The Alpha King and the Shadow

Chapter 2

I wake up at 2:00 shaking and in cold sweats. I am trying to steady my breaths to calm me down.

Damn nightmares again. I know I wont be going back to bed now.. "They aren’t night terrors if they are memories." Fen says matter of factly.

"They ARE night terrors because they terrorize us while we are sleeping." I argue back.

"Then wouldn’t they be called sleep terrors?" Fen counters.

"Whatever Fen I know they bug you too you are just better at not showing it." I say.

"We are the same person dips*t, of course you know. Let's go hunt. We won’t be able to all weekend because of that stupid ball. I need to go kill some a*sholes." She says to me and I agree.

We get back at 5:30 giving us a half hour to clean up and get in the car. It is only an hour drive to the palace. Our pack is one of the closer packs to the kingdom.

Once we check into the hotel Laura comes straight to my room to get ready for the ball. It is 9:00 and the ball doesn’t start until 4:00, I don’t understand why she always thinks that it will take long to get ready. She insists on doing my hair and makeup to help hide some of the facial scars I have. When she is done I look in the mirror and feel mixed emotions. My black hair is curled and pinned up so that it drapes down my back and my makeup isn’t too much but enough to accentuate the best features of my face. It makes my green eyes look shinier than normal.

I put my dress on and looked in the mirror again. I wonder if this is how I would have looked if everything did not turn out the way it did. I sigh and turn to look at Laura.

She is wearing a long black dress similar to mine, but hers has no mesh and has a long slit up the side that exposes her leg if she stands or walks a certain way. She straightened her red hair and barely put any makeup on. She stands next to me in the mirror and puts on her heels. Normally she is about half a foot shorter than me, but with her heels she stands at the same 5 foot 11 height as me.

"Damn girl you look smokin!" She says to me,

"I might be smokin, but you are on fire." I say to her and we both start laughing.

We get interrupted when Alpha Jona knocks on the door and comes in.

"What if I was indecent?" I ask him and he rolls his eyes at me. Even though he is the Alpha and Fen doesn’t like him too much, I still joke with him for Laura’s sake. He looks dashing with his blond hair slicked back and his black suit and a red tie to match Laura’s hair.

"You both look amazing. Laura I knew you would help the runt of the pack look nice, but darling, don’t you think it is too much." He asks her.

"What do you mean too much? She questions back.

"I mean she actually looks like a normal human being." He said as he side eyed me.

I playfully punched his shoulder and said "Well ALPHAA I need to blend in and try to be as you would say “normal”. And compliment your mate won't you. I'll be downstairs waiting while you too get it on." I wink at them and leave.

Jona is my best friend's mate, so naturally we banter and have fun. That is when nobody is around of course, I do not need people thinking I am fun, then they wouldn’t leave me alone.

"As we pull up to the castle Fen starts pacing in my head. Damnit Fen really? Again?" I say.

"Yes again, you think I do this sh*t on purpose LeeAca?" She snaps at me.

I pull out my necklace and put it on. Laura and Jona see what I did and look at me with pity. "It might be different this time Ace." Laura says. And I just stare at her then open the door to get out.

"It isn't a good Ace. Fen says. What are you talking about, we have the necklace, what more do we need. We will know who it is and we will be able to avoid them till the time is right to leave." I say back.

"I don’t know Ace, this feels different, stronger. I don’t know if we can handle another rejection, not when it already feels this strong and we aren’t even in the room together yet." She says

"Like I said it will be okay. We will know, but he won’t know for sure. He won’t be able to smell us Fen. We will be okay." I say as we enter the big ball room. We walk past a lot of people and a lot of the unmated wolves are staring at me. I feel like kicking their teeth in. I grit as I walk farther into the room. I stop at the check in and a tall man in an all black suit stares down at me.

"Name and pack?" He grits out. I stare at him and act shy.

"Um.. LeeAca Petrovich of the Green River Pack." He looks me up and down then grunts and hands me some place cards. I thank him and walk away. I get back to our pack and hand the cards to Jona so he can disperse them and figure everything out.

"I am going to get something to drink. Would you guys like anything?" I ask Jona and Laura.

"Whiskey and red wine Laura answers for both of them." I nod then head to the bar on the side of the room, next to the entrance to the ballroom. I ordered their drinks and a smoked whiskey for me. As I am waiting for drinks I take the opportunity to gather intel.

There are a few girls in the corner giggling and talking about the Alpha King hoping that they will be his Mate, or at least choose them. On the opposite side of the bar there is a boy around 18 nervously shaking his knee and he stares across the room. I look to see where he is staring and I see it is a girl, maybe 18, with her arm linked with another man.

"Poor fool probably thinks his mate is already mated. Haha little does he know that is her cousin." Fen says.

"I know." I reply. The man and the girl share a small scent that most wouldn’t be able to catch. I start to walk up to the boy.