he frowned at me and I saw Megan waving me over.
"It was nice to meet you,"
"Wait,"
the man said as he held his hand out to stop me and I frowned at him,
"What about your shoes?"
I lean in a little,
"my feet actually do stink,"
I whisper playfully and he chuckles.
The moment I reached Megan, she grabbed my hand and pulled me to the table, but no one had taken their seats yet,
"Have you lost your mind?"
She whisper-shouts, and I'm so shocked that I just stare at her,
"That wolf is dangerous. Stay away from him. Please don't speak to him or even look in his direction. He kills others like it's a damn sport and his pack is very brutal."
"Okay, I won't. I did not know, but he doesn't look that dangerous. He is actually hot,"
I tell her and I can see the worry and panic on her face. We sit down and then the other people start to take their seats. She shakes her head at me and I smile because she is too worried about nothing.
"Bella, please just listen to me this one time. He is dangerous, really. Don't provoke him. Don't even try to breathe around him,"
I stop fooling around and look at her,
"Okay, I won't,"
but she doesn't stop. She keeps rambling on about this male like he is the worst wolf alive. I doubt he is worse than me.
I'm so glad to see other people taking their seats because that forces her to stop talking about the male. Soon after we all sat down, they started bringing out our food. The first thing they gave me was soup with a leaf on it. Would it kill them to serve normal food? A pizza or burgers and chips?
Megan kicked me under the table,
"fix your face, please,"
she scolded me, and I quickly plastered a smile on my face,
"That's even worse,"
"Well, I don't know what you want from me,"
I sigh and throw my hands up.
The main course at least had meat on it and I only ate the meat. They can keep their vegetables. I have never been a big fan of eating healthy and I push the food around on my plate.
The Dessert was delicious, just not enough. It was ice cream in some kind of pie crust and I shook my head at my plate,
"I'll get you a damned pizza on the way home,"
Megan said and I smiled.
The entire table goes dead quiet and I look up. All of their gazes flicker between me and something behind me. I turn slightly and see Mr. Scarface there.
I shake my head at him and he smiles down at me, his two bodyguards flanking him. I don't know why he has guards because he looks more than capable of handling himself. His suit fits him like a second skin and I can clearly see all his mussels.
"May I have this dance?"
he asked with a slight smile pulling in the corner of his mouth,
"Will they dance with us?"
I asked, grinning up at the two guards and he shook his head,
"Good, I have never danced with three males at once and I'm not about to start now. Can you imagine the humiliation if I fell? Everyone will say, '3 men and no one could keep her upright'."
I watch as he presses his lips into a thin line to hide his smile. I could feel everyone's eyes on us again and I know Megan warned me to stay away from him because he is dangerous, but so am I. Not that I was scared of him, weary… yes, but not scared.
"I'm warning you ahead of time. I'm a terrible dancer,"
Megan gasps, and I want to kick her leg like she kicked mine. I take his hand and he helps me up gently.
One thing about Megan's parents that always astonished me was that if Megan played baseball, they would also pay for me. The same went for swimming, dance classes and Megan's six-month obsession with learning to paint.
We started to dance and I thanked Megan silently for these ridiculous shoes. This man was so tall that my head barely reached his collarbone, and my shoes were really high.