7

~Alaya

"You've made a mistake."

The woman behind the desk sighed, dragging her eyes away from her computer to finally look up at me. I've been insistently tapping her service bell for attention, which she didn't seem bothered to supply.

"We don't make mistakes," she replies fanatically, clearly trying to get me to turn and leave her office.

This is what I get for coming to an information centre for help. My invitation is a mistake, and I've come to clear I up here, with people who directly work for Alpha Asher. At least they say they are. If Asher can handle this woman, then he must be extremely patient.

"Look," my eyes draw down to her name tag pinned to her neatly ironed teal shirt, "Miss Bell, but I never applied for invitation, which makes this invalid."

Her eyes watch the paper as I slide it across her desk, stopping it by her keyboard. She picks it up with delicate fingers, assessing the paper silently. While she does, I can't take my eyes off her crystal looking nails that gleam lavishly under her lamp light. She surely has a hefty paycheck, that's for sure.

"Your name?"

"Alaya Thorne," I reply.

She makes an affirming noise in her throat as she holds the invitation back to me. I refuse to take it, matching her cool gaze. Her jaw ticks, before she places it down and turns toward her keyboard, those long nails clicking furiously against the keys.

"This invitation has clearly been addressed to you. If this is a joke-"

"It's not," I growl. "I never applied. I went last year."

She raises a trimmed eyebrow at me, before she resumes her typing. I assume she's looking through those who applied, that were selected. Miss Bell will not be very happy when she finds out I was telling the truth the entire time, and don't actually deserve to go to the party tonight.

"I see you never actually applied," she says after a while, and then her eyes widen slightly. "You say your name is Alaya Thorne."

"Yes. Says it on my invitation too-"

She cuts me off as she swings back on her chair, standing to walk through a back door and disappear. My eyes roll in irritation as I lean against her desk. I don't want to go to this party. If I did, I would have applied.

She's comes back, looking paler than before.

"It seems you had higher authorisation to go. Congratulations!"

My eyebrows crease in confusion. Higher authorisation? If I'm correct in knowing what that means, then someone who is actually close to Asher wants me to go. Which makes little sense since all I remember was dancing, then I probably fell asleep in a bathroom or something.

"No," I dismiss, pushing back on the invitation she kept trying to slide back to me. "You have to explain to me who authorised that."

"I can't-"

"Please," I insist. "It's not as if I'm going."

Miss Bell glances around, looking to her coworkers who were serving other clients. It's busy, since today is the party. Most people are here begging for an invitation, which probably explains Miss Bell's lack of patience.

"Very few people have the power to authorise an invitation when someone has not applied. It's one of the Alphas of associates, or the Alpha himself," she says lowly, just under her breath. "Therefore, I highly stress that you go. If not, then by all means, do not involve me."

She's scared. Immediately she turns, putting all her attention back in her computer.

"They just have switched me with someone else," I insist. For the life of me, I can't begin to think why me. Why me?

She ignores me.

"You have to fix this."

She turns, and as I think she's giving me her attention, she looks past me. "Yes sir, may I serve you?"

"Yes, I just want to-"

The man behind me shoulders me out of the way, giving me enough time to grab the invitation and leave again through the glass doors. That was not helpful in anyway. There isn't even anyone else I can talk to now.

I'm alone.

***

My eyes are glued to the road from where I sit at my bedroom window. The moment that car comes to drop my dress off, I'm going to strike.

It arrives ten minutes after I sat down at the window, parking at the edge of my driveway. I don't have much time to get to the main door of the apartment, however, I'm luckily I'm on one of the lowest floors. Taking the stairs, I make it just in time to see the man placing the box by my door.

"Wait!" I call out breathlessly. "Listen."

The man, dressed almost better than some of the men at the party last year, has probably been dropping boxes off all day. I don't care. If he steps into that car clearly owned by Alpha Asher, he has to know something about exactly who could have invited me to the party tonight.

He ignored me, though, which I expected.

"I need your help with something. I'm not supposed to be going to this party, so you might want to take the box back with you!"

That makes him pause. Surely, he's doubting himself at my words. Who knows what the punishment is for messing up the strict schedule that leads up to the party tonight. He does work for Alpha Asher, after all.

He turns to me. "Our team don't make mistakes, ma'am."

It was a recycled version of what Miss Bell had said to me earlier today. Of course, they work for the same person.

"I don't want to go. I don't need that dress, so I would appreciate it if you could take it back to whoever wrote my invitation and tell them I'm not interested," I say in one breath. The man looks dazed for a moment, looking at me as if he can't make sense of me. Then he glances at the clipboard he had been holding, his eyebrows creasing.

"You must go," he tells me sternly, glaring down at me with hard eyes. "You have been invited."

"By who?"

"Our team distributes the invitations after you have been selected by standard of your application," he says.

He sounds like a robot with words trained into him. It makes me nervous, however, I want answers from him. I'll end up tearing my hair out if I don't find out what is going on behind the scenes. It doesn't help that I don't remember much from the party last year.

"You don't understand, I never applied," I insists.

"Then I hope you will be visit the information centre provided to answer all your questions," he tells me, before he turns back to the car to hastily walk back toward it. I follow him.

"I did-"

He opens the car door, ignoring me completely. My protests fly straight over his head as he closes the door after him, and the car drives off without waiting for me to stop banging on the windows. I nearly scream in frustration. Knowing that would cause a scene with my neighbours, I turn and walk straight back inside, taking the box with me.

As soon as I'm back up to my room, I tear the box open. No point denying what's inside.

Instead of an invitation, which I've already been gifted, a smooth piece of paper took its place. Nervously, I pick it up, turning it over to see the words on the other side.

Apologies for the confusion.

Come tonight, and it will all make sense.

~A

It made me angry seeing this. How am I supposed to trust this in any sense? It made the hair on my arms stand up slightly at the idea of what it could entail. They had to know I would be confused about this before it even happened, which does not sit well with me.

However, when I pull the dress out, I'm instantly lured in by the idea of attending the party again.

This time, it's a soft blue colour, painted on a beautifully soft, almost satin like fabric that wraps tight around the bodice and flares out, which reminds me of Sky's dress. My fits tighten on the dress as I force myself to put it down. What am I thinking? Whoever this A person is, they want me to come. But how can I trust them?

I can't.

If I don't go, though, what might the reprocussions be? What if it is someone in higher authorisation and I'm punished. That means I really have no other choice.

When the car arrives, I don't nearly look as magnificent as I did last year. Yes, perhaps my dress is stunning, however, with no sister to do my makeup of hair, it turned out a shambles.

I was going though. As terrified as I am about that, I'm more worried about what would happen if I didn't go.

I remember this part. I remember the drive, the moment at the gate with all the people crowding around, wanting to get in. Even as we drive up, everything look familiar. The carpet is still black as I step out, and cameras still flash. The difference is, I don't have Sky to cling to. This time, everyone's eyes are on me, as I walk up to the lady at the front, who I remember from last year.

I hand her my invitation. She gives it the same look as she previously had, tucking it safely into her suit pocket. Everything is so uniform. So similar to last year. No, the same.

"Welcome to Alpha Asher's annual party. Eat, drink, dance and have the time of your life, for one night of your life."

Even that's the same. Except, it's wrong. I wish it had been one night of my life.

As I go to walk past her, she grabs my arm, again, holding me back. She brings her lips to my ear, placing the invitation back in my hand in a very inconspicuous manner. My teeth grit at the familiarity. "You're going to want to keep this."

She goes to push me forward, however, I was ready this time. I clutch her wrist tightly, making her gasp.

"Why? You know who wrote the note on the back, don't you?" I growl.

"I don't know what you speak of," she sad innocently, however I see the lie painted across her face. Perhaps I would have kept demanding things out of her, had it my been for the Guard who yanked me roughly toward the opening of the party.

The golden curtain of light swallows me whole as I enter the party. Like last time, I have no idea what's to come.