by Karen Ruth
“Hello,” one of the ladies said as she smiled at me and put her hand out for a handshake. “My name is Cassie and we are here to help you get dressed today.”
“Hi, Cassie,” I said as I gave her my hand. “My name is Nina.”
“Oh, I know,” said Cassie “You are quite famous around here today.”
“Famous? What are you talking about?” I asked in wonder.
“Once the pack got back from whatever they were doing earlier, your name was all they ever mentioned,” Cassie responded.
I was in denial. There was no way they would all talk about me. The nobody. The girl who is the equivalent of garbage to her pack. Besides I’m a female wolf, nobody even wants us. I smiled at her for the warm gesture even though I didn’t believe anything that was coming out of her kind mouth. It was kind of her to try to make me feel happy for once.
Once I spotted the outfits she was holding I automatically backed up. There was no way I was wearing a dress. That was not who I was nor who I wanted to be.
“What’s the matter, Nina?” Cassie questioned giving me a strange look.
“Do I really have to wear those?” I asked. “I mean they are pretty and all and I admire your help, but that’s not me,” I said to her not wanting to hurt her feelings.
“Did Lucas tell you what you two are doing tonight?” Cassie asked me.
“Uhh no, the last thing he told me was he was going to give me some answers.”
“Hmm well, I suppose this is one way to do it,” Cassie said laughing. “He’s taking you to the royal feast. The pack will be there along with the King and Queen. They want to meet you.”
Panic arose deep inside me causing me to shake. The King? Who the heck is the king, I thought. Is this what Lucas meant by who he is? Does he have a correlation with the king? I so did not want to go to this feast. I was not prepared for it.
“Do I have to wear a dress? Is it disrespectful not to?” I asked.
The group all glanced at each other with a confused expression.
“I mean you don’t have to, there is no rule about it. Just usually the female wolves love attention. They tend to get upset with us if we don’t make them look as beautiful as possible. Especially, Adelina, you don’t want to mess with her.” Cassie said cringing about whoever this Adelina girl was.
“Could I ask you guys a question and a favor?” I asked giving her a soft smile.
“Sure! That’s what we are here for!” Cassie exclaimed excitedly.
“Could I not wear a dress?” I asked reading her expression.
“Sure, if you don’t want to that’s fine. What do you have in mind?”
“Hmm, you wouldn’t happen to have any leather outfits?” I asked her thinking to myself that is probably not something they contain here from how fancy they look.
“Hmm, that is a wonderful question. We would have to go look around. I know they do for the males but I have never seen any for the females.”
“Oh, that’s ok. I don’t want to make you guys do extra work for me.” I said to them.
“Nonsense!” Cassie exclaimed. “I would be happy to assist you. You are already my favorite one here!” She said squealing and she ran from the room as well as the rest of the group.
About ten minutes later Cassie and the others showed up with the shiniest set of leather I’ve ever seen. It was perfect.
“Oh, thank you, Cassie! It looks amazing.” I said to her.
“No problem!” She replied. “It was definitely some work finding it, but you are worth it.” “Now time for you to get changed into it. Do you need assistance?”
“No thank you, Cassie, I think I’ll be fine.”
For this, she gave a little pout face from disappointment. Quickly I responded,
“You don’t have to leave. You can stay here with me just in case. I’ll just go change in the bathroom, and if I need any help I’ll call for you.”
“Ok!” Cassie exclaimed happy once more.
I walked into the bathroom with the clothes in my hand. I was so relieved that I didn’t have to wear a dress. I may not look in place at the feast but right now, I didn’t really care. I slowly took off my towel and began to put the leather on. After everything was on, I took a look in the mirror. This outfit really was stunning if you ask me. Not the way of shimmering like a dress, but in its own unique form. It had a glimmer to it when you moved, the way the light set on it. It looked as if it was never worn before. They fit perfectly, alleviated that something actually fit me perfectly for once. By looking at the size of the males, I had a suspicion most werewolves were a lot bigger than I was. I thought they would never have my size in the entire building. I mean Lucas is a whole foot taller than me. That’s quite a height difference if you ask me.
Stepping out of the bathroom Cassie exclaimed.
“Nina! You look gorgeous!”
“Thank you,” I replied embarrassed.
My face turning to a bright hue as it normally does when someone compliments me. The next thing I knew she was taking me to the other girls. I must have given her a weird look for the fact that she said,
“What, you didn’t think you could go without your hair and make-up being done did you?”
From the look of horror on my face, it gave away that I really did think that.
“Oh,” Cassie said. “Well, now you know. This is Sarah, she will help you with your hair.” She turned me towards the other lady. “This is Delilah, she will help you with your make-up.”
I groaned out-loud, not happy that I had to go through with this. Lucas was in so much trouble. I thought I was only here for answers, not this big fiasco that I had to get pampered up for.
After my hair and make-up, I had to admit I really did look quite nice. They did an amazing job.
“Thank you, ladies. You did do an awesome job, I don’t think I’ve ever looked so beautiful in my entire life.” I said to them in a sincere tone. Thankful for the work that they had done.
“You’re welcome!” They all said in unison.
Cassie walked up to me and gave me a bear hug and said “you are the best person I’ve ever had here, I hope to work with you again soon!”
I looked at her with a sad expression on my face. I really did like Cassie, but I doubted I’d be coming back.
“You look so beautiful and unique! Nobody will be expecting it.” Cassie said then quickly implying “not that you aren’t beautiful the way you are, they will be expecting that!” Her face turning a shade of red as I laughed.
“Thank you Cassie, and don’t worry, I wasn’t taking it that way.”
A knock sounded on the door causing me to jump out of my leather boots.
“Nina?” Lucas’s voice broke out. “Are you ok? You’ve been in there for a really long time.”
Instead of answering, I just walked to the door and opened it for him, gesturing with my hand for him to come inside. Lucas was really good-looking. He had jet black hair that reached just below his eyes, which made the golden hue stand out. He was extremely tall, either six foot six or six foot five, not quite sure which. His broad chest showed off just how much muscle he possessed. To be honest, he contained a lot of muscle. I didn’t mean to stare, I just couldn’t take my eyes off of him.
“Dang Nina,” Lucas said looking at me. “You look nice.”
“Thank you, Lucas, you look nice as well,” I told him, my cheeks flushing a vibrant red.
“I think you’re the first lady who has gone to this feast without a dress on.” He told me.
“Is that bad?” I asked suddenly self-conscious about what I was wearing.
“No, not at all,” he said flashing me a smile. “I quite enjoy it.”
“So why didn’t you tell me you were taking me to this thing?” I questioned him as he took my hand leading me outside the room.
“Because if I told you, you would have run away from me.” He said flashing me an adorable crooked smile.
“Eh, maybe,” I responded giving him ba
ck a smile. “So, when do you tell me things about werewolves?” I prompted him.
“Patience Nina, first go to this dinner and I’ll tell you everything you need to know.”
I pouted at him for making me wait even longer. “You better,” I said looking straight at him.
“I promise on behalf of the royal court.” He answered me.
“The court that I will be seeing in like five minutes?” I asked him.
“No, the court you will be seeing right now,” Lucas said as he pushed open the huge doors to the room where everyone turned and looked straight at us, my heart jumping in protest.
Chapter 3
All eyes were on us as we walked into the gigantic room. People began whispering to one another at the table at which they were sitting. I looked at Lucas who gave me a nod of encouragement and began to walk towards a seat. He pointed toward one on the right side of a lady with a crown on top of her head. Lucas on the other hand went to sit on the opposite side of the table from me giving me a small smile. There were approximately eleven of us in total sitting at the table. Others were there as well, but it looked as if they were serving us, not joining us. There was a man directly on Lucas’s right side. This man was huge just like Lucas. He had the same features making me wonder if they were related. He had the same black hair and golden eye color.
“So, this must be the famous Nina,” his deep voice broke out.
“Yes sir, well sort of,” I said, “I’m not in the slightest bit famous, but thanks for the gesture.”
For this comment, he gave a small laugh. “You are whether you know it or not,” he said giving me a wink. Suddenly he sat straight up, causing me to jump, and said “Oh, how rude of me I forgot to introduce us. I am Devlon Crimson, and this is my wife, Amelia. We are the King and Queen of the werewolves in America.”
The Queen’s voice was delicate and motherly as she spoke. “Good evening Nina, you look quite beautiful tonight.”
“Thank you, your majesty. You look exquisite as well, I could never compare to the way you look.” I responded honored that she would say something so kind.
“Nonsense, she said. “Everyone is beautiful in their own way.”
Before I could respond, the King said “You have already met our son, Lucas, our prince. At this moment my mouth fell open and I was left in complete shock. There were Kings and Queens of werewolves? Lucas was a prince? I looked at him in complete amazement. He just looked at me, cocked his head sideways, and said absolutely nothing. Reading his face, it felt like he didn’t even want to be who he was. He didn’t even want to be a prince. I gave him a puzzling look and he just shrugged his shoulders.
“These are the members of the Royal Guard,” Devlon said. “You’ve already met them once before.”
“I have?” I asked wondering what he was talking about.
“Aww come on don’t you remember me?” A red-headed boy broke out. I gave him a puzzling look trying to figure where in the world I would have seen him.
“I’m sorry, am I supposed to?” I questioned confused.
“Don’t you remember yelling at me for being too noisy talking behind your back?”
Ohh, I came to the realization that these guys were members of Lucas’s pack.
“Oh, yea, I remember you now. Sorry about that, I really did think that you were talking behind my back.” I said giving him a sincere apology. “Oh, and I’m also sorry for almost attacking you guys.”
“Eh, no biggy,” Reed said. “What’s done is done am I right? I don’t keep any hard feelings.”
I looked at the others in apology as well. They all forgave me super-fast, it was kind of weird.
Lucas’s voice erupted from the silence. “I will introduce you to everyone individually later, ok Nina?”
“Sounds good to me,” I responded.
Right after Lucas said this, the waiters brought us some wine to sip. I just looked at it and looked at everyone else. I wasn’t twenty-one, I wasn’t allowed to drink alcohol. The others saw the expression on my face and laughed.
“I see you still follow human laws, Nina,” Lucas said.
The King laughed as well and asked “would you prefer something else to drink?”
Not wanting to look different from the rest of them, I responded “No thank you, sir, this will be good. I appreciate your kindness.” I then began to drink as he bowed his head accepting my gratitude.
“So Nina?” Said the King breaking the dead silence that was in the air.
“Yes, your majesty?” I said in response.
“How much do you know about our world? The werewolf world?”
“Honestly, close to nothing just what I have been told by Seth.”
“Hmm, and what has that evil scoundrel told you?” He said in disgust, hatred dripping from his mouth. Obviously, he despised Seth by his tone.
“Hmm, where do I start? Well, I guess the first thing he told me is that females are pretty much terrible creatures. The reason you don’t see many around is that we are ashamed to have them.” I said.
This caused everyone’s eyes to go wide. Reed even choked on his wine a little bit causing another werewolf from their pack to pound his back.
“Umm, Nina? You never really believed that did you?” Lucas questioned. I gave him a puzzled look.
“That’s the truth isn’t it?” I asked completely baffled by the expression everyone was giving me.
“Tell me, Nina, did he ever hurt you?” Lucas prompted. I looked him straight in the eye still confused by everything that was going on.
“He verbally abused me yes, he threatened me, but he’s never truly attacked me other than pushing me around. I thought I deserved it being female and all.” I said.
What seemed like fury burned into Lucas’s eyes. I looked around the table and the other males had the same expression. The Queen’s eyes held sadness and sincerity. Why was everyone acting like this? Didn’t I deserve it? I turned my head locking gazes with Lucas. I never thought he was capable of such strong anger. Since I’ve seen him, he’s always had a kind gaze to him. Even during the attack, he was calm and patient the way a true leader should be. The King’s voice broke the awkward silence that filled the air.
“Everything you have heard about females is a lie, Nina. You must understand this. There are not so few of you guys because we are ashamed, but because you are rare. You see, getting the genes to become a werewolf is recessive. In order for a female to get it, she must receive it on both x chromosomes, while for a male they only need it on one. For this reason, females are sacred to us. They are treated like royalty and any offense to a female is highly punishable. They are even rarer to belong to a pack because it is in our nature to try to protect them. We try to keep them as safe as we can. What Seth did to you was wrong and for this, I apologize.”
The King bowed his head to me in sympathy. Anger fueled me from the inside out. How could Seth lie to me like this? Forget Seth, how could Rafiq lie to me like this. I trusted him. I told him everything. How stupid could I have been? My eyes began to glimmer so I closed my eyes before anyone could notice that I was losing hold of myself. I let my breath out slowly, trying to calm myself. In a few minutes, I gathered myself together. Everyone remained quiet apparently aware that I was trying to get ahold of myself.
I broke the silence that was embedded in the room, driving me crazy.
“Lucas?” I asked him.
“Yes, Nina?” He asked me.
“Are you going to tell me about that whole white thing yet?”
To this, he laughed aloud as well as his pack members.
Reed said “Dude, you still haven’t told her yet. You just left her with a big cliffhanger like that? Not cool.”
“See someone gets it! Thank you, Reed!” I exclaimed.
Lucas rolled his eyes and said, “What do you know about coat colors?”
“Huh? There is an importance with coat colors?” I asked. “I thought they were just random like you were born like that.
Such as with your hair color in your human form.”
Lucas shook his head.
“You really don’t know anything about werewolves do you?” I began to get upset only to realize he was joking with me. “Here, we will start easy. What do you know about Seth’s and my fur?”
“Well yours is completely black and he is mainly black,” I responded.
“Yes, but do you know why? Think of ranking.”
“Hmm, you are both Alpha’s,” I said.
“Bingo,” He responded. “Ok now for second ranking. What do you know about Reed’s and Rafiq’s fur?”
“They are both a reddish color,” I responded.
“Correct, so second means red.”
All this time I never knew Rafiq was second in command. I trusted him, but all he probably did was tell Seth everything I told him. This struck pain in my heart. I felt alone and betrayed, but I kept going on not letting the others see my weak side.
“Ok, now everyone else in the pack has what color of fur?”
“Umm, grey,” I responded. “But they all have different variations of black amongst them.”
“Very smart Nina.” Lucas smiled at me.
“But what does this all have to do with white?” I prompted forward.
“Patience dear Nina, we are getting there,” Lucas answered.
“Hmm fine, what does the black within the grey mean then?” I asked him.
“The more black you contain in your coat the higher the rank. The lowest rank has the whitest fur possible.” Lucas said.
“Ahh so white means lowest, but then why did you say it meant alpha.”
“Oh Nina, ever so persistent on the answer. That has to do with males, but did I ever say what the female coat colors meant.”
“Colors mean different status among males and females?” I asked him confused.
“The color of the alpha among males and females are opposite. No female is of low rank, no matter the color she is treated above all. To be a true alpha female though, she must possess an extremely rare coat quality. One that I have first encountered for the first time ever in my entire life today. The coat color of white. So yes Nina, that makes you a true alpha. Congratulations. You have officially been promoted off your omega ranking.” Lucas said smiling at me.
