Chapter 27

The moment Rie laid eyes on me, she rushed over to my side. “Thank goodness you’re here! Where have you been? Never mind that. We need to start getting you ready.”

Before I could say anything, Rie started dragging me upstairs. The first thing she did was force me into the shower, saying she would get everything else ready for when I got out. I stood in the hot shower, letting it warm up my body. My fingers were still chilled from being outside for so long. The weather was pretty nice, considering the time of year. However, the water had cooled down the air, and with the small breeze, it made me pretty chilled. The hot water felt like a nice comparison.

When I got out of the shower, I saw my clothes had been replaced with a white bathrobe. I tied it around my waist. It was softer than any towel or bathrobe I had even felt before. It made me feel like I was in a fancy hotel. I left the bathroom to look for Rie.

When I found Rie, she was sitting in the game room, but it no longer looked like a game room. Most of the big items had been pushed to the side, and there was makeup, clothes and various other items spread around the room. Rie was sitting on the couch, braiding a young girl’s hair.

“Adira! Perfect. Give me a moment, and I’ll start on your hair,” Rie said.

“I can dry my hair myself,” I said. I sat on the couch next to Rie. There were several girls here getting ready, and I didn’t recognize them.

“Except you won’t be. It’s your birthday. You won’t be lifting a finger tonight,” Rie declared. She was halfway through the braid.

A teenager was curling her hair nearby, and she looked over at me. “Oh, so this big hoopla is for your birthday?”

I nodded. “Sorry. I’m sure your house has been pretty chaotic because of me.”

“Girl! Are you kidding me? I love parties! It has been pretty drab around here, so I’m so happy Alpha Jori is finally letting us do something fun. In my opinion, you’re my hero.” The teen girl had a big smile on her face. “I’m Cindy, by the way.”

“I’m Eva!” the little girl in front of Rie shouted, bouncing up and down. She wasn’t any older than six.

“Eva, hold still,” Rie scolded.

Eva whined in response. Then she looked at me. “Are you going to become part of our pack?”

My heart sank at her question. “I don’t know.”

“Why not?” Eva kicked her legs up and down, making Rie mutter in frustration.

“She has to choose Alpha Jori as her mate first,” Cindy said. She was very blunt with her words.

Did the entire pack house know what was going on with me and my mate situation? I really hoped not. I didn’t want anyone to look at me like a villain, especially when I didn’t know what to do yet. Of course people would talk about it, though. I have never heard of someone having two mates before, so I’m sure most werewolves were in the same situation. Once you found your mate, it was supposed to be easy. Finding your mate could be the difficult part, because more often than not, your mate was not a part of your pack.

My mother always thought it was the goddess’s way of making sure to breed strong genetics and form alliances. Some packs were rather small, so things would get messy pretty quickly if everyone found their mate within the same group. It was for that reason many packs participated in an annual ball. Only wolves of age typically went, but I had attended the ball when my family had hosted when I was still a little girl. Often the Alpha and his family would attend as well to monitor their pack members.

My eyes lit up with a sudden realization. “Hey Rie, did this pack attend the Lycan Ball for the Lyna Pack?”

Rie c****d her head, thinking about the question. She finished tying the end of the braid with a ribbon, adding a bow to it. “That would have been a while ago, huh? I’m sure members went. The pack usually attends. I wouldn’t have gone myself though.”

“Do you think Jori or Mark would’ve gone?” A memory that had been long forgotten was now playing in my head over and over again. I don’t know how I had forgotten those piercing blue eyes.

Rie’s eyes lit up. “They did. I remember being jealous of them, because I wanted to go to see the people in the pretty dresses. Normally they didn’t attend the events, but the one for Pack Lyna was a special occasion since it was the year of the Lycan. Goodness, that was forever ago. I haven’t thought about that in forever.”

“I think I met them there,” I said. A smile was beaming inside of me as I remembered everything that had happened.

Rie jumped up. “Did you really? That’s insane! I guess Pack Lyna doesn’t reside that far away. I’m surprised we all haven’t met before. I guess you have though. Do you think Mark and Jori remember it?”

I shrugged my shoulders and stood up next to Rie. “I have no idea. They sure made an impression on me, but I don’t know if I would’ve done the same.”

Rie smiled softly. “You leave more of an impression than you realize. You might be quiet sometimes, but there is an energy about you that leaves you wanting to know more.”

“Really? No one has ever said that to me before.” I was much more used to people running away from me.

“She’s not wrong,” Cindy agreed. She was now applying her makeup. “The first time I saw you, I instantly took notice of you. Normally, I don’t notice new people around here, unless it’s a cute boy. But I was hoping I would come across you again.”

“This is a surprise to me. I thought most people didn’t like me.” I sat back down thinking about this. Why would the people around me want to get to know me better when for years everyone ran away?

“It can be a little scary,” Eva said. She jumped up and ran over to Cindy. “Big sis, can you help me with my makeup?”

“Eva,” Rie scolded. “That’s not a nice thing to say.

“No,” I said instantly. “I’m curious as to why Eva thinks I’m scary. I’ve had a lot of werewolves offer to let me join their pack only to turn around and reject me. I’ve never understood why.”

Eva turned and looked at me. “I didn’t say you were scary. I said being around you can be a little scary.”

“What’s the difference?” It seemed like the same thing to me.

Eva pursed her lips and moved over to me. She grabbed my hands and looked me dead in the eyes. “You seem nice enough, but you know how werewolves have that wolfy smell?” I nodded when Eva paused for a response. “Well you have that wolfy smell, but it also smells… weird. It’s almost like you’re not actually a werewolf, but you are wearing the scent of one.”

I looked over to Rie. “Is that true?”

Rie hesitated and started inspecting her hands pretty closely. “Well, kind of, yeah. I didn’t know how to describe it before, but Eva said it pretty well. The werewolf scent is the first thing that’s noticeable about you. But then you realize that there’s something else. I could see it unnerving some people.”

“Some boring people,” Cindy said. We all looked at her, so she added, “I think it’s pretty cool. That’s why I wanted to get to know you better. You’re different, and I think of that as a positive, not a negative.”

“That’s very kind of you.” I smiled at the thought. It made sense why people ran away. I had never known I smelled differently.

Cindy shrugged. “Just being honest. Eva, if you want me to do your makeup, I’ll need you to come over here.”

“Right, we need to get started on you or we’re going to run out of time,” Rie said, pointing at me with a brush.

Rie went into hyper-focus mode after that. She started by brushing out my hair and then blow drying it. She had me sitting on the floor in front of her while she worked her magic. Next, she grabbed the hair curler and sectioned off parts of my hair. Curl by curl, she quickly turned my usually flat hair into a voluminous curly mess. She quickly added hair spray and then ran her fingers through my hair. I felt her tugging at specific places on my head, but I wasn’t allowed to see anything until I was completely done.

Rie waved over Cindy, who was finishing up Eva’s makeup. “Will you help with her makeup when you’re done with Eva?”

“Of course! I will be there in a moment.”

“Should I put my dress on while waiting?” I asked.

Rie gave me a pointed look. “No, we can’t risk getting anything on your dress. I’m going to start on your nails.”

Rie got up and grabbed her nail kit. When she came back, she motioned me to sit on the couch. She took my hand and started giving me the full nail treatment. Usually when I did my nails, I just put on a layer or two of nail polish and called it good. Rie, on the other hand, was trimming my cuticles and polishing the nails.

When she was all done with the prepping, Cindy came over and started working on my makeup. I had never felt so pampered before. All I could do was sit there while my makeup and nails were being done. It was surprisingly relaxing, especially since I had to keep my eyes closed while Cindy worked on my makeup. I easily lost time as they finished dolling me up, and I had no idea how long everything took.

“Okay! All done,” Rie finally announced. She stood up and stretched out a little. “Now to get you dressed.”

“Rie! Where’s the birthday girl?” Scythe demanded. He was stomping up the stairs. “It’s time for the party to start.”

Eva ran over to the top of the stairs, and when Scythe made it to the top, she pushed on his torso. “No! You can’t come up here. No boys allowed!”

“I wouldn’t need to come up here, if you all were down there already.” Scythe crossed his arms.

“Go away! We’re not ready. You can’t see.” Eva pushed on Scythe again, but he didn’t budge.

Rie was laughing. “Don’t worry, Scythe. We’re almost done. It’s fine for the birthday girl to be fashionably late at her own party. We’ll be down soon.”

Scythe rolled his eyes. “Fine. You have fifteen minutes or I‘m coming back up.”

“We’ll be down when we’re down!” Rie shouted after him. She turned back to me. “Let me grab your dress.”

Rie ran off to grab my dress. She came back, and I started pulling the dress up. Rie helped me zip up the back and then took a step back to look me over.

“Wow! You looked like a princess,” Eva said. “I want to look like you one day.”

“You look beautiful,” Rie agreed, a huge smile on her face. “Are you ready to see what you look like, Princess Adira?”

I laughed at the new title I was given. I nodded my head and followed Rie to a mirror. I took one look and felt myself tearing up.