King Of Monsters

chapter 2

Amara's POV

Ben’s birthday is tomorrow, and everyone is running around like headless chickens trying to put finishing touches on everything. Mom is so excited she’s practically bursting at the seams with song and every time she moves it’s like she’s dancing on air. The King is very proud, he’s walking around with his chest puffed up and telling everyone that will listen about how special his son is. It’s actually quite funny to watch. Sarah and Sally are fawning over the warriors that will be attending and stressing about what they’ll wear as if they’re the ones going to meet their mates tonight. Nicolas doesn’t care about any of it, he’d prefer to be playing in the woods that surround the mansion and climbing trees or at training. And me, I’m nervous as hell. Every important person in every kingdom is coming to this party and that means I’m going to have to be on high alert. I won’t be able to enjoy this party at all, the vampires in particular hate us (humans) and I know I’m going to be a target for insults and snide remarks the entire night and I’ll just have to grin and bear it, like always. I suppose I’m also nervous about whoever Ben’s mate will be, it could be any other supernatural from any kingdom and I don’t know if they’ll accept me.

Making my way through the rush of servers, caterers, and decorators with arms full of books I came to collect from the royal library, I started heading towards my room. Unlike the rest of the family who live in the west wing, I live in a tower just off the west wing. Mom and dad had it built when I was 11 because I had a kidnapping attempt, I don’t remember it and the culprits were caught and dealt with. But after that mom and dad thought it was too dangerous to keep me with everyone else and the tower was easier to keep me safe as it only had my bedroom and bathroom. Mom also had a witch friend who came and put a bunch of different protection spells on it so no one but her and my family could enter the room. Omegas who clean our rooms just leave fresh sheets, along with anything else I need, at my door for me and that’s where I put my dirty laundry to be picked up. It was a little isolating, and the sound the wind made when it was really strong was unnerving sometimes but I know they’re just trying to keep me safe.

I made my way up the stairs and down the hallway to my door, placing the books on my dresser one by one.

My room was nice. It had ceiling to floor long rubber backed blackout emerald green curtains next to two large windows, one behind my bed and the other to the left of it. They had been pulled apart to allow the morning light to enter. The floors were a really nice dark grey and brown wood, and the walls were white. On either side of my bed were dark brown wooden side tables with two drawers and white lamps with gold bases, my bed was a normal queen size with a frilly cream duvet cover, matching pillowcases and white bamboo sheets, various different sized dark green and beige pillows, and a dark brown wooden ottoman at the end. Across from my bed to the left was a large dark brown wooden dresser with eight drawers making it almost as tall as I was. Next to it was my bathroom door, my bathroom was actually pretty big. It had beautiful white tiled floors, dark green walls with white trim. Two gold scones sat above a large mirror hanging above an even larger white counter with a gold sink in the centre of the room. To the left, beside a beautiful wall length black arched window was a very deep bathtub, big enough to fit at least two people and fluffy cream bathmat underneath. Next to the door on the other side was a toilet and a huge walk-in shower. It had the same white tile that was on the floor up the walls, a glass wall and door separating it from the rest of the room and a huge gold square rain shower head in the centre with gold finishes all around.

Back in the bedroom, to the right of the bathroom door was my large white vanity. It had lightbulbs bordering the mirror and lots of little drawers, there was a matching white wooden bench, but I didn’t like it, so I went for a plush velvet dark green armchair that had really nice dark brown wood detailing on the arms and back, I had a white sheepskin blanket draped over it to add some character. In the centre of the room there was a very large cream colored fluffy rug and next to my vanity was my wardrobe. It had two large sliding doors with huge mirrors on them. A beautiful two-tiered beige macramé light fixture hung from the ceiling tying it all together. I had a bit of a candle obsession as well, so they littered almost every free surface that wasn’t already covered in books. It was very stylish and homey. Very me I’d like to say.

I then make my way to my vanity. Sitting down I look at my reflection. You can see that I’m stressed, my green eyes have deep bags underneath them making it look like I haven’t slept in months, my usually olive skin looks paler than normal, and my usually bouncy long black hair is dull and flat. I look like I’ve aged 10 years in a matter of a week I think to myself. A knock at the door shakes me from my thoughts, turning around I see mom walking in holding a garment bag, she smiles kindly at me as I watch her put the bag on my bed and start walking over to me in the reflection. She strokes my hair before grabbing my brush from the vanity and starts to brush it. I close my eyes and soak in the feeling, I wonder if this is something my birth mother would have done? I think to myself. Opening my eyes, I look at mom to find her staring at me. She puts the brush down and grabs my hands pulling me with her to the bed and sitting me down beside her, she takes my hands and looks at me “Are you ok Mara?” concern laced in her voice as she asks. I hesitate, I want to tell her about all my fears and anxieties regarding the upcoming party, but my words fail me, I don’t want to seem weaker than I clearly already am. I meet her gaze “yeah I’m ok mom” I know she’ll see through this so I continue “I’m just worried about Ben’s mate” I say, “I’m worried about who it will be”. “What if they won’t accept me?” I whisper, my hands suddenly becoming very interesting. “Oh Mara” she says hugging me “I understand why you would be scared, but you must know that the moon goddess values and loves humans, after all she brought you too us. I truly don’t believe she would pair Benjamin with someone that would work against everything we have tried to accomplish here.” She said this with such conviction I looked up at her I searched her face for any flicker of doubt but there was none. I sighed and leant head on her shoulder, if she believes this then so can I, I think to myself.

Patting my leg, she got up from the bed and grabs the garment bag, she starts to open it to reveal a dress. it was a floor length silk dress with spaghetti straps, a v neckline and a lowcut back and the color was such a brilliant, vivid dark red that it looked like flowing blood. It was stunning. I gasped looking at it my mouth and eyes wide open “wow” was all I could say. Mom chuckled, “this was the dress I wore on my 20th birthday when I met my mate, the king” I could see the start of a tear in her eye at the memory. “Now I know we don’t know exactly when your birthday is” she said composing herself, “but I would like you to have it and wear it tomorrow. I don’t know why but I feel tomorrow will be a big day for you as well.” She smiled kindly at me, I wonder what she means I thought “And the color will go nicely with your locked.” She added while hanging it up in my wardrobe. She walked over to me, kissed me on the head and took my face in her hands tilting it up to look at her. She was tall for a woman almost 6ft although most werewolves and Lycan's were quite tall, even the women. “You need your beauty rest my love. All this worrying has made you look like walking corpse” she chuckled again. “I’ll have some food sent up to you so you can rest plenty” she said heading for the door, looking back at me she added “do try and relax Mara sweetheart and trust the moon goddess” before turning and closing the door behind her.

Staring at the door I take a deep breath before throwing myself back on the bed arms and hair sprawled out all over the place. Staring at the ceiling I take another breath before closing my eyes. I thought I had just closed them for a moment but the next thing I knew I was being startled awake by Sarah and Sally barging into my room yelling at me for not being awake and ready yet. Groggily sitting up on an elbow I looked at the clock on my bedside dresser and saw that it said 8:56am. “Holy s**t!” I exclaimed throwing myself off the bed and undressing as I ran across the room to the bathroom to get in the shower not caring if Sarah and Sally were there watching. Why the hell didn’t my alarm go off!