Scarlett
“The King seeks your presence, my princess,” an old lady bowed to me. The ivory white walls of the palace seemed strangely familiar as if I had grown up in that palace and cried between the four taffy pink walls of my room.
Throwing a last glance in the mirror, I adjusted my diamond tiara before nodding my head in approval, satisfied with my looks. The peach satin gown with frills at the top around my shoulders made me look like a royal princess. The silver stone-studded, multi-layer necklace matched perfectly with my dress.
As I made my way out of my room, one of the maids trotted hastily to me with matching peach gloves in her hands. “Princess, be careful. It’s a big day and nobody should touch you except your mate,” she informed, helping me with wearing the gloves and a diamond ring.
Mouthing thank you to her, I descended the stairs only to find the royal throne coated with the blood and a dead wolf’s head on the pinhead of a sword. The scenario scared the shit out of me and I screamed out in apprehension.
Gaining my consciousness back, I opened my eyes slowly, not having enough energy to even move my head. Sighing heavily with relief, I touched my forehead to clean the sweat.
It was just a nightmare but a weird dream and I never had this kind of dream before.
I found myself searching for light as the room was dark and the lights were shut off. My head spun slightly as if I was tipsy but I just woke up and tried to recall what happened before I fell asleep.
The memories of Klaus and I kissing passionately and marking each other played into my mind which seemed too dreamy to be real. I searched for the mark on my collarbone to clear my doubts.
I hissed out in pain as my finger grazed against the mark, the urge to see the mark was so tempting that I tried to stand up from the bed and go to the mirror to see how I looked wearing my mate’s mark but my attempt went in vain as I fell from the bed and realized that I was too weak to even stand.
“Are you alright, honey?” A middle-aged lady scurried into my room, the sound of me falling from the bed must have alerted her. She was a stranger but her voice seemed familiar.
With her, the slight reflection of light tossed into the room and I could see her smiling face and my surroundings which oddly weren’t familiar.
She further offered though I couldn’t respond to her question, bestowing her hand to me, “here, let me help you.”
Accepting her offer, I gave my hand to her and she helped me to lay back down on the bed. “Who are you and where am I?” I simply questioned, being cautious of the strange people though she didn’t seem strange.
“I’m Kia, the Black Moonstone pack’s doctor’s wife,” she made her acquaintance and added, “the last time, when you were in your first heat, your mate had brought you to us thus I know you but you fainted last time, too, dearest.”
Her words reminded me that I fainted after marking my mate whilst I didn’t even know the reason why I kept fainting like this again and again. Though I had heard about she-wolves’ fainting during the heat, marking, and mating process, I never considered myself a weak werewolf.
It might be due to my being a lantern or I was probably wolfless. If I would have a wolf, I would have been able to shift on my eighteenth birthday but I couldn’t shift that day which only meant that I was a wolfless werewolf, not a lantern.
At least, lanterns had a hope of having a wolf as they were just late bloomers but wolfless werewolves were like humans with some extra traits like being able to trace the scents and the high hearing power.
“Can you tell me why I keep fainting?” I asked her, hiding the fact that I was a wolfless werewolf. Rachel had told me to hide my true knowledge from her pack when I moved to her pack. My only specialty was that I had good strength to fight, I was a good fighter, perhaps due to the Gamma genes.
Kia sat on my bed and took my hand in hers before patting gently on the back of my hand. “Asher, oh, sorry, how would you know who the fu-k is Asher,” she scoffed, making me giggle. “My husband and the doctor, Asher, told me that you’re a rare case in werewolves history. You have a wolf but only your mate can smell your scent.”
“And why is that? Why can’t the others feel my wolf?” I managed to ask despite my low energy.
“You should eat something, first. Let me bring you breakfast and inform our respective mates that you’re awake,” she suggested, sending a wink my way.
Kia seemed a cool and jubilant woman, she had a few wrinkles on her face but she had a beautiful face and lively smile.
The bedside table had a flower pot in which daisies were smiling looking at me and I couldn’t help but smile back at them.
“You must be crazy to think that the flowers can smile,” a strange yet familiar voice echoed in my mind via mind-link and I couldn’t bear it. I clasped my head between my palms to stop it from ringing again and again.
“What’s wrong, baby?” Klaus sought with concern, grabbing my hands. I didn't even realize it when he penetrated the room.
Baby? No, I must have heard wrong.
Kia slapped his arm before pulling his ear. “You naughty boy, I told you not to send her no mind-link for today. She needs time to recover from the marking process.”
“Why is he alright and I’m the only one sleeping on the bed with fatigue?” I complained to Kia and pouted my lips.
She extended the bowl of cherries to me but when I couldn’t grab the bowl, she facepalmed herself. “I’m getting old, I keep forgetting the things so please, bear with me,” divulging her words, she helped me to sit on the bed and put a pillow between the bed and my back.
Shoving a cherry into my mouth, Kia began explaining, “Moon Goddess knows that the male wolves can’t bear any pain and are too careless to care about themselves so she opted us, females, to give every kind of pain so they can take care of us as we’re stronger than the males,” said Kia with a wry smile on her face.
Klaus chuckled before snatching the bowl of cherries from Kia’s hands. “It’s because men aren’t good at taking care of themselves but when it comes to their mate, they can do literally anything for them,” he bragged, staring at me and I couldn't help but blush under his intense gaze.
“Whatever,” Kia rolled her eyes. “Take care of your mate and she’ll recover as soon as she finishes this tray,” she declared, pointing at the tray of food lying on the table before flashing a reassuring smile at me and closing the door behind her.
Taking the glass of mango juice from the tray, he stood up from the bedside and sat beside me, holding the glass until I finished the last drop, he didn’t remove the glass from my lips.
“So it was you in mind-link?” I raised my brows and he nodded curtly, hiding his blush and I couldn’t believe that the big bad Alpha was blushing in front of me. As I ate the bacon and fruits, I felt the energy arriving back to my body.
All the spinning and fatigue almost disappeared, I attempted to stand up from the bed, and gladly, I didn’t fall to the floor this time though my ass was aching slightly due to the last time’s fall.
“Should I take care of that pain?” Klaus stopped me in my way. “Not allowed to walk around alone,” whispering in my ear, he held my hand and led me to the bathroom without even questioning anything.
Laying his hand on my hips, he slowly moved his hand to my ass. “Is it hurting too much?”
I gasped, his touch turning me on and before the room could be filled with our arousal scents, I scooted into the bathroom and locked the door wondering how he got to know everything.
“We’re marked mates, baby. We can hear each other’s thoughts from now on,” he instructed proudly. “I need you to come out soon, Scarlett. The duel will start within two hours and I want to spend this time with my mate.”
An Alpha duel.
How could I forget that?
I passed out for almost a day which meant I was running late. Standing in front of the mirror, I touched my collarbone where his mark was in the state of healing. Two sharp canines' marks were engraved in my flesh and I felt goosebumps when I touched it.