Chapter 10

Ollie’s POV

I don’t even have a dress prepared, so it feels like something of a miracle when Ella’s mom swings by the school at lunch to drop us off two gowns in sealed up bags, as well as decorative masks and makeup kits. Ella stores them in the locker room before returning to the cafeteria and giving me the thumbs up.

After school, we make our way back to the locker room where we change into the gowns. Mine is lined with peacock feathers. The mask, which matches, has a pair of large peacock feathers that flow out to one side, lacing back in with my hair.

Ella’s gown is covered in jaguar spots. Her mask has cat ears and whiskers.

“Ready?” she asks me.

I’m a little unsure. I’ve never been to anything like a masquerade before, yet with the promise of allowing my true scent to flourish, I can’t resist saying, “Yes.”

At first, entering the ballroom filled with masked faces and grandiose outfits, I’m a bit nervous. However, after a few drinks, I feel myself start to loosen up enough that I ease up on suppressing my wolf.

My wolf hums contentedly as my scent starts to flow. The relief hits me too, as the strange feeling dissipates. I no longer feel sick.

A man beside me wearing the mask of a viper and a suit made of snakeskin turns to me. “Gods, you smell delicious.”

“Better than that,” says the man he has been talking to, whose mask resembled that of a black cat. “You smell positively divine, my dear. That scent is so… penetrating.” He holds out his hand. “May I know who you are?”

“This isn’t that kind of event, fellas,” Ella cuts in at once. Lacing her arm with mine, she pulls me away from the pair.

“Is my scent so noticeable?” I ask her.

“Only to those who want to notice it,” Ella says. “Watch out for the guys here. Playboys, every last one of them.”

I take her words to heart. After all, I’m not here to find love, I only want the space to be myself. Here in this pack far from our own, I don’t have to worry about running into any familiar faces. Even if I do, my mask will conceal me.

Here, I can allow myself to be free. Even if for only one night.

“This isn’t enough,” Scarlet says in my mind. “I want to run. We’ve waited too long already.”

“Soon,” I promise her in return.

Ella must see the strange look on my face. “What’s wrong?”

“My wolf. I haven’t shifted yet, and we haven’t run. She’s not happy about it.”

“I don’t blame her,” Ella says. “But ask her to be patient. Next time, I’ll take you to the mountains and you guys can shift and run in the wild.”

“That sounds perfect,” Scarlet says.

“She’d like that,” I say. “I would too.”

“Good,” Ella says and downs the rest of her drink. Noticing my glass is also empty, she plucks it from my hand. “Stay right here. I’ll get us some refills. Remember, no man can be trusted!”

As she scurries away, I make my way over to one of the walls. There’s a window there, and I look out, trying to see the stars. All I can see at the moment is the bright lights of the ballroom behind me and my own reflection.

I’m still amazed by the transition this dress and this mask have made on my appearance. With my cheekbones and brows covered, I could be anyone.

Perhaps vainly, I’m so immersed in my own strange reflection that I don’t notice someone approach me until they clear their throat at my side and I see their reflection beside mine in the mirror.

I recognize him instantly, even with his mask. Though, if I couldn’t see him at all, I would still know him. The scent of one of my mates is strong.

Hugh stands beside me, gazing at me with heated curiosity from behind a mask of black feathers. He’s wearing a sharp black tuxedo, the lapels covered in matching feathers that though black, shimmer with color under the light. A broach of a golden crow is pinned to his breast.

“There you are,” he says, a devilish smirk on his lips. “My brothers and I have been searching everywhere for you. How lucky for me to find you here, a lovely feathered package just for me.” His gaze drags down the front of me and I shiver at the attention. “Tell me, why would a woman as gorgeous as you want to run from her fated mates?”

Never before has he spoken to me like this, his voice pitched low, his tone sultry. At once, I can see why he is known as the playboy of the family. With those bedroom eyes of his gazing at my body so intently, I already feel undressed before him.

It would be no great leap to allow him under my gown.

Yet I quickly steel myself, reminding myself that none of this is what I want. Hugh may look like he can see beneath my dress and mask, but he truly has no idea who he is talking to. If he did, he would not be speaking with such honeyed words.

I’d be nothing more than a prisoner to him and his brothers.

I take too long to respond. He lifts a hand and traces a line over my bare shoulder. He stops at the base of my neck, where his feather-light fingers tease my clavicle.

“You’re blushing. I can see it even here,” Hugh says. “How cute. You are shy, aren’t you?”

Everything in me wants to lean into his touch. Instead, I force myself to stand very still.

It’s a blissful kind of torture to be touched so gently. To be touched at all.

“I don’t like showing my face,” I tell him, my mind grasping at the first excuse I can think of.

“How could that be?” he asks. His gaze lifts to my face and I see him searching, as if he’s trying to see through the mask that hides my identity.

“I think I’m ugly,” I say. “I’m ashamed for you to see.”

Hugh’s eyes go a bit wide, like he didn’t expect that answer. Yet he recovers quickly enough.

His grin widens, adding teeth, and he looks for all the world like the cat that caught the canary. “I don’t mind if you keep the mask on. You are gorgeous like this. What do you say?”

He seems to be waiting for me to reply, but I don’t understand.

“To what?” I ask.

He inches closer to me. His fingertips move to the base of my throat. There, he drops his touch down, between the valley between my breasts.

Closing my eyes, I bite back a moan.

“I’ve heard fucking your fated mate is unlike anything else in the world. There’s no other pleasure like it,” he says. “Don’t you want to find out?”

I swallow hard, my tongue suddenly too big for my mouth.

Desire swells hot and fast within me, making me press my chest forward, as if wanting to offer my breasts for his attention.

Yet this sudden jolt of lust also scares me. It feels too much, too hot, too soon.

Frightened, I turn on my heel and start to bolt.

Before I can take more than two steps, Hugh’s strong arm circles around my waist, holding me back.

His lips at my ear, his breath hot on my skin, he says, “At least give me your number. I don’t want to lose you a second time.”

“O-okay,” I start to say, thinking that will be enough for him to go. But when I reach for my phone in my pocket, I remember with horror that my lock screen wallpaper is a photo of Ella and me.

I can’t let him see!