THE ROGUE FROM OBSIDIAN CITY

PART 14 - KIT LANCASTER

RUBY

The string orchestra's beautiful song resonates down the hallway as I slowly head to the main hall, this place looks more like an art gallery than a pack house. I can barely walk in my heels as they keep slipping on the highly polished black marble floor, I've already swapped them out twice for lower ones as I'm used to wearing my army boots. Shit, there's a real chance I'm going to slip and fall on my ass tonight! My hands fidget nervously together. I've never looked like this before; my hair is styled up high into a sleek high bun showing off my neck and shoulders and they've applied smokey make-up to my eyes. I actually feel like Cinderella, but I know there's no prince waiting to dance with me tonight, so I'll guess I'll have to find my own.

As I get to the end of the hallway, I come face to face with my reflection and gasp. I barely recognise myself. My dress is utterly spectacular, Isla was right, her mum has a gift at picking perfect dresses. The theme of the ball is black, white, or silver. So, tonight I'm wearing a long black A line dress with spaghetti straps, a large slit up the side and silver sparkles throughout. I have to admit, I feel pretty and haven't stop grinning since I put the gown on. Astrid was right, fancy underwear is making me incredibly sexy and all though I'm nervous I'm also pretty excited.

Taking one final deep breath, I turn away from themirror and head towards two large warrior wolves that are stood in front ofsleek black doors with steel trimmed handles. As I draw closer the warriorsstep forward and open the double doors for me and as soon as they do, I'm hitwith the full force of the music from the ball. The room is mass of swirlingdancing couples in monochrome, bathed under large chandeliers of candlelight. Itry to look for someone I know, but there's nearly a thousand wolves at thisGala tonight and already I'm feeling a little lost.

Luna Isla told me to come find her as soon as I arrived at the main hall, but I can see her dancing with her mate near the centre of the dance floor. Isla is hard to miss as she's like a beacon of light, she's breath-taking in her white halter neck ball gown that dips extremely low at the back that I notice her mate can't stop running his hand up and down the bare skin. They're so lost in each other's embrace, I can't see her leaving the dance floor for some time, if at all this rate.

The Gala is simply specular, so I decide to slowly start people watching and walk around the outskirts of the dancefloor to try and take it all in. My eyes soon land upon Alpha Kai who has his arm around his Luna's waist as they sip on champagne and laugh with another high-ranking looking couple. Astrid is wearing a daring one shoulder long ball gown that's made of a thin silvery silk. After all her talk about underwear, I grin when it's plain to see that she isn't wearing anything under her gown as the fabric leaves little to the imagine. However, Alpha Kai looks far from displeased with his mate's dress choice by how he keeps looking at her, if anything I'm pretty he won't last the hour before he tugs his mate away from the party to have some fun with the Luna of this pack.

Biting on my lower lip, I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. However, when I see Beta Cassian and Theo walking my way, admittedly I dodge away from them before they see me as I'm not sure I want to hear any snide remarks that may dampen my mood from Cassian. I quickly duck behind a huge floral display as they pass by and its then I notice the flowers close up. At first, I think that they aren't real as there's roses, lilies and magnolias but what's unusual is that they're not only in white but in black also. Stepping closer I reach down to a black magnolia and run my finger over the petals momentarily engrossed in them.