Chapter 12
1204 Words
Chloe’s pov
Jill spun the dress form around with both hands, and the fabric caught the window light like it was lit from somewhere inside the weave. The whole room smelled faintly of the lavender sachets Alma kept tucked into every closet.
"Tell me this isn't the most beautiful thing you've ever seen." She grinned at me, waiting for a reaction I didn't have to fake. Deep blue silk, embroidered with silver thread that traced the shape of a crescent moon across the bodice, the whole thing so far beyond anything I'd ever owned that I almost didn't want to touch it.
"Alma had it made for you." She ran a hand along the sleeve, excited about the gown than I was. "The second she heard about the Welcome Ball, she pulled three seamstresses off their other work. Nobody in this pack gets a dress made from scratch. You're getting the full treatment."
"I don't know what to say." I meant it. Nobody in Twilight had ever gone out of their way for me like this, not once in nineteen years, and I didn't have the first idea how to hold gratitude that size without it spilling out of me sideways.
"Say you'll wear it Friday and let everyone see how wrong they've been about you." Jill's smile dimmed, just briefly, a harder edge showing underneath the warmth. "People have been talking. I wanted you to hear that from me instead of getting blindsided at the ball."
My stomach dropped. "Talking about what?"
"Megan's been telling anyone who'll listen that you're a wolfless Omega who got lucky, that you'll embarrass the pack the second Nash needs you to act like a Luna instead of a guest." Jill's jaw set hard. "A few people are repeating it because it's easier than thinking for themselves. Most of the pack doesn't believe a word of it. But you should know it's out there before you walk into that ballroom."
"She's been busy." I kept my voice flat, refusing to give the words the reaction they were fishing for even secondhand.
"Busy isn't the half of it. She cornered two of the kitchen girls yesterday going on about how you'll shame us all at the ball." Jill rolled her eyes. "One of them told me about it because she felt bad repeating it. The other one's probably telling half the compound by now."
"She's jealous, and jealous people get loud when they don't get their way." Jill set the dress form gently against the wall. "Nash isn't going to marry her. He never was. I think that's finally starting to sink in, and she's decided to make everyone else as miserable about it as she is."
I ran my fingers along the embroidery at the collar, silver thread catching under my nail. "Does Nash know she's doing this?"
"Nash doesn't have time to track every rumor in this compound, and he wouldn't care much if he did. He's never put much stock in what people say about anyone." Jill shrugged, a small, tired motion. "I just didn't want you finding out about the whispers from someone trying to enjoy watching your face when you heard them."
"Thank you. For telling me, and for this." I touched the dress again, steadier this time. "I mean it."
"You'll thank me more when you see yourself in it Friday." Jill's smile came back, easier now that the hard part was said. "Ray's going to help you get ready that evening. Alma wants you glowing by the time you walk into that ballroom, rumors or not."
Ray appeared in the doorway a moment later, drawn by the sound of our voices, her eyes catching on the dress before she could stop herself. "Is that the one Alma commissioned?"
"The very one." Jill beamed like she'd made it herself. "Doesn't Chloe look like she's about to cry just looking at it?"
"I might." I laughed, the sound surprising me as much as anyone. "It's a lot. All of this is a lot."
"Get used to it." She squeezed my arm on her way past. "This family doesn't do anything halfway."
She left with a promise to check back before Friday, and Ray lingered a moment longer, her gaze still fixed on the dress hanging against the wall, a strange tension behind her expression before she caught herself and smiled at me instead. It was gone almost as fast as it appeared, replaced by the same warm, familiar look she always wore around me, and I told myself I'd imagined the rest of it.
"You're going to look beautiful," she said. "I'll come by Friday afternoon to help you into it, if that's all right."
"Of course." I studied her a second longer than I meant to, an odd tension in the way she'd been looking at the dress that I couldn't quite place, but I let it go, chalking it up to nerves that seemed to be catching in this house the closer Friday got.
Everyone from Jill to the kitchen staff had started talking about the ball in hushed, excited tones, like it mattered more than any ordinary gathering, and I supposed to them it probably did. A new Luna, a first impression, a chance to prove Megan's whispers wrong in front of the whole pack at once.
Megan’s pov
I found Jessica in the linen room, folding towels she didn't need to fold, clearly hoping if she looked busy enough nobody would ask her for a favor tonight.
I almost rolled my eyes at the old tactic from the lazy maid.
"I need a favor from you." I shut the door behind me, and she flinched at the sound of it. "It's small. You won't even have to lie about it."
Jessica set the towel down slow. "What kind of favor?"
"Chloe's dress for the Welcome Ball, the one Alma had made." I pulled the small glass vial out of my sleeve, the pale gold liquid inside catching the lamplight. "I need you to spray it with this before Friday evening.”
"What is that?"
"Daffodil dew." I smirked. "You know what that scent does to an Alpha's temper. Especially Nash's."
Jessica went pale. "You want to trigger him at the Welcome Ball. Won’t that cost him seeing as it’s In front of the entire pack."
"I want Chloe to learn her place before this family makes the mistake of handing her a crown." I set the vial in her palm and closed her fingers around it before she could hand it back. "Nobody will trace it to you if you're careful. And if you're not careful, I'll make sure everyone remembers whose idea the swap really was."
Her hand shook around the vial, but she didn't drop it. "What if he hurts her?"
"That does make me feel bad for her but she'll finally understand what kind of man she agreed to marry." I smiled, "Friday evening. It’s the blue dress, in her room, before Ray comes to help her dress. Don't disappoint me."
I left her standing there with the vial still clutched in her fist, and I didn't look back to see whether her hands had stopped shaking.
- Writer
