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Emma
I am nervously adjusting my hair and clothes, passing my hands over my head and my dress over and over again.
My palms keep straightening out the same spots, and slowly I feel like someone with a severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, but I just can’t shake the feeling of a single strand of hair being out of place, giving us away.
“Don’t worry,” Ace chuckles, leaning in with a broad grin. “Nobody will notice anything.”
I look up into his sparkling eyes, groaning. “We are surrounded by werewolves. Not to worry, while they can smell what we just did from a mile away, isn’t an option, really.”
He laughs, shaking his head as he straightens up to look back in front of him. “Wouldn’t bother me. At least they know who you belong to.”
Stepping into him, I hit his side with my elbow, getting him to crack up. “You are impossible.”
“I know… I know,” he retorts with a happy expression, and puts his arm around me, guiding me back to the long staircase by putting his hand onto the small of my back.
When we arrive at the platform where we separated from Serena just moments ago, I turn around, wanting to ask him to mindlink Junior to have them bring her back to us. But the moment I face him, I notice that something unsettling is gleaming in his eyes, his face tensed up as he lost all the joy he had embedded in his traits.
Just when I’m about to open my mouth, wanting to ask him what is wrong, the air shifts, one of the dancers appearing next to us with a big, but yet fake, smile.
“Oh, hey Ace,” she says, seemingly out of breath. “I thought I had seen you in the crowd. That’s quite the surprise. Why didn’t you tell me? When did you come back?” Her eyes jump back and forth between us while she fights to make this seem like just a friendly conversation.
A sharp pain shoots through me, and I have to suppress the urge to bend at it, making me feel like it is ripping me into two. I force up the best smile I can muster and mirror her exaggeratedly joyous expression. “We had abducted him from the high court so he could finally come home to see his family again,” I chime in, getting her to look at me.
Her traits don’t shift by an inch, but I can clearly see the disgust flashing in her eyes.
She must smell me on him.
“Family…” she murmurs to herself, her face falling only for a split second before she catches herself and manages to put up her fake attire once again. “Ah! This is your brother’s mate!” She crosses her arms, pursing her lips while she bends slightly. “It’s always nice to have a face matching the tales.”
Something is incredibly off, her tone alluding to an intrusion from my part. My wolf wears his mark, but she makes me feel like I am having an affair and should step back.
My wolf growls, and I roll back my shoulders, ready to say something when Ace beats me to it.
“She is my brother’s Luna, yes.”
Her eyes widen along with mine, but I’m positive that it happens for two very different reasons. “It’s official then! Congratulations.”
“Thank you.” The fake smile stretching on my face starts hurting my cheeks, and I do my best not to flinch as she hugs me.
I look at Ace instinctively, anger causing my guts to churn when I find him avoiding looking back at us with his jaw clenched.
Oh, well…
‘Get her off us,’ my wolf snarls, finally talking to me.
Squirming in her hold, I get her to break the hug, but her hands are still on my arms while she beams at me. “That’s such good news. For you and your pack. Ace was so worried.”
I scrunch up my face, my skin tingling, my stomach clenching as my body wants her to take her hands off me desperately. “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite get… who you are?”
“Me? Oh, I’m sorry. I’m always too fast assuming people recognize me,” she giggles, looking at Ace before she sets her eyes back on me. “I’m Adela.”
I blink at her, waiting for her to give me any more clues, but she remains silent, looking at me expectantly. “Okay…”
“It’s short for Adelaide,” she adds, confusing me even more.
Opening and closing my mouth repeatedly, I figure that I need to pull myself out of this wrong movie that I'm stuck in all by myself, but fast. “I’m sorry… but it doesn’t ring a bell.”
“I should have known it. Ace has been away from home for so long, and he is not that much of a talker,” she says, laughing, and thankfully she finally pulls her hands from me. “I’m one of his concubines.”
Her words hit me like she had pushed me into the gong. “One of his concubines?” I ask dumbfounded while my lips turn numb.
“Well,” she rolls her eyes in a playful manner. “He is expected to take in more, but I have the honor of being the only one right now.”
Turning my head towards Ace, I am met with his pleading gaze, something that is quite difficult for me to understand as I’m the one being ridiculed here. “What a lucky woman you are,” I compliment her, my tone of voice rising higher while I fight back my tears.
But what was I even expecting?
He did tell me about this already, didn’t he?
“As long as the Goddess is on our side,” she comments dreamily, leaning herself against Ace. “Her rules are important to us. And I would never take such a risk, but if I get him all to myself for a bit, I’m willing to.”
I press my lips together, stepping backwards. “That’s so cute. If you will excuse me, I have to look for my sister.”
“Of course,” I hear her say as I have already turned around and am fleeing the happy couple.
But I don’t get to take more than a few steps when I sense him following me. “Em, wait.”
‘I hate his audacity to be this calm in every possible situation,’ my wolf complains, and I scoff.
‘Yeah, he is the worst.’
“Em!” he calls me again, his tone still calm, and I hate how he doesn’t reach out to grab and stop me even though he has already caught up with me.
My racing heart makes it harder to breathe, and I am painfully out of breath by the moment I have reached the top of the stairs.
“Don’t!” I turn around, raising my finger into Ace’s face as he halts only inches away from me. “Don’t.”
Biting my bottom lip, I don’t even care how much my voice is shaking while my lips tremble. “What rules is she talking about, Ace? What Goddess?”