Chapter Sixteen: Grow Up

The dress fit my frame, but its bodice pressed my breasts so tightly that they felt ready to spill from their confines. My reflection in the mirror, dressed up with cosmetics whose expense I can only hope is not tied to my bank account, looks tired.

For all the glamour, my fatigue remains clear.

"If I were you, I would avoid Alpha Aldrich, you cannot hunt, and you have an untrained wolf; while his province is thriving, it needs you at peek combat performance. That and he will use you for breeding. Alpha Castille has...a troubling record, so steer clear of him as well. I recommend Alpha Rhett, but he loves his bachelor title too much, so perhaps Alpha Theodore; he left a relationship with his childhood sweetheart, so…."

The council-assigned assistant and etiquette manager, Regina, continues her lecture as the last pin is placed on the gown’s seam.

She has been talking non-stop for nearly an hour; whether I listen or not, the information is the same as yesterday, only rushed because