eight | plans

＊ This chapter is dedicated to Danielle Shearer. Thanks for voting!＊

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VAL

The dreaded party had finally come to an end. Ignoring the partygoers, I went looking for that mysterious man.

“Was a man with dark blonde hair and blue-green eyes who gave this to you?” I asked the servant who’d delivered the present to me earlier. 

The servant blinked nervously, he seemed to be afraid that he’d gotten himself in some sort of trouble. 

“Don’t worry, just tell me. You’re not in trouble or anything,” I reassured him. “I just want to thank him personally.” 

“Yes, Milady,” he finally answered. “He has just gone through that door toward the garden.” 

“Okay. Thank you.” I followed the door that the servant had pointed out and walked into the garden. 

When my mum was alive, this garden was filled with beautiful, colorful flowers. Right now although the gardener had done their job well, there were too many greens and not much of other colors. I began scouting the greens in my attempt to find him. As I was heading toward the maze at the far end, there were only a few dimmed lights accompanying me. I came to a halt at the front of the maze. With the mythical thing that my pack was related to, there was one legend about this maze and how it would keep changing patterns at night. I didn’t believe in groundless superstitions but I wasn’t the type to attest to it either. 

“He must’ve left,” I spoke to myself as I turned around and started retracing my way back to the house. 

“You seem lost,” said a gruff, male voice from behind me. 

I turned around and was face to face with a man in a black tux. His face was unfamiliar. I didn’t think I saw him at the party. His forehead was slightly shorter than normal folks and combined with his high cheekbones and the way his dark eyes regarded me, he didn’t seem friendly. Being born as the Alpha’s daughter, there were only a handful of things that could scare me but this man seemed to possess the rare talent and succeeded in making me feel uncomfortable and wary. 

Still, I pushed my wariness and leveled my eyes with him. He was built around much taller than me, possibly the same height as that mysterious man so I had to look up to actually meet his dark eyes. “No. I’m not lost. This is my home.” 

“Not for long,” he muttered softly under his breath which normal ears couldn’t possibly hear but I heard. 

“Pardon?” I dared him to speak louder. 

“The house seems bigger than how I remembered it to be.” There was a mocking smile in his dark eyes, the only facial feature that seemed to be revealing any emotion. “Anyway, I was just wondering if you’d like me to escort you back.” 

“No need.” I tried to find a way to find out who this man was but at the same time didn’t want to risk alarming him. For all I knew, he could have a weapon hidden in his blazer. I, on the other hand, only had a piece of handkerchief inside the pocket of my dress. I suddenly felt stupid for not bringing the gun I’d been given. Without a wolf, I was practically human except for little perks here and there. “Are you here for the party?” 

“What party?” The man tilted his head to one side and I caught sight of a small tattoo under his right ear. It was too dark outside that I couldn’t make out the shape of it. “Ah, your famous birthday party. Yes, sure, sure.” 

If his presence here was suspicious enough, his vague answer was even more so. Feeling that I shouldn’t be here any longer, I backed away. “Alright then. I hope you enjoy the party. Good night.” 

“Wait.” Before I could get away quickly enough, the man captured my upper arm. He was wearing gloves and apparently, no skin contact meant that I couldn’t see any images or recollections about my encounter with him in my previous life. Even so, there was one thing I noticed about the way his long fingers gripped my arm. They were icy cold despite the fact that they were wrapped in gloves. “Tell me which one is your chamber.” His eyes which previously had been dark brown were now dark, bloody red. His eyes were deeply locked with mine.  There was something about them that made me drown in that frightening yet captivating color. “Tell me. It’s crucial that you do as I say.” 

Even though it was hard, I managed to break away from him. “No.” I broke away the eye contact and when I looked up again, his eyes were no longer red, they had returned to their original color. “Now if you excuse me.” I swiftly turned around and began walking away. I put my leg in front of the other speedily, up the stairs into the back door where I’d come from. I didn’t want to run and give him the satisfaction but I definitely didn’t dally around as I wanted to put as much distance from him as possible. 

Once I reached the door, there was a small gasp of wind brushing the exposed skin on the back of my neck. And although we were supposedly forty yards apart, I could his voice saying, “Until we meet again, Valeriya.” 

Shivers ran down my spine and I got inside before one of the servants could even reach for the door handle. 

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My phone chimed in. It was a text from Lola, informing me that she’d left early because she had to catch a morning train to go to Tom’s mum’s birthday. I told her that it was okay and thanked her for coming. Her reply to me was, ‘Be careful and take care, Val’ which I found slightly alarming. It made me wonder if she knew what was going to happen. I shook those thoughts away as I made my way toward the living room. 

Once all the guests had left, our family usually resided in the living room and had a pot of tea before going to bed. I thought it’d be like any other day. Sadly I was mistaken. I wasn’t prepared for how dramatic Amber was and the number of fake tears that I saw in her eyes as I entered the room. Bile was rising to my throat because I knew that this was fake, she was faking it, and trouble soon would follow. 

“Valeriya, is this true?” asked my dad which was never a good sign whenever he called me by my full name instead of my nickname. “Did you swap your broken shoes with Amber’s?” 

Shite. “What?” I should’ve been given an Oscar for maintaining a blank, innocent look on my face. 

“How could you do this to me?” Her tears were streaming down her cheeks, her hand was placed on her chest. She was truly an actress. 

“You were the one who gave me the broken shoes in the first place!” I pointed out the fact. 

“So you did swap it?!” Her face looked absolutely horrified. She turned to my dad, nestling her head on my dad’s chest and sobbing quite hard. “I didn’t know they were broken. All I did was have it ordered and specially custom-made. I’ve even told them that they could charge me whatever amount as long as they got it done before your birthday. I wanted it to be special for you. So we both could wear them. And yet…” She shook her head and broke down into another set of crocodile tears again. “This is how you treat me? I have told you that I am not trying to replace your mother but all I want is for you to accept me. Tonight’s humiliation is nothing compared to how broken my heart is right now.” 

Shite. She was good. So fucking good. “Dad, she knew that the shoes were broken. That’s why she gave them to me so I would wear them and have my ankle broken.” 

“They were two identical shoes. I wouldn’t be able to tell which one was broken and which one wasn’t,” said Amber. 

My dad looked at me and then at Amber before letting out a deep sigh. “Valeriya, I want you to apologize to Amber right now.” 

I stared at him in disbelief. “W-what?” 

“Apologize now,” he reiterated. 

I continued to stare at him, not wanting to believe what I’d heard. Did he truly ask me to apologize to Amber? Did he really want me to apologize for standing up for myself? For outsmarting Amber? We continued to stare at each other for the longest time. One corner of his eyes flinched, no doubt after seeing the pain and hurt in my eyes. 

“There’s no way in hell I’d apologize to her,” I told him matter of factly. I turned to Amber. “You should be glad you didn’t have a broken ankle.” 

Clearly, my stepmom couldn’t be taken down easily but there was no way I’d lower myself and apologize to her. All I needed was a new plan and I found them as I went through the letters I’d received along with the birthday presents.