A Twisted Anthology: A Twisted Design Book

Love is Blind Part 8

It was a little after eleven in the morning when Sean and Rosario arrived. I was in my room, hiding my cell phone, when they got there. I didn’t want my parents using a tracking app to find me when I didn’t come home.

I heard the doorbell and put my purse on before heading to the living room. I’d picked a nice sundress that went to my knees and had a higher neck than most of my dresses, but was lower cut in the back. I didn’t want to encourage trolls to touch the tops of my breasts when I was letting them touch me.

As I entered the living room, I heard my father asking Rosario and Sean about the party. To anyone else, he seemed to be kind and gentle, like a Beta, or former Beta, should be. Like the man I always thought my father was.

“I know he’s her friend, but will that be enough to keep her safe?” My dad asked.

“That’s the reason why soft beings aren’t allowed at the party until after noon. It actually started at midnight. This gave them a chance to make sure Rock was chained up securely and couldn’t break free. None of the other trolls will let harm come to us.” Rosario promised.

“Chained up? I thought this was his birthday party.” My mom gasped.

“It is, but it is also more. Rock isn’t in his right mind right now and won’t be for seventy-two hours, in total. Only his true mate can soothe him. Every unmated troll female in the region will be there to see if they can bring him back to his right mind. Then she will stay with him until he can be without her and retain his sanity.” He explained.

“When will you bring Carmen home?” Dad asked.

“The plan is midnight. Usually, these parties can go on for all three days. Twelve hours is the minimum amount of time for a guest to pay proper respects. We won’t leave the house without her. I give you my word of honor.” Rosario said solemnly.

“Thank you. I know what that means for fae now. Carmen, have fun. Don’t get hurt.” My dad said.

“Don’t worry. I know what to do.” I replied.

He hugged me awkwardly. I didn’t hug back. Mom gave me a hug after. I felt cold inside. I couldn’t love them like I had before.

Mom let me go and I reached toward where I heard Rosario’s voice. He took my hand and led me out to the car. Sean was close, I could smell him, but he was staying quiet.

Rosario helped me into the back of the car. I heard and felt them getting into the front seats. I tried to release the coldness and get excited for the party.

“Sean told me about you and Rock.” Rosario said as we drove away.

“I’m just glad no one else in the pack found out. I would probably have woken up in the trunk of a car headed for Alaska.” I scoffed.

“That sounds weirdly specific.” Sean replied warily.

I told them about the marriage my parents had arranged. Neither one was terribly happy about that. When I told them that my father hit me and what he said, the car went quiet.

“You’re not going back to the pack. I won’t allow it. Even if Rock doesn’t accept you, you are not going back there. We can get you a job working for Victor. We’ll call Queen Bellamy and have you brought into her collective. Maybe we can move you to Lune Rouge. It doesn’t matter. You’re not going back there.” Rosario growled.

The atmosphere in the car got heavy. I didn’t really understand it. Sean worked on soothing his mate.

“Sorry.” I whispered.

“Don’t be sorry. His dad used to hit him and say s**t like that. It makes Rosario angry when he hears of it happening. He’s right though. You shouldn’t go back. Especially if your dad has lied to Trent.” Sean replied. “Maybe we should talk about something less anger inducing. How are you planning to get in to see Rock?”

“Trolls are assholes. He told me himself. I’m going to go in and offer to let them touch me. I’ll ask if I can use my hands to see them. I’ll be super sweet and friendly. I may be blind, but I’ve known my share of assholes. Someone will find a way to put me in that room. They’ll decide that I wasn’t frightened enough or something. They’ll decide that I need to learn a lesson about trolls.” I grinned.

“Wow. I thought you were just going to sneak around until you found it.” Sean chuckled.

“Just because I can’t see them, doesn’t mean they can’t see me. I am terrible at sneaking.” I laughed.

We chatted while we drove. Sean told me about how he and Rosario started dating. I thought the story was adorable. Rosario talked about their friends and what it was like living with vampires.

When we arrived, I was fully ready and excited for this. I had my watch on so I could keep track of the time. I felt it and it said it was just before noon. We were right on time.

Sean helped me out of the back of the car and wrapped my arm around his. After a couple steps, he paused.

“This place is huge.” He whispered.

“Trolls are huge, babe. So they can’t live in normal houses.” Rosario chuckled.

Rosario took my other arm and started forward. Sean shook himself out of his shock and went with us. I was starting to get a little nervous.

They let me go when we got up to the door and I heard the sound of a large knocker being banged. A few moments later, the door opened and I could hear the sounds of a party. It sounded like a normal party, but in a deeper tone. It seemed all trolls had deep voices, even the females.

“Ah! The entertainment has arrived.” A deep voice said with a rumbling laugh.

“Very funny, Forrest.” Rosario groaned.

“This party had a boom of people accepting their invites after they found out you two were going to be here. I honestly appreciate it. I was worried our boy wasn’t going to have much of a turn out. Though, the females who have gone in have come back pretty happy. Rock always could charm the pants off any girl.” Forrest replied.

Blanche whined. Our mate was having s*x with other women. I reminded her that he said his libido would be high and Rosario said he wasn’t in his right mind. Trolls were different from wolves, but he would be faithful after we claimed him.

“And you must be Rock’s little wolf. He said he made a new friend at the club last weekend. You think just because Rock didn’t scare you that real trolls won’t?” Forrest asked.

I could feel him close to me. If Rock told him about me, he should have mentioned that I was blind. It seems like some pretty important information.

“I thought it would be interesting to see what full trolls are like. With our people creating an alliance, we should try to get along.” I smiled.

“You’re not even looking at my face.” He scoffed.

“I’m blind. You would have to let me touch you so I could see you.” I answered.

There was no sound from him. I couldn’t really hear anything except the party going on inside the house. There was a breeze, like something going past my face.

“s**t. You’re telling the truth. You really want to touch me. You might get scared.”

“Then that would be one heck of a compliment for you. Rock told me that what is considered beautiful for a troll is hideous or terrifying for a human.” I chuckled.

“He was probably letting you know because you’re pretty ugly.” Forrest said very plainly.

“Thank you. I’m flattered.” I replied.

I felt an impossibly hard hand take mine. It was even bigger than Rock’s. I was pulled along behind Forrest. I tried not to make any sounds, I was sure he was trying to be gentle, but there was no way he could manage it with skin like that.

Though I could hear people around me, no one jostled me. It was like a path had been totally cleared to wherever we were going. We stopped and a high pitched whistle brought silence.

“Our final guests have arrived. Prince Rosario and his fiancé, Sean have come to celebrate Rock’s coming of age. They brought Rock’s friend with them. No harm will come to the guests in my home. Anything you three want to say before we get back to partying?” Forrest asked.

I took a deep breath. “I’m Carmen. I’m a werewolf. I will allow people to touch the skin I have showing. Hands only, please. I am blind and I would like to touch your faces when I meet you so I can know what you look like.”

There was an excited chatter. I smiled and patted Forrest’s hand so they would see that I wasn’t shy about touching trolls. This way I could get to know Rock’s friends and they might actually like me.

“What about the fairy boys?” A husky female voice called out.

“We will shake hands with anyone who wants to meet us. No negotiation.” Rosario replied.

Forrest took me over and I felt him sit. He pulled my hand to his face. I gently put both hands on him and started feeling over him.

Nothing prepared me for how he looked. His tusks were much larger than Rock’s. his face was grizzled like the surface of a boulder. He had a thin, long, crooked nose that hung down over his top lip. I could feel the prominent brow ridge, like Rock had, but there were very few similarities.

“Are there different species of trolls? It feels like you would come from a colder climate.” I asked.

“Yeah. I’m a northern mountain troll. How could you tell?”

“Long noses are often associated with people who come from northern regions because it gives more time for the air to warm up as you inhale.” I explained.

I moved my hands again and he was quiet. I slid my hands over to his ears and traced them in the same way I did the rest of his face. Not trying to figure it out, like I had with Rosario, but giving it a little more time than just a cursory glance.

“Holy s**t. He got a softie to rub his ears.” I heard someone whisper.

“Does she even know what she’s doing?” Another voice seemed to respond.

“Probably not. I want to go next.” The first voice chuckled.

My plan was working. I was getting attention and they thought I was an innocent who didn’t know much, if anything about trolls. I smiled brightly.

“Thank you for letting me look at you, Forrest. I think you are exceedingly handsome for a troll.”

He got up and there was a struggle of some sort as other trolls fought for the seat. I felt people touching my back and shoulders. Some petted my hair. Someone grabbed my hands and put them on their face. I guess there had been a winner.

After a couple more faces, I was starting to understand more about why people were scared of trolls. They did look frightening compared to the people I knew, but I was starting to become familiar with them. Almost comfortable.

A while later there was a cheer. I jumped, because it scared me. It made the person I was touching laugh.

“Another failure. Bring the bowl!” Forrest announced.

There was some movement. I listened to what was going on. I heard rustling. They were drawing names for who would go next.

“Shayle, you’re up.” He said.

“Keep that bowl handy. I’ll be back in thirty. There’s no way that halfie is my mate and I’ve already had him, so I don’t need another go.” A deep female voice scoffed.

I tried to focus on the face in front of me. I smiled and complimented him, like I had the others. No matter what species you were, you liked being complimented.

My stomach growled some time later and someone brought me food almost immediately. I could feel people watching me and touching me while I ate. It would have been really uncomfortable if I hadn’t been prepared for it.

“She eats almost as much as a troll. I didn’t know werewolves could handle that much food.” Someone said quietly.

When I was done, I got back to work. It had been a few hours. I’d heard women’s names being called and announcements of failure. Some would only be gone for thirty minutes. Some for two hours. Blanche growled every time that happened.

I probably touched every troll there. I was certain all of them had touched me at some point. I hoped I didn’t smell too much like troll for Rock not to recognize me. Then I realized, I had no clue how they recognized their mates. For us it was smell, but it could be something else for them.

Someone guided me to a couch. They asked to take my shoes off. I agreed, my feet hurt from standing so long. People started touching my feet as well, talking about how soft and small they were. I blushed.

“You know, if you fried your hair with bleach and gave it a nice jagged cut, it would look really pretty.” A female troll told me as she stroked my hair.

“I’ll remember that. Thank you.” I smiled.

Troll women weren’t catty. They were really blunt in their interactions. I liked that a lot. Since I couldn’t see people’s facial expressions, I had to trust their words. I was really thrown off when one of them complimented my eyes. They told me that the rest of me was ugly as hell, but my eyes were pretty.

“Alright, next name…. Very funny, guys. He’s mated and Rock’s straight.” Forrest chuckled.

“Read the name!” Someone shouted.

“Sean.” Forrest answered.

“What!?” Sean yelled.

“Settle down. He’s straight. We only send unmated women back. Sometimes the guys play around and drop a man’s name in for fun. It’s just a joke. I bet they put Rosario’s name in here, too.” Forrest assured him. “I have to read out every name I pull so everyone knows this is fair.”

I giggled. Sean was probably really scared. Forrest called out another troll name and took her to Rock. I sighed. This was so random I was worried I’d have to wait until they got through every name.

There were so many people, that I hadn’t been able to hear if anyone was planning to put my name in. I just continued the way I was. If they were picking on Sean and Rosario, then I knew someone would have thought to put my name in.