Shadow Wolves: The Alpha's Vampire Princess (Book 8)

IT HAD BEEN ONE OF THE BUSIEST weeks of her entire life. Emma had never had to arrange an event of this magnitude before, and she didn’t think they were going to make it on time. She walked through the dining room checking on the seating arrangements one more time before she had to join the Queens and King. There were so many people there that she used the servant’s passages to move around. Knowing she would probably have to deal with some people at some point, but she was avoiding it as long as she possibly could. “There you are, sweetheart! I’ve just told Pearl I was about to send out a search party to look for you.” Queen Lucille smiled brightly at the small thin figure walking in. She quickly bowed and blushed. She hated to think that she kept the Queens waiting. “I was checking the dining room one last time, Your Royal Highness.” Emma smiled. “She is never… Are you ever going to call us by our first… She is never going to call us by our first names, is she?” Queen Pearl looked from Lucille to Emma and back again. Emma smiled at Queen Pearl. “It wouldn’t be proper, Your Royal Highness. Especially not at an event like this.” They laughed, and Emma couldn’t help but giggle. They had been kind to her since that day Lucille found her in the kitchen. They had taken her under their wings, and, basically, they treated her like an adopted daughter, more than just part of the clan. “Emma, the reason I was looking for you…” Lucille walked over to her enormous closet and came back out with a pink dress bag that she hung in front of her cupboard. “Pearl and I decided that you can’t appear in front of our guests dressed in your suits when it's an event like this, as you put it.” Lucille unzipped the bag and pulled out a black ball gown. The top was a princess cut corset in see-through lace, with only the bre@sts covered. The back of the corset was not a zipper-like the new dresses. It was a lace-up dress like in the old days. The skirt was silk with a slit on one side flowing out in an A-shape. Emma gasped when Lucille handed her the dress, and she didn’t have the words to say how she felt at that moment. She had learned by now that not accepting a gift like this would hurt Lucille deeply, and it was a beautiful dress! But Emma had never owned anything that beautiful in her entire life. “From your gaping mouth, I take it you like it, young lady.” Pearl laughed. “See, I told you she would prefer black over that powder pink you wanted to get for her.” Lucille grinned at Pearl. “I seriously don’t know what happened to my best friend since you had those babies. You have gone all… Soft!” They laughed, not noticing Emma’s attention had already been pulled back to her lists of things to check before the guests started arriving. When Pearl noticed that Emma was looking at the list on the bed and no longer at her reflection in the mirror, she nodded at Lucille. “Eyes front!” Lucille shouted, frightening Emma. “Sweetheart, I don’t want you to spend the entire week working. Got that? We have more than enough staff to work. You put in so much time on the schedule so that everyone will have time to relax. I want you to also have that time.” Lucille frowned. “Oh,” Emma blushed bright red. “I don’t think…” “And what if your mate is in this mix somewhere?” Pearl grinned at her. “Oh, NO.” Emma suddenly looked panicked. “Sweetheart! Why are you so panicked all of a sudden? Surely, you also want someone to love you?” Lucille took her by her shoulders, turning her around to look at her. “I just… I’m too busy… I wouldn’t want to leave your service. There would be no time for me to…” Emma’s wide-eyed expression was looking from one queen to the other. “Now you listen here and listen carefully.” Pearl stood up and walked over to them. “If your mate is in this bunch, and you see him, you will let us know.” Pearl continued. “And you will have fun, got that?” Lucille said with a serious face. “But what about the guests?” Emma’s panic in her face was not disappearing. Lucille rolled her eyes. “You are the best assistant ever. The guests will be fine. Now get dressed. You will have to join us when we greet them.” Lucille winked. “I CAN’T!!” It was the first time she didn’t refer to her queen by her title. “Why not?” Lucille looked offended. “I have to check in on the kitchens, Your Royal Highness.” Emma looked down at the ground feeling terrible about her outburst. “You will do no such thing. You might not be my daughter by blood, Emma, but tonight you will be introduced as my daughter. The princess of this realm.” Lucille insisted, and Emma looked up, wide-eyed. That was too much!! If her heart was still beating, it would be jumping out of her chest right now. “Your Royal Highness, with all due respect…” Emma started, but Pearl held up her hand to silence Emma. “The clan has already voted. You are the heir to the throne, sweetheart. You are the first princess of Dratha.” Lucille smiled. “But I can’t…” Emma’s voice went up an octave as her eyes widened even more. “Emma, I am away a lot with the town business that has taken off. We all feel that there should be someone the Clan can trust should anything happen to me. You are my daughter for all intents and purposes. Unless you don’t feel the same.” Lucille frowned. “You honor me… I don’t know what to say.” Emma blushed bright red. “Just say yes!” Pearl’s excitement was infectious, and a smile broke out over Emma’s face. “Yes?” Emma shrugged. “That didn’t sound very convincing.” Lucille laughed. “But it will do. Now promise me you will have some fun this week. Hmm?” “I promise your Royal…” Emma started and Lucille held up her hand, interrupting Emma. “I didn’t expect you to call me mother or mom. I do, however, expect you to at least call me by my name from now on. You are also your Highness now.” Lucille walked over to a painting and took it down from the wall. Behind the painting, there was an old safe that was unlocked with a huge key. Inside was a black velvet box that Lucille took out and took over. Pearl was so excited she clapped her hands together and smiled brightly. “This is for you, my darling.” Lucille handed the box to Emma to open. On the lid, written in silver calligraphy, she reads her name. Carefully opening the lid, she found a small diamond tiara on the inside. Gasping when she saw it, almost too scared to touch it. “Go on, take it out.” Lucille smiled at her. Emma carefully took it out of the box, and the first thing she noticed was the black heart-shaped diamond in the middle of the tiara. It was surrounded by small diamonds that in different twists and turns form the rest of the tiara all the way to the back. “This is… I don’t have…” Emma gaped. “Do you like it?” Lucille smiled. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Emma sounded slightly out of breath. Lucille took it from her. Pearl turned Emma around to look at herself in the mirror and Lucille placed it on the top of her head. “Perfect.” They said in unison and started giggling. Emma stood looking at herself in the mirror, too scared to move for fear that it might fall off and break. “Well, Emma, at your coronation ceremony this week, would you like to pick a new name?” Pearl turned around to sit back down. “My coronation? I didn’t plan that?!” Emma looked panicked, but she was still too scared to move until she took it off and put it safely back in its box. “Yes, we know. We planned it.” Lucille locked her tiara in the safe with all the other jewelry. “A different name? I never even thought that I would be a princess! Never mind getting a new name. No, I will stick with Emma if that is okay.” She looked from one to the other. They laughed and Lucille put her arm around Emma’s shoulders. “Okay, I think we have scared you enough for one day.” Giving her a slight squeeze. “Go and get dressed. We will meet you back here in an hour, so we can all go downstairs to greet our guests.” She winked. Emma took her dress and just before she left, she turned around. “I’m supposed to meet the guests at the door.” Her eyes were wide. “How will they know where to go?!” “Already taken care of my darling. Edgar will greet the guests. Now stop worrying and go make yourself pretty. Princesses can’t be seen looking like the girl next door.” Pearl winked at her and Emma curtsied before leaving hastily. Walking down the passage with the dress inside the pink dress cover, she could hardly breathe. Did all that just happen to her? With those two queens, you never knew what could happen next. That much she had learned by now. She had better hurry up if she was going to make herself look like a princess in an hour! PULLING AT THE STUPID TIE he had to wear, Christiaan looked at his reflection in the car window. The others were excitedly discussing who might be at the mating week and what they were looking forward to. He, on the other hand, would much rather be sitting in business studies class than at this stuffy event and spending the next week living in an old dusty castle where there was no cell phone reception. “I mean, who doesn’t even have a landline!” He said out loud. All of them looked at him shocked. “Random much?” Erik laughed. “Dude, you are supposed to be enjoying this week. Strict instructions from your mom.” “I would have enjoyed the time much more if I could have spent it on studies,” Christiaan growled softly, and Eric poured him a drink. “Here, drink this. It will calm your nerves a little, and I promise you, girls don’t bite!” His friends all burst out laughing as the limo pulled up in front of the castle. Christiaan poured the amber liquid down his throat. Hopefully, the smell of alcohol would keep any possible prospects away from him. He pulled the jacket of his suit straight when he climbed out and looked at the dark, gloomy castle in the middle of nowhere. Seriously! Who still lived like that? Following the masses into the castle, he checked his phone one last time in the hopes that there would be just one bar. All he needed was one bar, then he could at least check his emails… No such luck. He joined his friends once inside and listened to their excited voices discussing the décor and all the different species of supernatural they could see. Then one of the girls in the pack froze like a statue. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Christiaan put his hands in his pockets and followed her gaze. At the door there was a guy with pale brown hair, dressed in a bright blue suit, grinning from ear to ear. “Erik, look!” Christiaan elbowed his friend. “That is why I don’t want to be here!” “Are you sure we are seeing this right?” Erik looked at Bowen, then at the guy in the blue suit that was now walking straight towards their pack member. “Yup. I’m afraid it’s all over for her… She’s a goner.” Christiaan sighed when the boy in blue took their friend Bowen in his arms and loudly proclaimed her his mate. “That fast?” Erik almost looked petrified. “I told you.” Christiaan said in a warning tone. “Dude, then we had better look at the ground.” Erik burst out laughing. He left Christiaan at the bar and joined their group of friends who were happily getting to know Bowen’s new mate and his friends. This was such a sham! Christiaan thought to himself and looked up. He had met the Moon goddess, and she was like a grandmother to all of them, but the idea that his grandmother got to choose his future wife was the reason he was so against all of it. Grabbing the drink he ordered, he drained the glass and ordered another, walking to a corner in the room, finding a wall to lean against while they waited for the inevitable festivities to start.