Chapter 3: Party

-Anastasia-

I came on my own tonight. Not that my aunt and uncle weren’t there. But we had gone by ourselves. I didn’t want them to figure out why I had really decided to attend tonight. To find answers. They felt like I was obsessed. Like I had decided to freeze myself in time and never move on, but how could I? How could anyone move on after witnessing what I had? How could anyone just… let go? I had watched something I was too young to watch and experience, and now this burning hatred in my heart was the one thing that kept me going. It was the thing that kept me alive. It helped me get up every morning. And it helped me eat and get dressed. I needed it so I could continue. It helped me hold my head high as I felt eyes on me as I walked in. People were whispered and talked as I walked by them, and I knew what they were saying. What they were talking about. My scars…

"Is that her?"

"Have you ever seen her before?"

"Do you know what happened to her?"

It was all questions I heard being mumbled and whispered to each other, as I walked by them all, going right for the ballroom. I might find nothing tonight. There were so many people. So many smells. It was hard to distinguish one from the other, but that didn’t mean I would give up. It didn’t mean I wouldn’t stop searching.

“Champagne?”

An omega held out a tray with filled champagne glasses and I gratefully took one, taking a sip and watching her leave, before I joined the bigger crowd. I kept close to the walls, though, not wanting to get stuck in the middle of wolves and lycans. It was so clear who was whom. The wolves were not just smaller, but the lycans stuck together, like werewolves did. They didn’t mingle, and as I stopped to watch the different groups, I huffed a little. It was ridiculous to watch, but it also fueled my anger. This… this behavior, the way the lycans saw themselves as more important and power, it had cost me my family. That had to be why, right? I was not sure exactly why my family, but there had to be a good reason they were chosen. My family was very powerful. They had one of the biggest packs, and they had all been slaughtered in seconds by one small group of lycans. I was going to show them that what comes around goes around. And the moment I found them, my true planning would begin. My true revenge. I might be one small werewolf, but I had a fire burning in me they had ignited there.

“Ana!”

Someone suddenly called out to me and I saw my aunt waving at me, smiling. She looked beautiful, and always reminded me so much of my mom. I had taken more after my dad. My hair was black like coal, while my aunt’s hair was light brown. The same color as my mother’s. They also both had clear blue eyes, while my dad had had dark green, but I carried the same color as my mother, a little darker shade of blue though. I sighed, not wanting to go join my aunt and her friends. They always looked at me like I didn’t belong there. I sighed and downed what I had left in my glass. My uncle had gone to chat with some of his friends. He wasn’t very fond of my aunt’s friends either, and we often pointed out to her they weren’t really her friends. My aunt had a naïve trait to her though, and always believed the best in people, which there was nothing wrong with, but it was easy to get taken advantage of then.

“Oh, finally,” my aunt said and then looked at me up and down.

She was used to my burn scars, but others weren’t and everybody looked at me a little wide-eyed.

“Oh, look at you,” my aunt said and ran a hand through my long hair. “You look amazing.”

She smiled proudly and then wrapped an arm around me, turning me to her friends.

“Doesn’t she?”

My aunt meant nothing bad. She wasn’t putting me on display because she wanted to humiliate me. My aunt was truly proud of me and that I had decided to come out tonight, and in such a dress. She didn’t think my scars should be hidden either, but she forgot what others were thinking. She forget not everybody thought I should display them or come wearing a dress like that. Many didn’t even think I should be there.

“Oh… yes,” one of her friends mumbled.

“It’s… lovely.”

“Wonderful…”

Oh, the pauses gave them away. It was not hard to hear they didn’t like at all what they were seeing, and I rolled my eyes as I pulled away from my aunt.

“Maybe you should have brought a shawl that would have really have perfected the look,” one of them suggested.

It was a subtle way to tell me to cover up and not display the scars so much. I just looked at her blankly, and it made her take a small step back. I had perfected that look that made it clear that someone should mind their own business, and it worked well on these types of people, too. Not just someone who was lower ranked than me.

“I really am happy you came tonight,” my aunt said. “It will be a great night, and a good chance for you to mingle.”

I didn’t really have many friends… I had none, really. I didn’t spend my time on making friends. I just focused on my revenge. I fed on it like fire would wood.

“Yes… I am… excited,” I said dryly, and my aunt rolled her eyes.

“Really!” she told me. “Go mingle! Meet people your age. Meet a guy!”

“What if I like women?” I said, and I heard her friends gasp.

Yes, they were traditional women, not thinking there was room for people liking the same sex. It made me roll my eyes again. My aunt, on the other hand, only shook her head, because she knew I wasn’t being serious and was just trying to be a little annoying.

“Well, then go meet a woman,” she said and her friends look at her, shocked.

She looked at them, confused. “What?”

“All right. I will go fall in love with a woman,” I mumbled, just so I could escape the scene, and just to annoy her friends a little more.

“Have fun!” my aunt shouted after me and I rolled my eyes a little as I squeezed through the many people, looking for the omegas who carried the booze. I would not get drunk tonight, but if I was going to survive more people like my aunt’s friends, then I needed the extra strength. I couldn’t find any but found a bar instead, and ordered a stronger drink.

I had only taken a sip though when I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder and almost spit out the drink. I turned my head and saw my cousin there and soon all his friends surrounded me, making me sigh, because I really wanted to be left alone.

“You came!” Jackson said.

“And in a dress like that,” Gary, one of his friends, said.

I turned my head and saw Gary look me up and down. Jackson’s friends were used to me as well. Maybe I didn’t go around showing my scars all the time, but they had seen them, and really they didn’t mind. Jackson, though, let out a dark growl and Gary quickly turned his eyes away that were going towards my breasts.

“Not her,” he warned his friend.

I turned to Jackson, looking annoyed.

“Shouldn’t that be up to me?” I asked.

“Yes, shouldn’t that be up to her?” Gary almost asked hopefully, and the others laughed behind him.

Jackson rolled his eyes and shook his head. I turned to Gary, and he leaned closer to me.

“Never,” I told him.

That made them all laugh, even Jackson.

“So, enjoying the night?” Jackson asked me.

“Not really.”

“Why?”

“Because you guys found me,” I told him and looked at me.

Jackson just chuckled, knowing I didn’t really mean it. He and I were quite close. He was probably my only friend, really, but we were also family. We were stuck together.

“So, what is your plan? To stay in a corner all night?” he asked me.

“Sort of.”

I didn’t want to let him know my actual plan, but I had a feeling he knew.

“Your mom, though, wants me to go mingle and fall in love with a guy,” I told him. “As if that was going to happen.”

Jackson chuckled and shook his head.

“What did you tell her?”

“I asked her what if I liked women?”

“Do you?” I heard Gary ask me, almost sounding scared.

I just looked at him a little tiredly as everyone laughed around me.

“What did she say?” Jackson asked.

I turned back to my cousin and shrugged.

“She said go ahead and fall in love with a woman, and I told her I was going to do that, and now I am here. Drinking.”

I held up my glass and heard the ice cubes in it cling together. It was a pleasant sound, and the alcohol helped me calm my nerves. I might seem confident on the outside… but inside… I was scared.