CHAPTER 89: LIKE HIS EYES

🌙𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐡

The room felt like a furnace as we stepped through, the stares not stopping, nor the muttering ceasing. I caught snippets of their hushed conversations—hybrid, luna, duel, beta. I could hear them.

My legs slowly turned to jelly but Vladimir’s hold remained unrelenting. He drew closer each time my legs threatened to buckle, as though he could tell beforehand just when I was about to break.

The path through the crowd pulled me back to my walk down the aisle. I wondered what would block my path this time around.

Then I heard it. Laughter.

That familiar itch stirred awake under my skin, slithering around my neck and cutting off my air. The phantom sensation of hands around my throat returned like a dreaded acquaintance.

I had never heard her laugh, not once in the less than three days that we had lived together. I could read her glare through a mask, her presence branded into my psyche so deeply that I would catch her scent amongst many.

Her laugh was like everything else about her, consistent in its feline huskiness that drew you in close enough so she could sink her venomous claws into you and rip out your beating heart.

My head snapped in the direction of the sound without my permission. I knew which one she was instantly—tall and built with the grace of a predator, she looked like a dream. The kind you wake from gasping.

In contrast to the black that cloaked me, she was clad in an icy blue silk gown.

Icy blue like Vladimir’s eyes.

Like she knew that I had been staring, she spun in velvet poise. Her mask shimmered silver, like Vladimir’s. Hers was a silver swan.

A wave of possessiveness so potent washed over me as she walked towards us.

She reached us, but her body wholly turned to Vladimir as though I were not there. Her smile softened as she leaned in to peck him on the cheek.

Vladimir grew colder in my touch but he did not move.

I could understand why—all eyes were turned to us.

We were the spectacle and knowing that the whole pack would know by now that Veronique no longer walked under Vladimir, the last thing they would prefer was a scandal.

I understood the logic, but the sharp coiling around my heart didn’t. I caught myself before I fell too far. It was just the incomplete mate bond talking.

This burning covetousness was not real, nor was it truly mine.

I had been burnt too hard in love to fall for the man who purchased me. I had to douse the flames of this forbidden desire before it engulfed me.

I could never fall for Vladimir.

So I watched on as they murmured to each other, everyone watching the scene unfold like a 90s telenovela, ignoring the almost painful twisting in my gut.

Veronique must have noticed how her ignoring me looked to our subscribed viewers because she cast her gaze down to me. "Oh, Lili." Her smile was far too wide to be genuine as she came down to kiss my cheek but never made contact. "You look absolutely riveting."

I returned the smile that I was sure resembled a grimace. "Look who’s talking. You are a vision."

"Oh don’t flatter me." Through her mask, her eyes remained hard as stone.

"We should get going," Vladimir interrupted the tense moment, placing a hand over my arm, patting. "See you later, Vee."

Without waiting for a reply, he gently pulled me along.

The muttering amongst the crowd had died down or I had learned to tune them out for my sanity.

We moved towards a circle of men, ones that I recognized from the council meeting not too long ago. I could tell because the section we entered looked like a VIP one, with velvet seats and different champagnes from the ones I had seen before.

All of them wore wolf masks like Vladimir when no one else did. I inferred that wolf masks were for Alphas and no one else.

They raised their gazes as Vladimir approached them with me well tucked into his arm. They broke into genuine pleasant grins before greeting him as we reached them.

"The Ice King has arrived," the Alpha said, his white teeth contrasting against his skin. His white hair was done into styled locs. He offered Vladimir and I champagne which we accepted.

"We thought you wouldn’t show," another said, sounding just a little surprised as he handed the white-haired Alpha what looked like a black coin. "So sure in fact."

My brows creased in confusion as I watched two other Alphas hand the Alpha more black coins.

"So you had a wager?"

A bet.

"Like every year," the winner beamed. "And every year I win. You would think they would have learned by now."

A suggestion of a smile crossed Vladimir’s face.

The other Alphas must have noticed because I could have sworn that they did a double take.

But Vladimir paid them no mind as he turned to me. "You all have met my fiancée before."

I fought the pleasurable shiver that rippled down my spine.

"Like we could ever forget," the older Alpha said, seeming to assess me.

The temperature dropped very quickly before Vladimir proceeded to introduce them to me.

Alpha Kavriel, Alpha Raymond, Alpha Asken and Alpha Tommil.

I glanced about, nervous. This would be where Kustav would be. But amongst the elites in the section I could not spot him. It was not that I wished to see his face, I just preferred to know exactly where he was for my own peace of mind.

Our scuffle the first time I shifted never left me.

Then the music grew louder and the men got up, adjusting their perfect tuxes and excusing themselves as they walked up to their wives and partners on the other side.

I knew what it meant, because Vladimir told me as we practiced. He explained to me the custom of the Moonstone Masquerade and what the first dance meant.

My spine had already started to bend. Old habits die hard.

Vladimir withdrew his hand, my stomach dropping. I lifted my gaze as he turned to face me squarely. Even as the mask obscured his face, I could still see the outline of his features like my mind had committed them to perfect memory.

I noticed then, through my periphery, Veronique stepping into the section just as Vladimir spoke. "May I have this dance?"