Chapter 2

Adira’s POV

Last night when I snuck back into the house, I fell asleep thinking of Zane and the promise he had made to me that I would be his. A promise I was starting to believe would possibly come true, after the dream I had.

In my dream, mother had taken both Aira and I to get our hair done for the Mating Ceremony. As I looked into the mirror, I saw the reflection of a beautiful she wolf staring back at me, in a long pale pink gown that hugged my curves in all the right ways. It was the first time in my life that I thought of myself as beautiful and found myself believing that I could be what Zane needed me to be to become his Luna.

After a quick shower, I headed downstairs in the hope of beating my family out of bed to try and catch Zane before he started his training this morning with the warriors, so that I could talk to him about his proposal. But to my surprise everyone was sitting around the dining room table as if they were waiting on me to join them.

Mother was the first to speak when they saw me. “Adira, its so nice that you could grace us with your presence today.” The sound of sarcasm was clearly attentive in her voice and I had to wonder what was so important that they wanted to talk to me.

Looking at the clock on the wall, I say to her, “I’m sorry but I have to be somewhere.”

As I turned to leave the room, my father’s voice stopped me when he said, “Adira.” Turning, I looked at my father who had a stern look on his face and I now was seriously worried that I was in trouble. “Take your seat.” My father then said and I glanced up at the clock knowing I wasn’t going to make it to see Zane this morning.

With a frown on my face, I moved to my normal seat and pulled out a chair and sat down waiting to hear what was so important that I needed to be present for. Looking at Aira, I knew whatever it was, she was excited to hear what was about to be said and I had to wonder if she was gloating in my pain.

“Now that we are all sitting here together, I would like to discuss the upcoming Mating Ceremony. Both of you are now of age to find your mates and I want to make sure that we are all on the same page with what is about to happen.” My father begins to say, and I had to wonder why I needed to be present for this conversation, when he was clearly only worried about Aira and her suitor.

“There is no doubt that Aira will find her mate at the Ceremony but Adira, I would like you to put forth some effort so that one of the males in this pack or visiting packs will be willing to take you off my hands.” He then said landing a hard blow to me. I knew I wasn’t either of my parents’ favorite, but they could at least sugarcoat it a bit, not making it so obvious that they saw no future for me.

“Father, I am sorry that I am a disappointment to you and mother. I wasn’t given the beauty that Aira has been blessed with.” I tell him as I lower my head ashamed that I have brought so much dishonor to the family by just being born.

“Hush child. You will go with Aira today to find a dress for the Ceremony.” My mother says and both Aira and I turn our heads to look at her.

“Mother, you can’t be serious.” Aira said to my mother with an appalled look on her face and I knew why. Aira would rather be thrown in a pit of venomous snakes than to be caught in public with me.

We had been close growing up until the other pups began to make fun of me and when that happened Aira drew herself away from me and we barely spoke since. To say I wasn’t hurt that my own sister betrayed me and chimed in on the taunting was an understatement but I had something that she wanted and that was alone time with Zane. Yes, it may only have been for training purposes, and he may have felt bad for me and the way the others treated me, but I had him as a friend and now even a future mate.

“Aira, I am serious. Maybe you could rub off on her a little today and she can find a dress that will help her with her looks.” My mother now tells Aira and I almost want to barf. The last person I wanted to take beauty tips from was Aira. Yes, she was beautiful but there was no way that I was going to cake my face like she did with that much makeup, or wear those tight jeans that she wore, leaving nothing to the imagination.

“Fine.” Aira says as she crosses her arms over her chest, and I can tell she isn’t pleased that she has to take me with her either.

“Wait, don’t I get a say in this?” I ask but both my parents say, “No!” at the same time.

My father then handed Aira his credit card and said, “Make sure you buy the prettiest dress you can find. I want you in the running to become the next Luna of this pack.”

A chuckle left my lips, and I couldn’t help myself from gloating knowing that Zane was going to ask me to be his Luna and I wondered what my parents were going to think of me after I was the one that became their Luna. Would they finally treat me as well as they have treated Aira all these years? Or would they hate me for taking the chance of Aira their beautiful precious daughter’s chance away from her?

My father gave me a stern look before he said, “Don’t dishonor our family while you are with Aira. We can’t take any chances this close to the Mating Ceremony.”

“Don’t worry father. I will make sure that our family’s name and reputation is upheld.” Aira tells him as she gets up from the table and eyes me giving me a smile that I clearly see through as pure evil. Aira then leans down, and our father gives her a kiss on the cheek before we leave for the mall. There was no exchange of affection as I got up myself from the table to leave along with Aira and it was something that I was clearly used to after all these years of being their disappointment.

When we got to the mall, Aira turned to me and said, “Whatever you do, don’t walk next to me. I don’t want anyone to know we are together.”

“Don’t worry little sister. I wouldn’t want anyone to know that I was with you either.” I told her as I moved away from her and headed towards the dress shop that mother told us to go to.

When I got to the windows that lined the front of the store, I immediately stopped when a dress caught my eye. It was the same color as the dress in my dream and I had to wonder if it was more than just a dream, I was having last night. Aira must have passed me because when I entered the store, she was already with a sales associate picking out dresses to try on.

I decided to wait for her to pick out her dress before I asked to try on the dress in the window. Moving around the store, I began to look at the other dresses hanging on the racks, when I noticed eyes on me. I turned to see another sales associate standing directly behind me.

“Can I help you?” The sales associate asked me and even though I was going to wait on Aira to pick her dress first, I said, “I would like to try the pink dress on in the window.”

The sales associate looked towards the window and then back at me and said, “I am sorry you are too late. Someone right before you picked that dress to try on.”

“Oh.” I said back to her and turned to see the dress was no longer in the window and wonder who had picked out the dress, but then it was clear who had, when Aira walked out of the dressing room wearing the dress and it fit her just like in my dream. I had to wonder if it was her reflection looking back at me in the mirror in my dream.

Turning back to the sales associate I ask her, “Is there another dress that you would suggest for me?”

The sales associate gave me a half-hearted smile before she said, “I’m sorry but I’m going to have to ask you to leave. We don’t really cater to your kind, and I don’t think there is anything in here that you could afford anyhow.”

“My kind?” I asked her, wondering what she was talking about.

“Yes, your kind.” Another sales associate says coming up from behind me. “Servants aren’t welcomed in here. You can try the dress store on the bottom floor. I am sure they will have something in your price range.” She said as she looked me up and down and I couldn’t believe that they thought I was a servant.

Just then Aira emerged from the dressing room handing the pink dress to the sales associate helping her, telling her she would take the dress and then moved towards where I was standing. At first, I thought she was coming to help me, but she moved towards the shoe rack avoiding me and the sales associates that were harassing me.

A group of young she wolves then entered the dress store and looked in my direction. The look of disgust plastered their faces when they saw me. “You need to leave now before I am forced to call security to have you removed.”

My parents had been adamant about me finding a dress so they weren’t embarrassed by me, and I knew if I went home empty handed that I would never hear the end of it. I had no clue what to do other than to call out to my sister for help.

At first, she ignored me but after I called her name a second time, she turned and looked in my direction and the sales associate looked at her and asked, “Miss do you know this servant?”

Aira’s eyes met with mine and she stared at me for a few seconds before she said, “I’m sorry but I have no clue who this servant is.”

I shouldn’t have been surprised by her answer, but it still stung hard, and I couldn’t hold back the hurt that it caused me, as a tear slowly trickled down my cheek. Aira stood there and watched the tear slide down my cheek, until it slid off my face and turned to the sales associate holding up a silver shoe, and asked, “Do you have these in a size seven?”

A hand then grabbed my arm and said, “You have to leave now.”

Without thinking, I grabbed the hand that was on my arm, and said, “Don’t ever touch me again.” The sale associate cried out in pain as I gripped her hand, and I hadn’t realized that I was hurting her. Letting go of her hand, I ran out of the store as fast as I could, knowing that my parents weren’t going to be happy with me when they heard what happened.