6 Meeting Nick Again

I gritted my teeth and swallowed my shame as she and her maid watched, slowly taking off my muddy smock to reveal my tattered grey mended dress. The dress had been worn for a long time, the edges of the fabric had worn out, and even the patchwork had turned gray.

 

I put my old shoes and smock in the corner of the door and stepped into the room barefoot.

I went over, took the shoes from the maid's hands and knelt down to put them on for her. Then I heard her voice. “Go and take her trash out.”

 

"Yes." The maid went to the door, and before I could react, she picked up my clothes and shoes and threw them out of the hallway window.

 

"You!" That's all I have left! I couldn't help glaring up at her.

 

"I love that angry look in your eyes," she smiled at me and grabbed my chin, “It gives me great pleasure to see you suffer. Do you think I should ask father to take you to the Royal Family as my maid?”

 

No! Even though I wasn't accepted by my father, I was still a part of the pack, and if I was taken to the royal family, I would be a complete outcast who wasn't accepted by anyone! Lycans usually got their wolves before we did. They won't accept anything without wolves. I'll be killed as a human!

 

My startled eyes did not escape her eyes, and she played with my fears like a child who has found a toy.

 

"Kral won't allow it. The royal family has strict rules about letting other werewolves into their homes," I said, catching my senses and looking her in the eye.

 

"But I'm his wife and future queen," Bernice boasted. "Look at all these presents," she said, pointing to the many jewels in the maid's hand, "I didn't say anything. He just sent these for me. He's completely mesmerized by me. There's nothing he can't do for me as long as I ask."

 

Calm down, I told myself. Do something, Delia, I can't be sent to the royal family as a dowry, I'll be killed by Bernice and lyacns.

 

I silently dressed her in three-and-a-half-inch diamond heels. The shimmering color of the diamonds made her legs long and thin. She took off her white silk robe and put on a long, slim, gold fishtail dress. Her frizzy blonde hair set off her aloof and proud eyes. I stood beside her, like a silent statue.

 

"Bring me the Crown Kral gave me,"

 

The maid trotted to the cupboard and took out an expensive-looking box.

 

"Put it on me." Bernice glanced at me.

 

The maid put on white gloves and carefully opened the box to reveal a crown. I blinked. It was the Crown I had never seen before. It has twelve water-drop-shaped pearls arranged neatly on the crown. On the top of each pearl is a perfectly cut heart-shaped diamond. The base of the crown is silver with rings of olive-leaf-shaped crystals. In the light of the Sun, it is holy and elegant like the Crown of our moon goddess.

 

Bernice was so pleased with the crown that the satisfaction in her eyes almost overflowed.

 

"You know what? The crown is based on the original one from Kral's mother's wedding. It's called the Moonlight Crown, and for royalty, it's only owned by a recognized queen. And I am their future queen. "

 

I did not speak, but picked it up and placed it carefully over Bernice's hair. The crown graced her beauty.

 

"Bernice, the first guests of the royal family have arrived. Are you ready?"

 

Our father knocked on the door and looked at Bernice, who was already dressed, with satisfaction.

 

"Of course, father. You'll be proud of me today." Bernice spread out her arms and spun around in our father's admiring gaze like a peacock. Her long gold fishtail dress glowed brightly. In contrast, wearing a thin gray dress, I was more like an unrelated dust on the wall.

 

Bernice looked at herself in the mirror. She caught a glimpse of me standing there with my head down, and then she rolled her eyes and menaced me. "Delia, put that pearl necklace on me."

 

The necklace? I followed her eyes to the box on the dresser, and a simple and delicate pearl necklace came into my eyes. It's my necklace. It's my mother's!

 

My fingers began to tremble with anger, and I had to pinch my hand so hard that the pain resisted the urge to take it away right away.

 

"Come on, Delia, what are you going to do if you can't even do this right?" My father's stern voice came, and he stood at the door, unhappy with my slow movements.

 

Father, that was the last thing my mother gave me! I wanted to yell at him and make a scene like a madman, but I knew I had no right.

 

The pain gnawed at my heart. I put the necklace around Bernice's neck with my stiff fingers and watched as she stroked the round pearl. The frustration almost made my eyes water. The necklace was too simple. It didn't match her outfit. I knew she was just enjoying watching me suffer.

 

"It's time to go, father. As a thoughtful wife, we can't keep the noble Kral waiting." She took our father's hand and walked away with him.

 

When she walked past me, she gave me a triumphant smile.

 

"You stay here and don't disturb the party," my father's voice came from far away. He didn't even look at me.

 

Father and Bernice had gone, and so had her maid, and I was now in a thin gray dress, my smock and shoes still under the window. I prayed to the moon goddess that the servants would not throw them where I could not find them.

 

I crossed my arms and looked at myself in the mirror. My long maroon hair hung untidy behind my head, and my pale face was marked with dark red palm prints. I looked at my thin feet again, and my right ankle had a gray bruise from a few days earlier. Wearing only a thin gray dress, I looked smaller and thinner, which was unusual among werewolves.

 

Bernice's room was large, with a white wool carpet that stretched from under the bed to the window. I felt the softness of the carpet as I stood barefoot. I suddenly remembered my small room, where only a mattress made of weeds and a wooden board served as my bed. I sewed together old clothes that I could no longer fit into to make sheets and quilts. Compared to Bernice's room, it was too shabby. But I was desperate to get back to the little room where I would feel safe.

 

I used to live in a big room with a velvet quilt over my bed, and in the morning my mother would pick out a dress and put it next to my bed, but that was a long time ago, as If in a dream.

 

I don't want to stay here anymore. Memories of the past make me sick and weak, but I have to be strong to survive.

 

The doorknob clicked.

 

"Who? " I clung to my thin gray dress and looked warily at the man.

 

On such an important day, everyone in the pack was in the hall to welcome the Royal Prince, who would break into Bernice's room.

 

Nick stood at the door. He stepped closer, stared at me intently, and whispered, “Let me see, which little mouse did I catch?”