Chapter 4

RACHEAL'S POV

THE BALL

“Make it tighter!!!” Kora screamed. I didn’t see the need to snap her waist just so she could look curvy, but I obeyed.

It turned out that the important thing her parents had to tell me was that I would be escorting their daughter to London for a ball organized by the queen. I wasn’t going to attend but I was here to help Kora and her friends dress up as there is nothing they can do themselves. Damien didn’t die. He had kept his cowardly mouth shut. I was glad to be in London, just to avoid Damien for a few days.

“You look all right Kora, let’s go, otherwise we'll be late,” Jane said.

“I hate that we would be wearing a mask, I intend to sweep the Alpha off his feet with my beaut,” Sophie said, clearly in a land of her own.

I was glad when they hurled themselves out of the room, at least I’d have a little time to myself. But someone knocked on the door less than a minute after they left. Maybe they had forgotten something.

I opened the door to a frowning face.

“Why aren’t you dressed?” It was Davina, she was wearing a very beautiful purple dress and a silver mask but held a bag in her right hand.

“I do not have what to wear.” My perfect excuse.

Davina lifted the bag she was holding. “Which is why I brought the perfect gown for you. Raymond and I bought a gown for you.”

It turned out that the man who came to do business with Davina’s dad was her mate. The same man her father had planned to make her marry. It's a perfect coincidence. Davina had been on cloud nine ever since.

“I look like a banshee Davina; a ball is no place for me.” 

I hate how people look at me just because I am not pretty. Although I had a picture of myself as a little girl that I got from my mother before she died and I looked so stunning, you would mistake me for a goddess. It made me question why I now looked this ugly but I believe if I was indeed the one in that picture, then something had gone wrong and I had the possibility of being beautiful again.

Davina dipped her hand into the bag and brought out a full golden mask, hers was half that showed her face. “That’s why it’s a masked ball. With these you wouldn’t have to worry about anyone looking at you, I have another idea, we would go in separately so Kora wouldn’t be able to guess either.”

That sounded like a good idea. “All right. Let’s go have some fun.”

In less than 20 minutes I was in the hall. 

I smoothened the gown with my hand nervously. The gown fit me perfectly, it was green and I loved how it matched with my eyes, but I wasn’t sure I liked how everyone’s eyes were on me. Could they see my face? Has the mask slipped? What were they thinking?

 I lifted my hand to feel my mask in place. “You can do this Rachel.” This was my chance to have a normal life just for one night.

A nicely built man walked up to me. “Good evening my lady.” He bowed.

I loved his accent. “Good evening sire.” I curtseyed, repaying his gesture.

Immediately, music began playing from the center of the hall where the orchestra played. “Can I have this dance?”

I didn’t know much about dancing, so I opened my mouth to decline but instead, a voice spoke behind me.

“The lady is taken.”

I heard his voice even before I saw his face, it was deep and rich, totally masculine. My first thought was what this wolf would sound when angry or when he roared, there was so much power and strength in that voice.

The man who had asked me to dance walked away without hesitation, he didn’t even disagree, maybe it was a rule here or something, but he seemed cowardly to me.

I turned only to face a chest covered in a coat and cravat. Dear Goddess, the man was tall.

I had to take a few steps backward to get a full view of him, but he covered the distance in a second and pulled me to the dance floor. “Dance with me.”

It wasn’t a question; he didn’t expect an answer.

For the first time in my life, I was in a ball, the arms of a man were wrapped around me and I was dancing. His scent clouded my senses.

Blue. His eyes were blue, a combination of the sky, the sea, and a garden of gypsophila, in them I could see a flicker of curiosity. yet his smell was so strong in my nostrils, the smell of trees and the forest. An earthy scent swirled around him. 

There was something powerful, intoxicating about his scent. His mask didn’t let me get a good view of his face.

“I wasn’t taken,” I murmured the first words that came to my mind,

I expected him to ask what I meant but he understood. “You’re taken if I say you are.”

“Really? I don’t think you have such power over me.” There was something about him that gave me boldness. Maybe I was getting high on his scent because it was very unlike me to argue with anyone.

“I do.”

“You don’t.” I fired back.

I could hear a hint of disbelief in his voice. “You don’t know who I am?”

His face was covered, how would I know who he was?

“Where are you from? Who are you?” he asked. 

“Don’t you think you’re asking too many questions? What if I choose not to answer?” I knew I was being stubborn unnecessarily.

He spinned me around till I had no choice but to put all my weight on him, trusting him to handle the next move. “People don’t defy me.”

He said the words with his eyes looking deep into mine. I lost myself in his gaze and found fire. With his arms totally around me and all my weight on him, I looked into his eyes and found my mate.

“MATE.” 

The call was made simultaneously by both of us.

A woman everyone knew was the queen stopped in front of us. “Alpha Axel, you couldn’t be luckier.”

Wait! The man I had been dancing with who turned out to be my mate was the Alpha!