Chapter 28

The week flew past in a blur of early morning training, trips out to local coffee houses with Hannah, to get our caffeine fixes, secret lunch meetings with Xavier up in his office and fun-filled evenings with the rest of the packhouse down in the lounge playing charades, cards or watching movies with big boxes of popcorn.

During the rest of the day, I spent many hours helping do chores around the house with Rachel and learning about the roles that I would need to know for when I finally accepted Lunarship. I’d been up to the nursery a couple of times this week, meeting the rest of the Omega’s that looked after the pack’s pups. They were nothing like Tom, though. These Omega’s were nice and friendly and cared for the pups as if they were their own pups. One of my roles would be to make sure the nursery was being run smoothly and that the Omega’s were doing their jobs correctly. Any problems and I had to inform the Beta or the Alpha. Another role of mine was to make sure the Hunters were bringing enough food to the packhouse and making sure that our border lines were enemy free.

Finally, after a long week, it was Saturday, and I could feel the butterflies fluttering in my belly. I was nervous about the date that I had planned with Xavier, and as the time got closer and closer, the fluttering feeling got worse. That evening, I would be wined and dined by the Alpha, and I would finally get to know him as a person and not just as our leader or a Mate. I was lying in my bed, enjoying my well-deserved lie-in when a loud knocking sound jolted me from my thoughts.

“Come in!” I called out loudly.

Who on earth was this wanting to come into my room at this time of the morning?

Looking up, I saw Hannah bouncing into my room and jumping on my bed excitedly. For the first thing in the morning, Hanna certainly was wide awake and full of energy.

“Get up sleepy pants. Time to get ready!” she yelled enthusiastically yanking the duvet off my legs.

“Hannah, it is only half-past 11 in the morning!” I groaned, pulling the duvet back up and over my head.

“Yes, exactly and you still got to choose an outfit, do your hair, do your nails and your make up, so come on!” Hannah urged, yanking off my duvet once again and exposing my bare legs to the cold air.

“Okay, okay!” I groaned, jumping out of bed, and standing in the middle of my room in just a pair of black pants and a vest top. “Right I’m up. Where do you want to start?” I asked her sleepily while stifling a yawn.

“Let’s do your hair. Shower now!” Hannah demanded, nodding to the bathroom.

“But I only washed it yesterday!” I protested. “It’s not even dirty!”

“You’re going to the poshest restaurant in town, and I can’t work my magic with day-old hair, so go and get it washed,” Hannah chuckled.

“Why do you care so much about my appearance for tonight anyway?” I grumbled, walking into the bathroom, and turning on the water, before peeling off my clothes and climbing in the bathtub.

I heard Hannah walk in behind me, so I pulled the shower curtain across and peeped out from behind it, seeing Hannah now perched cross-legged on the toilet seat.

“Because you’re the highest-ranked female of our pack and I want you to look super-hot tonight. Tonight could be the night that, you know,” Hannah cut off, winking at me cheekily.

“Hmm, you could be right. Oh, and talking of rank, when do you find out yours?” I casually called out, over the roar of the water.

“Next week,” Hannah replied casually. “I’ve got one training lesson left, and one final assessment and then I will get a letter stating what my new rank is.”

“And what rank are you hoping for?” I queried, as I leant out and grabbed my towel, before climbing back out of the bath with the towel wrapped around me.

“Either Warrior or Hunter. I hope I don’t get Healer as I really will be miffed. Blood and guts and all that jazz isn’t my thing. I’d be really pissed if I got Omega, though!” she snarled.

“I don’t think you would get Omega babe. Only the unworthy wolves who have broken the rules and can’t be trusted get that rank!” I informed her casually, “So don’t worry about that!” I assured her.

I swiftly towel dried my hair and went and sat on the stool in front of the dressing table. I felt Hannah standing behind me, and I watched her in the mirror, grabbing all sorts of brushes and hair equipment like scissors and rollers and different sprays.

A couple of hours later, and Hannah had finally finished my hair. I looked back in the mirror and gasped in shock. Gone were the dead, dry ends that I had become accustomed to and in their place was sleek healthy-looking hair. I had half of my hair up and the other half down and I had loose tumbling curls spread out through my hair. I didn’t even recognise myself, and I could feel myself welling up with happiness.

“Do you like it?” Hannah asked nervously, hiding her face in her hands.

“Oh, Hannah, I love it!” I exclaimed wiping my tears on the back of my hand.

“Brilliant!” she said, clapping her hands. “Right, stop crying, because I can’t have a wet canvas when I’m painting a masterpiece!”

We both giggled in the mirror, and I quickly dried my eyes on my towel. I watched Hannah grab a load of makeup brushes and makeup out of my case and stand in front of the mirror, blocking my view from seeing what she was doing to me.

I was totally at her mercy.

*********

When Hannah had finally finished, poking, and prodding me with brushes and sponges, nail files and glues and glitters, I looked into the mirror to see someone staring back that I had never seen before. I had sultry black and grey eye shadow with long black eyelashes, my skin had a lightly tinted foundation on so that I looked sun-kissed, finished off with pale pink lipstick.

Would Xavier even recognise me?

I looked down at my nails to see long pointed nails in Cadbury purple and silver with silver gemstones. “Oh, Hannah, my nails are gorgeous! Thank you ever so much!” I beamed happily.

I couldn’t remember the last time I looked this good. Even by my own admission, I looked hot!

“No worries babe. Xavier won’t be able to contain himself. All you need to do now is find a gorgeous outfit, and you will be ready to go.”

I nodded enthusiastically. I knew exactly what I was going to wear. “Follow me, and I’ll show you,” I beckoned to Hannah, getting up and walking over to my closet.

Hannah followed me into the closet, and I rummaged around in the bottom and pulled out a pair of black strappy high heels. I grabbed a beige asymmetric skirt that had a small thin black belt around the waist, and I pulled out a floaty chiffon black strappy top. On the way back out to the bedroom, I grabbed my black leather jacket off from the coat hook.

“Perfect!” Hannah chimed. “Now, get dressed and hurry. You don’t have much time left.”

She sat on my bed and kept her back turned so that I could quickly pull on my clean clothes. After running back into the closet, to grab some clean underwear, I was finally changed.

“Taa dah!” I sang, twirling around in a circle.

Hannah jumped up and turned around before bursting into tears. “Oh, Leah, you look amazing!”

A sudden loud knocking on my bedroom door interrupted us, and Hannah marched towards the door and pulled it open roughly.

“Do you mind? We are bu…Oh!” Hannah quickly paused and bowed her head before continuing “Beta Adam! I am so sorry. Can we help you?”

Beta Adam chuckled. “It’s okay Hannah. No sweat.” He turned his attention towards me and continued “I’ve just come to say that Alpha Xavier is ready and waiting for you, Luna, downstairs in the lobby.”

“Oh, thank you. I will make my way down now then,” I stammered nervously.

“And can I just say, how wonderful and how gorgeous you look tonight!” Beta Adam gushed, smiling down at me.”Hope you guys have a real good time tonight. You both deserve it!”

I glanced over at Hannah, who was blushing furiously, and I smiled back at him. “Thank you, Beta Adam. Enjoy your evening with Hannah! I think she could do with some company while I'm gone,” I winked up at him.

Hannah let out a gasp and turned to an even brighter shade of red. Beta Adam turned to look at Hannah, then back at me and raised an eyebrow in confusion. I nodded at him slowly, trying to get the message across. He finally cottoned on as his face burst into a wide grin.

“Oh, of course. I’m sure I can find something to do to help keep Miss Hannah entertained,” Beta Adam replied cheekily.

“Well, I am off then. See you both later! And have fun!” I said casually, quickly giving Beta Adam a knowing glance, before heading off down to the lobby to find my date.

As I quickly made my way down the stairs, Xavier came into view. He was standing there tall and proud, wearing a black tuxedo. As I reached the bottom step, he turned around, and I saw that he had a small black bow tie around his neck.

“Very handsome,” I grinned nervously. “You do scrub up well!”

“You are looking absolutely stunning yourself, Miss Norwood,” he replied, smiling down at me. “How have I been blessed with something so beautiful?”

“Oh, please!” I gushed, looking away in embarrassment, before looking at him once more.

“Well, shall we?” Xavier grinned, holding out his arm.

I grabbed onto his arm, and we walked out through the front doors to a waiting car at the bottom of the steps. The car door was open, and Xavier waved his spare hand towards the car.

“After you, my love,” he whispered.

I climbed into the back of the car and slid across the leather seats, where Xavier promptly joined me, slamming the door behind him. Xavier coughed loudly and leaned forward to the driver, who was hidden by a dark plate of glass.

“To Marchiano’s please, driver!”

The car rattled into life, and I could feel us gliding back down the drive and into the night. Xavier grabbed two champagne glasses from a small shelf and pulled out a bottle of champagne from a mini-fridge. He expertly opened the champagne, filling both glasses and promptly passing one to me.

“A toast!” he gushed, holding up his glass. “To us!” he continued, smiling at me lovingly.

“To us!” I replied, clinking my glass.