5. Steal The Show

* Kier.*

I’ve never been one to fancy attending balls, but it comes with the seat of power. One would think that being the Alpha King would give enough leverage to avoid gatherings like this, but it is the exact opposite.

“Lady Moira looks perfect, don’t you think?” mother whispers into my ear for the third time and I look in the direction of the woman.

Yes, she was absolutely flawless. A woman of grace and upstanding. She bows her head subserviently as she accepts a dance from Alpha Dorian of the North Pack, and covers her lips shyly to hide her blush. Moira is the kind of woman my mother wants for me, and there is no doubt that she’d be the perfect choice.

However, my wolf, Zephyr, doesn’t like her much. I do, though I can’t help but think she’s missing something.

Not that it matters. The decision on who to make Luna has nothing to do with what I think. It’s all for the best of the pack. And right now, Moira seems to be that. The best choice. The only choice.

“Yes, Mother,” I mutter, eyeing the drinks being served. It’s been a long day and I need one.

“Perhaps, we should cancel the selection and you can name her Luna—“

My gaze meets mother’s hazel ones. “You know it’d cause an uproar with the packs if they thought I was favoring one contender above others.”

She sighs. “I just want this to be over and done with. We’ve already had one incident with that mad woman. It’d be easier to make a pick now and send the rest to their respective homes. I’m sure Moira would excel in every given task.”

The mad woman;Jessamine Everhart. I’d been startled by her bold confession. She loved me, she said. It’s the most hilarious thing I’ve heard in a long time. She’d challenged me and Zephyr had gotten excited, forcing me to make that stupid bet. I should have had her thrown into the dungeons for her insolence. I am not a male who tolerates even a slight.

But her eyes. . .there was something unholy about them. You peer into them and you feel a lover’s caress. You stare in them and you get trapped. You stare in them and you want to please her. It had me in a cuckold for right about five seconds and I’d held on to my anger to prevent myself from falling.

Might she be a witch?

No. Witches don’t exist.

What might she be then? No wolf or being should have that much power in a single gaze. It rattles me in a way that shouldn’t. Disturbs me.

Goddess, I need a drink.

***************

“The attacks have increased over the week,” Randale says, sniffing my drink before he hands it to me. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell him not to bother. After I got poisoned with wolfsbane last year and nearly died, he’s made it his job to do that.

Lloyd claps my shoulder. “You really shouldn’t be talking about rogue attacks with so many beautiful women around.” He pauses, sipping from his drink. “So, who will it be tonight, Alpha? Moira? Helen looks quite fetching too.”

Randale snorts, handing me my drink. “Helen’s too meek for Kier. He’ll break her in a week.”

I laugh at that and sip from the glass, eyes searching the crowd for another option. It is futile. No one outshines Moira.

“You’re going to have to make a choice now, Alpha,” Lloyd says.

He’s right. The guests have begun to look my way expectantly, the women blushing and adjusting their bodice so that their breasts look more inviting to me. Laughable, really. I do not care for those. Not tonight at least.

I’m emptying the content of my glass, mentally readying myself for a conversation with Moira when Randale cusses under his breath, “Goddess, who is that?”

Lloyd is staring in the same direction, stunned. The crowd stops moving. The music pauses. Everything and everyone stops to acknowledge this person who has dared to arrive later than I.

My gaze lifts to the top of the stairs as I seek to find who has everyone in a daze, and the drink nearly falls from my hand.

One woman descends the stairs. Her dress is unlike anything I have ever seen. Red so deep, it could be blood. Woven into it intricately are threads of gold, spreading out like the tendrils of ivy that crawl up the castle walls. They catch in the light and my breath gets stuck in my throat as it begins to glow.

My eyes drop as she takes another step down the stairs. Her waist is surreal in that corset and my fingers furl and unfurl as I imagine my fingers around its slim width. It’d fit perfectly.

Her hips flare and the dress flows further down. One more step reveals a dangerously high slit that exposes moon-white skin and I swallow, forcing my gaze to her face again.

It is covered with a Vixen mask. Her eyes, however...and that plump mouth coated in red...

She makes it to the base of the stairs and the crowd parts, making way for her. Those eyes are trained on me, and the closer she draws, the more familiar they look.

And when she halts in front of me, eyes of the rarest violet pierce mine. She lowers her head into a graceful bow and her light, wispy hair floats about her head, carried lightly by a gentle wind.

"Alpha."

Her voice is a siren's song and I find myself answering to it. "My Lady."

Her brows arch and faint amusement light up those eyes that I am fairly certain I have seen before, though I am not of enough presence to note where. This mysterious woman has stolen my thoughts and my breath.

*Take her hand. Dance with her,* Zephyr tells me.

I do not think I'll ever be sane again if I do not dance with this woman. I take a step forward, stretching a hand forward. "Dance with me."

Her lips curve into a sultry smile, twin dimples appearing on either sides of her cheeks, and rather than take my hand, she takes a step back, turning left.

I watch her, a little confused, and I have never felt more humiliated in my entire life than when she stops before Lloyd and says, "Dance with me, Gamma Lloyd."