Fighting Kane (Book 1 of The Sovereign Series)

1. Beauty And The Best Friend

           "Tell me again why I have to dress up and go to The Ball with you?" Lexi asked as she scoured the dress racks for a gown worthy of royalty.

          "Because you are my support system and best friend," Diana told her with a frown. "Don't you want to be there when I am chosen as the next queen?"

          "To be honest, I'd rather be sitting at home with a pint of Ben and Jerry's and watching Netflix," her friend replied wistfully. "But that's just me."

          "Leo will be there," Diana mentioned coyly.

          "I know."

          "You'll get to dance with him," Diana added.

          "Dancing is overrated," Lexi stated. "And sweaty."

          "If done right, dancing can be practically s*x in a vertical position," Diana claimed.

          "Gross. Who would want to f**k in public?" Lexi gave her a sour face and grabbed a decent-looking gown in a dark blue color. One of the salespeople looked over at the two young women, scandalized at their vulgarity.

          "Don't go for muted colors, Lex," Diana scolded her and came over to pull away the navy blue gown from her friend. "Go for vibrant. You look so much better in bright colors. Red, orange or a nice lime green."

          "You want me to look like citrus, don't you?" Lexi asked as she sighed and placed the blue gown back on the rack. "I'll look like an orange or a lime if you have your way."

          "What about this pretty salmon-colored one?"

          "It's pink," Lexi said. She hated pink.

          "It's salmon," Diana protested. "Completely different color!"

          "Still, it's a hard pass," Lexi said and walked over to a nice emerald green gown with high slits up the thighs. "This one isn't bad."

          Diana eyed the gown greedily and nodded. "You could work that one, especially with those slits. They'll go practically up to your panty line."

          "Great! I'll find it in my size and we can get the hell out of here!" Lexi said brightly, smiling at her friend. They had been at the boutique for what seemed like hours, but had in all actuality only been forty-five minutes.

          "I haven't found the perfect dress yet!" Diana looked devastated and started to rifle through the racks frantically. She knew her friend had a low threshold for shopping, and she was coming dangerously close to surpassing it.

          "How about that pink one you seemed to like so much on me?" Lexi asked with a smirk.

          "That old thing?" Diana scoffed. "I wouldn't be caught dead in it. So last year!"

          "Yet you wanted me to wear it."

          "Well, you wouldn't care if something's last year or haute couture. I figured it would look pretty on you, but not so pretty that you would outshine me when I meet my Prince Charming," Diana told her.

          "Honey, there's no way anyone could miss you," Lexi told her friend with a smile. "All you have to do is open your mouth and you outshine us all."

          That part was true enough. Diana Loudin was Alexandria Welsh's best friend in the whole world, not to mention her adoptive sister. After Alexandria's parents had passed three years ago, her best friend had begged for her parents to let Lexi stay with them as an adopted daughter. It was either that, or she would have been placed in foster care. And who knew where she would have ended up then?

          Lexi was one of the few true blue friends Diana had. Many thought Diana was too high maintenance. Diana thought - erroneously that high maintenance was synonymous with beautiful. And Diana was beautiful - in a manufactured sort of way. With deep chestnut-colored hair, hazel eyes and a slim figure, many men had fallen for her charms. But Diana had her eye on only one man. A man neither she - nor anyone living outside the palace - had ever seen. Prince Kane.

          From an early age, Diana thought herself destined for greatness. And she would take nothing less than the best. She was determined to become the mate to the eldest son of Queen Margot and King Xavier Reifenberg, the Royal family of werewolves across the North American continent.

          But no one had ever seen the 21-year-old Prince. Nor any of his brothers, Kolton and Kade. It was tradition.

          Upon the King's eldest son's 21st birthday, a ball would be held where all the notable young women from far and wide would attend, and the future King would choose his mate and bride. In order to allow the Prince to choose his mate in peace, he and his brothers were kept hidden from society. No one but the King, Queen, and other werewolves living in the palace grounds would know which man was Prince Kane, future King of the wolves.

          To Alexandria - better known as Lexi to her friends - it was nothing more than a fashionably catered meat-market. Why didn't they just let the man date and see who was compatible with him? It seemed so shallow to have a man choose his life partner after one evening of dancing and flirting with all the eligible ladies from the best families across the nation. Lexi hated it - and had stated as much - ever since the Loudins had received their invitation.

          Of course, many other men would attend the ball and Leo Pomeroy was one of them.

          Leo. Lexi's future mate. She just knew it. They had known and loved each other since they were 15. Lexi was certain that once Leo came of age and turned 18, they would feel the mate pull, as all wolves did when they hit that anointed age.

          Whereas Diana loved to be the center of attention, Lexi was her complete opposite. She loved the simpler things in life and was just as happy sitting at home reading a book or watching a movie, as Diana was in going out to parties and flirting with men.

          But that, of course, was all Diana ever did. She was saving all her firsts for her mate, the future King of the wolves. Kane.

          While Diana had a radiant, ethereal beauty about her, Lexi's own looks were more muted. Not that she wasn't pretty, for she was. With lush black hair and startlingly light green eyes, she was more elfin than her more ostentatious-looking friend. She would just be happy when Leo turned 18 and they were found to be destined for each other.

          Leo was set to come of age in a week's time. He was one of the few reasons she was attending the Ball at all. Well, that and the fact that Diana had nagged her to death about going. Lexi tried to point out that the invitation was addressed to the Loudins and not her, but Diana was not having it. Ever since the death of her parents, Diana considered Lexi just as much a Loudin as herself.

          "Try it on first," Diana said to Lexi and gestured to the emerald gown on the hanger. "We need to make sure that it doesn't need to be taken in somewhere or let out in the breasts."

          Lexi sighed and headed into the dressing room, placating her friend. She was lucky that the back was low cut, for she wouldn't have been able to zip it up herself otherwise.

          With her larger breasts, she was afraid that the top wouldn't fit. Though she was petite enough, her bosom was generous and could make for awkward wardrobe choices.

          Thankfully, the gown fit well and would only have to be taken in a couple of inches at the waist. It was Diana-approved, and Lexi sighed gratefully. At least she wouldn't have to try on any more clothing and would only be tortured by the amount of time Diana would take selecting her own perfect gown and accoutrements.

          Three hours after entering the boutique, the two women left with their purchases. Diana had insisted they get shoes to match, and both walked away with their gowns in garment bags, shoes, and some lacy underthings that Diana insisted would make them feel glamorous from the skin on out.

          "You should wear your hair half up and half down," Diana instructed her. "Your hair's too pretty to have it piled up on your head - though it would be a shame to cover up your slender neck. At least with the front half of it up, your neck will be seen."

          Lexi only half-listened to Diana's plans on makeup and hairstyle. Her friend had wanted her to wear higher heels, but Lexi had balked. They finally settled on 2-inch strappy heels that looked fancy enough with the clear gems pasted on them like diamonds to adorn her feet.

          "And you should wear my diamond and emerald necklace with the earbobs," Diana added. "They will look perfect with that dress." If anything, Diana was very generous with her belongings. At least with Lexi, whom she trusted with her life.

          "Diana, you're not going to make me dance with everyone that asks, are you?" she asked her friend. It would just be like her friend to try and pull Lexi out of her comfortable shell in such a social setting.

          "Only the handsome ones," Diana told her with a grin. "You never know. You may meet your mate there, Lex."

          "I'm with Leo," Lexi reminded her. "He's going to be my mate."

          "You don't know that for certain. He hasn't turned 18 yet," Diana said sagely. "Leo's quite good looking, very surfer-boy chic, but you could be coupled with someone else... someone absolutely breathtaking." She sighed. Probably thinking of the handsome Prince. Or at least it was rumored that he was so. No one but the palace dwellers truly knew, but word always got out.

          "They say the Prince has eyes that are steely-grey with raven black hair," Diana said, her mind back on her favorite topic.

          "Or he could be blond and blue-eyed with a wretchedly hooked nose," Lexi teased her.

          "He isn't," Diana decreed. "He is brooding and handsome yet utterly dashing."

          "And you will be the winsome little mate at his side, the social butterfly to his stern and foreboding air of nobility," said Lexi. She could see her young friend as the Queen. Elegant and radiant like a beam of sunlight breaking through the trees in the early morn. If she had cared enough about her own looks, she'd be as jealous of Diana as many of the females in their social circle were.

          "Well, after tomorrow I will have to be much more stylish and grand," Diana said, almost petulantly. "Nobility isn't allowed as much fun as the common people. Always having to watch what they say and do. Like A-list celebrities. If it weren't for being Queen, it would be no fun at all."

          Lexi smiled. "I'm sure the perks will outweigh the downsides."

          "Of course," Diana said to her as if she were daft to think otherwise.

          And with that, the two females walked off with their purchases. Back to the home Lexi and the Loudins shared in the finest part of town.