Ziana’s POV
I wake to shuffling in my room and sit up fast, looking to see Addie’s beach blond hair in my closet.
“Found em.” She says under her breath, then stands up and pauses when she sees me. I am able to see her whole length now and can’t help my laughter. She is wearing a long, baby blue sun dress, with pink and purple flowers on it. The sleeves are off the shoulder and flow down down to her elbow.
She scowls at me.
“Shut it. I don’t want to hear it.” She demands, which makes me laugh harder. She hates floral patterns.
“Why are you wearing that?” I snort and her scowl deepens.
“Because mama Iris said I have to go to the meeting today. She even tried giving me baby pink ballet slippers. I swear I almost had a meltdown at the disgusting shoes. I told her I’d wear the dress, but only if I could
choose the shoes.” She says and I smile at my friend. She isn’t like me, she shows her scars proudly. She
doesn’t have as many as me, because I took the punishments for her, some she didn’t know about until later. I took the punishments for many of the kids, that is why I am so mutilated. Clearing my head of the thoughts,
I focus back on her.
“You’re lucky your mom understands that not everybody is rainbows and sunshine. I love Iris and I am thankful for her and Mason taking me in, but hot damn that woman thinks you have to wear bright colors all the time. I showed her the dress I wanted to wear and she tisked at me. ACTUALLY tisked. Then told me I
would look like I am going to a funeral.” She rants and I laugh.
She isn’t wrong, grandma sometimes gets into these moods where she decides what people should wear and if you don’t, then you get the brunt of her lectures and steamy huffs all day. It’s better to just wear what she gives you and deal with it. It’s not like the clothes are ugly, she just doesn’t take into consideration the person wearing it sometimes. I don’t understand it, but all of her kids said that she did it to them growing up and only stopped once their father died. She started it back up after the war and nobody knows why. They say it’s nice to see her behaving like her old self, but Addie and I don’t share the same thoughts.
“You know it’s 10 right?” Addie asks as she sits on my chair next to my vanity, putting on a small deep purple, open toed, 3 inch heel that matches some of the flowers in her dress. My eyes bug out.
“Sh*t.” I say scrambling out of bed and going to the bathrooms to brush my teeth and hair. I rush out and quickly change into my dress. I glance into the full mirror in the corner of my room as Addie whistles. “Damn, your mom knows how to pick out a dress.” She says and I nod. It’s a deep purple sundress. It’s flowy, the back comes up high enough to hide my scars and tattoo, then drapes a little in the front. A button holds the top together, but the little slit it creates shows some of my cleavage. The sleeves are long and flowy, so that if I lift my hands the sleeve still touches the dress.
I change out my everyday bracelets for a few fancier ones and put some dangly earrings in. Addie as through my jewelry too and chooses what she would like to wear. I wet my hair to bring back some e curls and half it up, keeping a few strands down to frame my face, and put on a little makeup.
I choose black open toed wedge heels that add a few inches of height. Addie and I stand in the mirror and look at ourselves. Her naturally straight, beach blond hair is down, reaching the top of her butt. Her bright
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pink eyes are made even brighter with the eyeliner she put on.
We are the same height with the shoes on. Without them I stand at 5 foot 9, while she is 5 foot 8. We ate similar in size and body shape, which helps in sharing clothes.
“We look good. Even though you’re wearing a garden.” I say and she sowls.
“Let’s just go. It’s already 15 after.” She says and I follow her out the door. She is going to greet guests because Iris and Mason adopted her, so she is technically a part of the royal family. A lot of people picked on her for being a ‘wannabe princess‘, she just let it roll off her like water on a duck’s feather. I on the other hand did not. I had to hurt a lot of people for picking on her and our other friends. I didn’t care what they said about me, but the others. You bet your hairy a*s I cared.
We made our way to the front of the castle and waited for the Alpha and Luna being greeted to leave before Addie took her place next to Tali. I tried to sneak into my place next to my mother, but obviously failed. She met my eyes and looked the length of me, smiling.
“You look beautiful.” She says and I smile back.
“You’re late.” Warrick says from beside her and my smile falls. He hates when people don’t set a good example in the royal family. That’s the reason I call him father in a public setting. If people heard me call him Warrick there would be rumors that there is discord in the royal family.
“Sorry, father.” I say and he finally looks at me from over mom.
“You look nice. Please don’t cause any issues.” He says.
“Yes, sir.” I say, mock saluting him and turning my attention to the front. I hear the others snort from the side and smile. At least they are in good moods.
The welcoming line only has Warrick, Mother, me, Iris, Nali, Tali, and Addie. They tried to keep it a short line, or else we could have added another five people to it.
After 30 minutes, we have greeted 10 of the packs, mother told me that they already greeted three. Another two cars pulled up and I recognized Alpha Clint as he stepped out. He is in his late 60’s and built oddly. Being that he is a werewolf, he looks like he is in his 30’s. We start aging slower when we reach our 20’s. Either way, he is not good looking. He is not quite chubby, because he has muscle, but his big nose covers a quarter of his face and his bulging yellow eyes creep me out.
I have been wanting to kill him since I was with Franklin. Part of my job was to do recon on packs to see who was strongest and who could be allies. Alpha Clint was disgusting and Franklin was trying to think of ways to get him as our ally before we were rushed into the war. There was no dealings with him, but I knew enough that I wanted to kill him.
Alpha Clint, or as Addie and I call him Alpha C*nt, has had 6 mates, all much younger than him, who have‘ mysteriously‘ disappeared after a year of them mating. He hasn’t gotten in trouble because he is a smart motherf*cker and nobody can prove he is doing anything wrong.
He makes his way towards us with a grin as his warriors travel safely behind him. Mother and him then he makes his way to me.
ick greet
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