I glared at the female before me who was eating a parcel. A chicken parcel to be exact. Why would she eat something she knew I loved especially when I could not have the said food?

She chuckled at me. The audacity of her. "Stop glaring at me, Hes. I am not going to throw the parcel just because you can't eat it now."

I huffed and concentrated on fiddling with the mascara tube as I had before she came in here unannounced with the parcel. But the scent of the food was enough to drive me crazy. At times like this, I truly envied the humans who did not have a superior sense of smell as we did. Sure, they could have smelt it too, but they would have gotten used to it. Their sense of smell was inferior to ours.

"Is this fine?" the hairdresser my mother had arranged tonight asked me.

To be honest, I loved my curls, the way it had volume and how it actually made me, well, me. But my boyfriend, soon-to-be fiancé wanted me to straighten them. One conversation with his sister and I knew he hated my curls. Straightening them at our engagement banquet was the least I could do.

Now that its personality of them had been toned down, it looked weird. My own hair was completely creepy on me right now, but I hoped that Devon loved it. For who else was I doing it all?

"That's fine," I said half-heartedly. "Is this all?"

"It's temporary," she said, packing her things. "Your hair... it was actually beautiful, Miss Lowe. I hated to straighten it. But it will be back by the end of this week."

I gave her my best smile. "Thank you, Mel. I appreciate it."

Just the dress and I was done. Whoever said that getting ready for a banquet was easy? Especially when it was my banquet?

I was more of a sweatshirt and sneaker kind of girl. Iliara was the one who got excited over weddings and pretty dresses. No number of years being friends rubbed that trait in me.

After the hairdresser left, I walked around the gown Devon gave me to wear for the night. Honestly, my taste sucked and he did a better job at selecting dresses for me.

"Are you happy, love?" Iliara asked, finishing that damned parcel.

I choked for a second before I concentrated on the dress before me. It was a papery pink dress that had a long slit up to the left side of my hip. The V neck dipped right up to mid-cleavage and thin straps came on the shoulders with ribbons of transparent pink hanging off. I had worn it once and it hugged my body like a second skin.

It was not that I was not confident in my own body, but I hated showing too much skin. The fact that this dress was backless made me narrow my eyes at it. Paired with this was a pair of stilettos that Paige, my lovely sister-in-law gave me.

"Hes?" Iliara called again. "Are you happy?"

This was not the first time she asked me this question. Ever since I told her that Devon and I would be hosting an engagement banquet, she had been asking me this.

To her question, I was happy. Truly happy. I smiled more and my mother commented how I had more colour on my face. I was giddy at times.

But Iliara on the other hand claimed that I had lost the spark my eyes held.

Just when I was about to console her, she snapped, "Don't bullshit, Hes. You know how big a deal an engagement is. You are basically sealing your life with this wolf."

I sighed. Engagement was a big thing in the werewolf community. It stated to the pack that the two wolves had chosen each other as mates and the said couple would usually Mark each other on their engagement night. Rarely wolves held a wedding ceremony but that was often glossed over. A wedding was just a fancy way of telling others that the couple mated, but wolves tended to skip that ceremony and just mate.

While we did have a lot of potential mates, wolves we were drawn to, we selected that one wolf who was compatible with you, not just biologically and genetically, but compatible with you. Your personality, your interests and your aim.

But once we Marked, it was a permanent thing. Only the death of the partner could erase the Mark. Or I had to find a witch. The chances of finding a witch were lower than my mate dying, so, we had to be careful in whom we chose.

"I am not bullshitting, Iliara," I said, taking the dress off the mannequin. "Help me?"

She glared at me and then took the dress from me, as I slipped out of my casuals, without ruining the makeup and the hair. After all, my mother paid heftily for the makeup artist and the hairdresser. Though she might have been the Luna of MoonLight pack, she did not let her title get what she wanted.

"You had three potential mates right in our pack, Hes," she said as I slipped the dress on. "Why did you choose Devon?"

He was easy, I was about to say, but then which girlfriend would tell that about her soon-to-be fiancé to others?

Devon was aiming to be the leader of the guards. His grandfather had been my grandfather's Beta and my family knew him. My eldest brother was the next Alpha and as his sister, I was pretty much sought after.

As for the other two, one had desperately wanted to go to the human world and forget the wild and the other straight up told me that he liked someone else.

That left me with Devon. We sort of knew each other and I knew what ticked him. I knew what words would get him to do what I wanted. Even knew how my life would head. As I said, he was easy.

I did not have the epic love story my parents had that the whole werewolf community knew nor did I have the shy, pure first love that my eldest brother and my sister-in-law shared. I was okay with it.

After all, as the Alpha's daughter, though I did not need to make any sacrifices, I knew my place. I knew my game.

As the daughter of a powerful Alpha, it would have been devastating for me to mate out. Especially when this Alpha Aresis was claiming every pack land before him as if he wanted to become the King. A term that was long forgotten. And for the best reason.

If I had to mate out, Alpha Aresis would take it as a treaty between the two packs and attack us. He had already sent a letter of war three days ago, telling my father that he was eyeing our pack now.

Devon was a safe choice. The best I had for now. I did have a crush on him when I had been younger and I liked him then. It was not that there were no feelings. But just as I said before, it was no earth-shattering love. It was no romance novel or an epic tale. We liked each other, saw our aim in it and agreed on it. I would be the worst mother to tell her kids her love story, but that was life.

I could not keep asking for things that would make my father sacrifice the pack he had hard-won. I may be an Alpha's daughter, but I was no pampered princess. My mother saw to that.

"Who else, Iliara?" I asked as I played with the flowing ribbon. "Bard who left our pack four months ago or Wes who was mated two months ago?"

"Hailee," Iliara said, searching my face. "You were happy when you had been with her."

I paused and turned away from her. Iliara more than anyone in this pack knew much I had cried when the BlueMoon pack had been annihilated. Screamed at the moon when blood flowed like a river, drenching the lands, making sure that life would never live there. Wept when the Alpha family, had been massacred, all four of them, including my Hailee.

I gulped. I knew better than anyone that if I had accepted Hailee's proposal, my father would have sent help. At least then, at least Hailee would have been alive.

But I had not. And I was doomed to suffer in a world without her. Devon came after the BlueMoon affair and I just accepted him. I did not want a repeat of BlueMoon to MoonLight.

I blinked my eyes fast. As much as I cried - and still did, over Hailee, it was my engagement and I would not cry. I did not deserve that. As much as it pained to say, neither did Devon.

"Hail," I breathed. "Hailee was my past, Iliara. I wish to move forward."

She sighed. "I just wish that you had found someone you love. Someone who might turn off your rational side and just make you smile silly. Someone who could make your heart race just by smiling at you and make you look forward to another day with them in your life. That's all I wish for."

I laughed. "It's a full moon tonight, Iliara. Be careful about what you wish for."

Elders said that what we wished during the full moon might happen. But so far, I had seen none happen. And neither would Iliara's wishes happen.

"I might just wish for that," she muttered and drew the curtains. A stream of pale moonlight lit my room. "Well?" she asked. "Are you ready?"

I stared at the moon for another minute and exhaled. This was my life now. The path I had chosen. Nothing could change it.

Just as I collected my emotions and wore that façade everyone saw; someone knocked on my door. And by the scent, I knew it was Piage. It was time to start the banquet.

A/N: Leave your thoughts below!

Until the next update,

~Quill