AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Billy made a little hurry-up motion, and I reluctantly slipped into it so he could lace it up.
It was every bit as uncomfortable as I’d known it would be, but in the end, the jacket buttoned easily, and I was able to fasten the pearl covered buttons up all the way to my throat. Only my snowy, white cravat stuck out the top.
“It’s a good fit,” Billy said, holding up the coat to regard the tight-fitting trousers. He had a pair of old black boots in his hand and gave them to me too. “Your father has bigger feet than yours but try these. We can stuff some scraps of cloth in the toes, and it will be good enough for one night. Now sit down and let me try to tie back this hair. You’re already late.”
Reluctantly, I took a seat, and he began to brush my unruly, black curls that were way too long. I usually wore a hood to help me escape notice. That was partly why I’d taken to wearing my cape as I roamed around the palace halls, because the less people noticed me, the more they’d leave me alone.
Billy brushed my hair until my scalp tingled and then pulled it off my face and twisted it up and tied it at the base of my neck, and when he was done, I thought I looked good. Or passable, at least. I dreaded to hear what my stepmother and my half-sister would have to say. Billy even tried to put a bit of rouge on my lips, but that was when I put my foot down.
“Enough, Billy, please. They’ll have plenty to say as it is. Maybe I should use some of my black gloss on my lips. And should I take another of those pills?”
“No, only one a day. And no gloss either. That stuff makes you look half-dead. Scrub off that fingernail polish too before you go.”
I took my pills off the dresser and put them in a drawer, grabbed an old cloth inside it and began taking off the nail polish. He made a little face at me, as I dutifully took off as much as I could. There was still a little on my cuticles, but it couldn’t be helped. I was already late.
The color of the suit made my skin look even whiter in the lamplight. I thought maybe I didn’t look too bad, though I was still so pale. I wondered what the Alpha would think of me and then I wondered why I cared. I would be nothing but a brood mare for him until my father finally died, and then my life would most likely be short and extremely unpleasant until the end.
“You look handsome, sir,” Billy said, standing back to gaze at his handiwork.
I shot him a look. “Thank you. You were a big help.”
He beamed at me and shooed me with his hands. “You better hurry so maybe you can already be sitting inside when the queen arrives. She’s expecting you tonight, but there still could be problems like last night.”
News of last night had traveled fast it seemed.
I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders and reluctantly stepped out to make my way to the Great Hall to meet my fate.
Chapter Three
As I got closer, I could hear from the noise inside the Hall that I was already pretty late. I could hear my stepmother’s shrill tones coming through the open door, and from inside the Hall came the voices of a large group of people, along with noises of cutlery clinking against plates. It was hardly a surprise that they’d started without me. Callista must be having kittens inside, wondering where I was. When I made my entrance, wearing this green velvet suit that I should never had allowed Billy to talk me into, I knew I’d be in for a barrage of insults at the very least.
I made it as far as the door before I chickened out. The two courtiers standing by to announce the guests as they arrived gave me a deeply suspicious look when I did an about face and went back down the corridor. I was pretty sure they didn’t even recognize me. Hell, I had hardly recognized myself when I caught a glimpse of how I looked in the huge mirror I passed along the way.
I sailed to the end of the wide passageway, hung a left and went out a door that led to the ramparts of the castle walls. I liked to hide out there sometimes, getting some fresh air and maybe a look up at the stars. The night air was cool, but still lovely as I leaned against the stones and lifted up my eyes to the sky. It was a little too overcast for stars, but I looked up anyway, peering through the low-hanging clouds and hoping for a glimpse. I had always loved stargazing. My favorite quote about the stars was from a poem I’d read once. The poet had called stars “the forget-me-nots of the angels.” I liked the idea of heaven being some huge celestial garden, tended by angels, with the moon as its centerpiece, like a big, showy, white cabbage rose in the middle of a bouquet.
I was standing there—well, leaning really—thinking about stars and flowers and gardens when I smelled smoke. It jarred me right out of my daydream, and I turned to see a tall, muscular young man standing a few yards to my left, leaning back against the ramparts, in the act of blowing out another white plume of the nasty smelling stuff. I saw him glance over at me, and I called to him, scarcely knowing how I was so bold.
“Thank goodness you’re smoking. I thought for a moment the castle was on fire.”
The man, who was dressed in an expensive looking dark suit with a long jacket and a snowy white cravat of his own, turned to look at me and raised one imperious eyebrow. Oh gods, he was an Alpha. It came off him in a wave of dominance so aggressive, it buffeted me like a hard wind, almost knocking me off my feet. It was a challenging force, and gods help me, it called to me with a dark siren’s voice.
“Are you talking to me?” he said, with a slight accent, like he didn’t always speak Igellan.
Damn it, even his voice was sexy. Superior and arrogant as fuck but alluring. Heirritatedme with his perfection—which made me snap at him.
“There’s no one else out here but us. What do you think?”
It surprised a smirk out of him, but he gazed at me with a bit more interest. Damn it, the fucker even had dimples. I thought that was overkill, personally—to be that good looking and have dimples too? Showoff.
“Don’t tell me,” he said, “you’re about to say you hate the smell of smoke.”
“I do, actually, because it stinks.”
He threw back his head and laughed. The moonlight was doing flattering things to his face, and I wondered how it felt to be so effortlessly gorgeous. Everything about him was flawless—from his beautifully tailored dark suit to his sapphire blue eyes, his high cheekbones, and his chiseled jawline.
Before I realized what I was doing, I sauntered over to him, trying to breathe through my mouth so his pheromones wouldn’t overwhelm me. I pulled the slim cigar from between his lips, threw it down on the stones and ground it under my shoe, looking up into his seriously startled face.
“These things will kill you, you know.”
