Feral Lust (Feral Souls Series - I) (18+) [Currently Editing]

twenty-eight.

Later in the day, everyone was told about the feast that the two families were hosting in the grand hall. Everyone was excited as a flurry of activity started soon after the announcement. It had been long since anything grand was celebrated with this fervour.

Celeste was fretting in her room. For the first time in her life, she was nervous for an obtuse reason. She didn't have any lavish dresses to her name. And, standing next to Elliot, who was a royalty of sorts when it came to dressing and presenting himself, she didn't want to look identical to a swine and be the butt of pack's jokes.

These things had never been a bother for her. She tried her best to shrug it off, failing miserably.

After a long eternity of closet searching, she came across a passable dress that her mother had insisted her to buy two years ago. A floor-length dress having an ivory lace bodice with high round neckline, the dress fell into a long maxi skirt in the colour of pistachios. She had only just donned it when a knock sounded at her door.

"Come in," she yelled.

Colina, accompanied by Tyra and a few half-vampires, strode in. They were carrying something with them.

"Don't tell me that you're going to be wearing this atrocious and ancient dress," Tyra looked revolted by the idea.

"There's nothing wrong with the dress," she argued feebly, "despite, it is only a feast."

"Martica, bring it," Colina ordered one of the maids. The woman gingerly placed a long zipped-up bag on the bed.

"Help her get dressed," she commanded again, "and you two can help her with the hair and makeup."

Thereafter, Celeste couldn't keep a track of what was transpiring around her. She voiced against being dressed like a baby, but she was ignored every time, to her embarrassment. In a blur of minutes, they were over with.

All the maids stepped back, giving Colina the space to move next to her daughter.

Holding her by the shoulders, eyes turning misty, Colina whispered, "I am so glad, Celeste. Finding a mate is difficult for most of the wolves. The fact that you have found him, and of him being such a good person and a match for your haughtiness is just incredible."

Celeste cringed, wondering if her mother would hold the same high opinion after knowing what Elliot had been up to for the past months.

"You look beautiful, my precious." Colina pressed a soft kiss on her forehead that left Celeste shivering involuntarily. Her mother turned her around, and Celeste was astonished to look at the stranger staring back at her through the mirror.

Not only did she appear decent and elegant, which was an unusual feat for her, but it seemed that she could actually be compatible with Elliot's ethereal beauty.

She stopped herself there. 'No praising him,' she chastised herself. Instead, she admired the dress that her mother had picked for her.

Coloured champagne, the dress hugged her curves closely, in all the right places. With a halter neckline covered completely in rhinestones down to the waist, the dress flared out a little above her knees, creating an illusion of mermaid's tail, which sounded weird but looked utterly cultivated and decorous. The dress had rhinestones sprinkled below the waist, resembling stars, glittering and shimmering. It ended in a sweeping train, but it was not overly extravagant, rather manageable.

The most alluring part about it was it being backless. The amount of skin exposed by the dress was accentuating her defined back. It plunged nearly to the small of her back, and the curve of her hips was made even more prominent.

Her hair had been let down in her natural waves, slightly curled to seem more appealing and tamed while her makeup was as simple as it came, except for the eye makeup which gave an impression of smokey grey clouds in the sky, highlighting her blue eyes even more. She loved the way each and everything that the maids had done complemented her features, seamlessly coming together.

"I love it," she said abruptly, making the women laugh.

"The feast will commence in half an hour while the announcement will be made a few minutes before that. Ensure to leave your rooms only with Elliot and not to make your appearance prior to the Alpha calling your names," Colina smiled at her again, taking her daughter's hand in hers.

"You've made me the proudest mother alive," then they all left her alone with her thoughts, waiting to see what the feast would upend in her life. She was appreciative of the fact, though, that no one had brought up the talks of a wedding yet.

Five minutes after Colina and Tyra had left, a knock sounded at the door. Thinking it to be Elliot, Celeste opened it to find Dominic. Startled just like she was, he gave her a once over.

"Isn't it too dressy for a feast?" He laughed, but Celeste didn't.

"You meet your friend after so long, and this is what you've got to say, weirdo?" She grinned at him, "come here," hugging him, she expected the same response, but Dominic pulled away, to her surprise.

"No, seriously! What's going on?" He looked a little angry, "there's a feast being held in the grand hall for no reason, and I come up to find you all dressed up for prom."

He stepped closer to her as she placed her hand on his cheek, "Dom, what's wrong? Are-" she sniffed, "are you drunk?"

When Celeste went ahead to remove her hand from his face, he clutched it tightly in his, holding it to his lips.

"Now that you've turned eighteen," he mumbled against her palm which she was struggling to pull back without wanting to offend her friend, "don't you see that we're meant to be together? That we're mates?" Celeste froze in place.

This was her worst nightmare, growing and coming alive. In their childhood, she had known that Dominic had always wanted her as a mate and if that didn't come to pass, she feared as to what he would do. 

Celeste was sure she was going to get the answer now.

"I am gonna ask you nicely and politely to release Celeste and back off."

Celeste snapped out of her stupor and saw Elliot standing on the threshold of her room. His words had portrayed a fury that his body language didn't. He stood calmly, leaning against the door. It didn't take a genius to guess that it was the deathly look in his eyes that gave away it to be a calm before the storm.

"And, who do you think you are to demand that of me?" Dominic was far too inebriated to even recognize his Alpha's son.

"For one, I am the son of your Alpha, which puts me many stations above you," he stepped closer, looking every bit intimidating as he had in the fields of Inverness-shire, "and two, that's my mate that you're behaving indecorously with."