Chapter 5 - Mine!
2370 Words
Because she had been struggling to feed, and because of his Lycan heritage, he could pull her in the direction he wanted.
“What the hell do you think you are doing?!” She ripped her arm from his grip as soon as they were out of sight.
“We need to talk.” He said through gritted teeth.
“Clearly! You have no manners, and it’s time someone taught you! You don’t go interrupting the Princess while she is…” Emma ranted, but he stepped up to her, pulling her into a tight embrace, and crushed his lips onto hers. They stepped back two steps until her delicate back was pressed up against a tree.
Ares found a way through with Christiaan being unable to think straight around her and decided to take advantage of the situation, not giving her half a chance to finish her sentence. Ares grabbed her, crushing his lips down on hers.
Her lips were as soft as he imagined they would be. She fought him at first, pushing her hands against his shoulders, then he picked her up, stepping forward two steps, leaning against a tree to support them both when he started to feel dizzy. A soft wind blew her long black hair around them, creating their own private curtain.
He pulled away, giving them both a second to take a breath, but kept his forehead against hers. Their kiss had given Christiaan enough strength that he pulled away from her. The shock in his eyes that he could allow Ares to go that far made him storm off.
“Great Emma! It’s not good enough that you get abused by vampires in the woods, you also have to let a wolf do it!” She threw her hands in the air, touching her swollen lips and hissing at herself. Remembering the feel of his kiss as her fingers touched her own lips.
“URRRRGGHGHH!!!!” She felt her strength return and stormed out of the woods to attend to her guests. She promised the queens she would “mingle and try to enjoy” the parties. Whatever that meant, but he just had to come and ruin that for her. Looking around the guests, she couldn’t see him anywhere and breathed a sigh of relief to steady her nerves. Hopefully, he had decided to leave altogether.
Spending the afternoon with the Queens and King, they chatted with groups and tried to get the single groups to mix with other single groups to see how many couples they could get together as soon as possible. The royals wanted them to pair up as soon as possible and just enjoy the rest of the week's festivities and get to know each other before they all had to leave.
The queens had told her that they had arranged a small ceremony for her inauguration the next day, but she knew them too well… Their small and her small were two different things. When lunch was finally over, she started making arrangements for everything to be cleared up, only to be dragged away by what had become her two mothers.
“Come-on! If we don’t keep an eye on you, you won’t be dressed in time for dinner.” Pearl laughed.
“ARES! IF I COULD KILL you right now…” Christiaan growled at his wolf.
“Yeah, what would you do?” His wolf growled back.
“How are you feeling, by the way?” Christiaan took a deep breath on his way back to his parents and realized that he felt more like himself.
“Where did you disappear too?” His mother looked concerned, pulling at his suit jacket.
“Mother, this is a waste of time. I’m going home.” Christiaan rolled his eyes.
“You will not.” Anthony made his Alpha voice clear this time. “This is important, and you can’t avoid it forever. If she is here, it’s time you found her. If not, then you can go home at the end of the week. Is that understood?” He grabbed his son by the arm, looking him in the eyes. Christiaan didn’t say a word and just nodded. The tension between them was being noticed, and Meg decided that they should take their discussion inside before it became too heated.
“WHAT WAS GOING ON with you and that wolf?” Lucille smiled knowingly.
“Nothing.” Emma shrugged.
“Are you sure?” Pearl smiled, pumping Lucille in her ribs.
“You did disappear there for a couple of minutes…” Lucille grinned.
“Into the woods…” Pearl added, and both of them burst out laughing.
“Nothing is happening.” Emma sighed, flopping down on the bed.
“That doesn’t look like nothing, sweetheart.” Lucille winked at her.
“You look paler than normal, are you sure you’ve had something to eat?” Pearl looked worried. Again, with the eating!!
“So, how are your plans coming along for tomorrow night?” Emma diverted their attention to something she knew would get them off the subject of Christiaan Storm. Starting with the flowers, they continued to the décor and finally walked over to the cupboard, both giggling like two school girls.
“We were going to wait until tomorrow night, but since you brought it up.” Pearl opened the huge walk-in closet that used to be hers, and they both swooped in, returning with what was the biggest dress bag Emma had ever seen.
“You are kidding me!” Emma exclaimed.
“No. What’s wrong?” Lucille looked confused.
“It’s… HUGE.” Emma was a little shocked.
“Well, we haven’t had a proper princess inauguration in… honestly… Forever, so, of course, your dress is going to be huge and extravagant.” Pearl waved her hands in the air, leaving Lucille to hold on to the heavy bag. Pearl pulled out the dress mannequin from the closet and put it on one of the dress stages in front of the mirrors.
“We had to open it to make sure the wrinkles could get steamed out before tomorrow in any case.” They shrugged, looking at each other for a moment. Pulling out an ivory satin princess dress. With a princess cut top hem, lace sleeves, and lace trim around the bottom hem.
The train of about three meters was decorated in the same lace and decorated with beautiful black diamonds in between. Black diamonds also decorate the lace around the hems and the sleeves. Emma gasped when she saw the dress, standing up. She felt like she was in a dream.
“I thought the previous dress was the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, but this… is… I don’t know what to say.” Emma looked at them, unable to find the words.
“Just thank you, and you will be fine.” Pearl grinned, swinging from side to side with her hands tightly pulled together as if she was a teenager.
“Oh, hell! We are going to be late!” Lucille looked at her watch and Emma’s eyes grew wide.
“I still have to…” Emma started.
“No… You don’t. You have to get dressed in this beautiful dress and go to dinner with us.” Lucille laughed at Emma’s weak attempt to get away. She pushed another black dress out of the cupboard. The hooped lace skirt swung back and forth. Small white Swarovski crystals shone brightly in the light.
“This is too much!” Emma gasped.
“No, it’s not. Emma, darling, when are you going to accept that you might not be my daughter by blood, but by choice? I chose you.” Lucille frowned.
“But why? I’m nothing but a slave girl you found hiding in your kitchens.” Emma burst out in tears. The emotions and stress of the past couple of weeks and the tears unshed from when she was captured start flowing.
Small drops of red blood droplets were dripping down her cheeks. They both rushed to her side to comfort her. Lucille realized that Emma probably never had the chance to work through the trauma she’d been through.
“Oh, honey. I didn’t mean to push you. I’m sorry. I chose you because you are so special to me.” Lucille tried to comfort Emma.
“But why? I’m just… Me.” Emma waved her arms in the air.
“Because I see something in you. Something special. Emma, I know that if anything were to happen to me, our people would be safe in your hands. I know you will put them first.” Lucille rubbed Emma’s arms. “Now, come on. We have an important dinner to get to. Our guests are waiting.”
“YOU HAVE TO ATTEND DINNER. You will attend dinner! That’s that!” Megan slammed the door behind her on her way out.
“Your Luna has spoken.” Ant shrugged and winked at Christiaan. “You better get your butt down there, son. I wouldn’t want to upset that mother of yours any more than you already have.”
“Dad, please. Talk to her. Just make her understand that all of this is ridiculous!” Christiaan pleaded.
“Just get your butt down to dinner, will you?” His dad left, and Christiaan felt like punching a hole through the wall. He looked at the new jacket his mother brought and took a deep breath. He had to speak to her tonight!
THEY WERE ALL WAITING IN THE FOYER when the royals were announced, and she came sweeping down the stairs in her signature black dress. This time, it sparkled. Looking as if someone took stars from the sky and stuck them to her dress. No other girl in this entire castle compared to her beauty.
“Dammit, Ares!!” Christiaan hissed at his wolf.
“I can’t help it. She is everything.” Ares was head over heels.
“She was chosen FOR us. Not BY us. Do you really want to live a life that someone else planned for us?” Christiaan fought with Ares, watching her move into the dining room with her family. Just being in the castle near her made him wish he could take her in his arms and…
“STOP IT, ARES!” Christiaan followed his mother, who hooked her arm into his as they walked into the dining room. At dinner, he could finally eat something, feeling better than he did the night before. It seemed Elizabeth’s mate had the entire pack in some kind of buzz, which took the attention off him a little.
Unfortunately, it meant he had too much free time on his hands and found himself looking her way every chance his eyes could wander that way. As soon as he noticed her, she excused herself from the royals, he followed her out of the dining room. Catching up to her in the great foyer.
“We need to talk!” Christiaan softly whispered beside her.
“That’s what you keep telling me.” She kept on walking, and he grabbed her by the arm. She turned around with her fangs showing, and her nails pushed out to their full length. She was not going to be pushed around by anyone ever again!
“Wow, easy. I just want to talk.” Christiaan let her go. Holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender, he tried to calm down in the hopes she would calm down.
“Then why grab me? First, you kissed me, now you grab me. What is it that you want from me, Wolf?” She hissed.
“I… I… I need us to talk about what this is.” Christiaan sighed.
“Nothing. You made your position abundantly clear, and I certainly don’t want anything from someone like you. Now leave me alone.” She turned around and was gone before he could say another word.
“Great job, Christiaan.” Erik’s voice rang through space. Christiaan turned around to find his best friend watching him.
“How long have you been standing there?” Christiaan felt his cheeks burn.
“Long enough to know that my best friend has definitely found a mate and can’t decide what he wants to do about it. Dude! She is beautiful and a princess! There may be a couple of them around at the moment, but not all of them are that gorgeous. What’s your problem?” Erik walked closer.
“If you tell anyone about this, I swear I’ll kill you.” Christiaan stormed past Erik, back into the dining room.
“Why? That is why we are here. Your mom will be so happy!” Erik patted him on the back.
“Dammit, Erik! I’m going to kill you!” Christiaan growled softly under his breath as they walked up to his parents.
WHY WOULDN’T HE JUST LEAVE her alone? He clearly wasn’t interested… But then there was that kiss. His lips were so soft.
“STOP IT! Men are cruel creatures who just want to use women and then throw them away when they are done with them.” Emma said out loud.
“Not all of us, surely.” Edgar popped up out of nowhere.
“Goddess, you scared me!!” She jumped. “How did you do that?”
“Many years of practice. So, my darling princess, what’s up? Who is this man that you feel you can’t trust?” Edgar frowned.
“Nobody.” She tried to pass him so she could go to the kitchen.
“Oh, no, you don’t. Lucille said not to allow you in the kitchens tonight. You have to go to the ballroom to dance.” He grinned at her.
“You are kidding me!” Emma shouted in frustration. He hooked his arm into hers and escorted her to the ballroom where everyone had gathered after dinner.
“No, I’m not.” He smiled.
“May I have this dance.” He held out his hand, but before the music started, Christiaan appeared next to him.
“MINE!”
- Writer
