On Heat for The Cursed Alpha

Chapter Four

Lola’s POV

The first thing I hear when I get in through the roof are whispers, coming in from the living area. Dropping my sketching pad back in my little shelf, I push the door open and make my way downstairs.

Everyone suddenly stops talking at the same time. Both my parents look up at me, their eyes brimming with excitement. My sister is nowhere to be found. She must have gone home to meet her mate.

“Mom?” I say slowly, stopping at the base of the stairs. I take in the carefully folded and seemingly important note in her hand. It looks like an invite, wrapped in a wine bow, the cursive writing spilling out.

“What is that?”

“Honey,” my mom starts, barely able to contain her excitement as she walks around the couch and halts in front of me. “You got an invite.”

Strange. Everyone in Blackwater Pack stays away from me, and with what I heard a few minutes ago, they all probably think of me as some freak who got rejected because of that. It doesn’t even help that my family is low on the success ladder, while Callen and Saphira are high up there.

“Dad, please tell Mom that she is beginning to have some really weird imaginations,” I murmur, my eyes still on the wine bow.

“She’s not joking, Lola,” my father laughs, coming to stand beside his wife. He places a hand across her shoulders and she leans into him. For a second, I remember what happened in the woods and a pink hue appears on my cheeks.

I am grateful that my parents are distracted because I have no idea what to tell them if they ask. But they are more focused on the note.

And this is when I see it.

The seal from the Blackwater Packhouse, shiny and unmistakeable. I take the invite from my mother at once, pulling the bow with one deft moment. It unfolds in my hands and I take in the words in one quick glance.

“What does it say?” My mother cranes her neck, trying to peer into it. “I didn’t open it because it was addressed to you and because it has the Blackwater seal.”

“You are right,” I whisper, unable to believe it myself. “It is an invite.”

“To what? A ball? Is the Blackwater pack hosting a ball soon?”

I shake my head slowly. “To Alpha Kael’s Heat Banquet.”

***

Maren barges into the loft, her hair in a messy bun and a cross bag which should be a fashion blunder, strapped to her bodice. But none of that seems to matter as she races towards me, dropping into my bed.

It is her second time in the house today, which is unusual. Maren is inseparable from her mate.

“Where is it?” she asks at once, her eyes glinting and her body shivering from all the pent-up excitement. I don’t bother asking what she wants, because I know our parents must have called her immediately because they knew what the invite contained.

Swinging my legs off the bed, I walk to my shelf and pull out my sketching pad, finding the invite on the same page as the drawing in the woods. Sliding it out, I close the pad and return it, aware of my sister’s eyes reading my every move.

She takes it out of my hands the minute I get back, opening it.

“Oh my God!” She squeals, jumping out of her bed. “I cannot believe this.”

“Trust me when I say I cannot believe it either,” I reply, not sounding as excited as my sister. I mean, I am happy, but I cannot stop thinking about what happened by the lake. And now, this.

It fills me with more warmth than excitement. Like the awareness of an unavoidable thrill that I shouldn’t want yet appears so good. It is the reason I tucked the invite away from view. Yet, the words still permeate my mind.

“Why don’t you sound happy?” Maren murmurs, regarding me like I have just grown horns. “Every woman in the Blackwater pack will kill for this. Before I met my mate, I remember sitting outside during this season, waiting for a letter that never came. And you, my baby sister…”

She moves away, floating in the room like she has just won a lottery. “Oh my God.” Her feet come to a halt suddenly. “We need to go shopping.”

“Maren…”

“You need a dress. You don’t have anything in that damn wardrobe of yours that is suitable to attend Alpha Kael’s heat banquet. There will be a lot of ladies vying for his attention and you need to beat them.”

“This isn’t a game,” I blurt, shaking my head. “I cannot… I am not some item to be paraded around in exchange for one weekend in the Alpha’s bed. You know what happens in there, don’t you?”

“Lola, you don’t…”

“He sleeps with them because of the heat, and they come out heartbroken and unmated. Yet, every single season, they get excited all over again at the prospects of getting another invite. It is madness.”

“It is satisfaction of need,” my sister corrects, planting herself beside me again. “My dear sweet sister, you don’t get it, do you? This family is…we are beneath the average family in the pack. Not once have we even ever been considered for something like this.”

“But you…the Alpha must have seen something in you to have made you a part of his very small guest list. You have to make it count, Lola. This might be our only chance at changing our lives.”

I hear the need through her tone, through the way her hands hold on to mine fervently. I don’t know what Alpha Kael is doing, bringing this attention to my family.

I am probably going to be ridiculed before the end of the bouquet and with the stunning ladies on his list of invitees, I will be back home before nightfall. I can already imagine the look of disappointment on Maren’s face, even though she will try to mask it with a smile.

“Fine,” I sigh. “Let’s go get that dress.”