Out of the World

31. Surprises at the Ball

Nina

“Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight, Honey?” Zorion asked, pulling me close, his lips brushing against my ear and making goosebumps arise everywhere.

“A couple of times,” I chuckled. Funny enough, it wasn’t the dress but the way Zorion looked at me that made me feel more beautiful than ever.

My hand ran down his shoulder, and I couldn’t stop smiling. I didn’t care about the awkward way people looked at me, I didn’t give a damn about the fact that I was totally out of place here, in this dress and this palace. All that mattered was Zorion, us — and he had already proved me in many ways that he was more than perfect for me.

So, as if we were alone in the room and in the entire world plus the Six Realms, I floated in his arms, feeling weightless, free, loved.

“Nina, you are glowing,” Zorion murmured in my ear, amusement clear in his voice.

“I guess Mama Schawn is right, happiness makes me glow – and what is happiness if not love and art?” I asked, giving him a small and almost shy smile.

Zorion covered my smile with kisses before twirling me on the dance floor and pulling me back to the warmth of his strong arms.

A few days ago, all I wanted was to feel normal again — or better said, normal for once. Yet it seems like, when it’s about love and art, there is no going back. My new normal seemed to be shining and I had to embrace this new impossible.

A little commotion next to us attracted our attention. A tall and bulky man was looking intently at a woman, as if she were holding the moon in her eyes. He claimed her in a guttural voice, and their lips met in a kiss.

“Another multi-species mated pair, she is a Witch and he is a Werewolf, a ranked one, probably a Beta or a Gamma. Now they can have something close to the heavenly happiness I feel when you are in my arms, Honey,” Zorion beamed, capturing my lips in his and pulling me even closer to his chest.

“How do you know that they are a Werewolf and a Witch?” I asked, curiously.

“I can recognise it by their magic energy. These Mating Balls had helped so many people to find their mates. Years ago, it was almost impossible to find one’s mate if they were from a different species. I can’t even imagine how it is to know that the person that holds the other part of your soul is somewhere but you take decades, even centuries to find them. I took two years to find you, and that was more than enough. I couldn’t wait any longer, ” he told me, wrapping his fingers in a lock of my hair.

Knowing that you have a mate somewhere, should give these magical people the hope that we humans never had. I never had any hope of love before meeting Zorion, but after him, I learned that life could be more than beautiful and magical.

“I am glad you found me,” I smiled back, almost jumping onto my tiptoes to get another taste of his kisses. After a few more dances, sweet and even hot kisses, plus lost-in-love gazes — the kind of look I would frown upon before we met — someone cleared their throat, attracting our attention.

“Zorion, my Dear, won’t you introduce us to your beautiful mate? I didn’t want to interrupt, but you two have been swirling around for more than an hour,” a gorgeous black-haired woman in a blue dress said, a sweet smile on her face. Beside her, stood a tall man with silver-blond hair, just like Queen Livia’s. Wait, were those Zorion’s grandparents?

“Grandma Mel, grandpa Maximus, this is my mate Nina,” he replied, taking a few steps away from the dance floor and bringing me along.

I had to contain my gasp at Zorion’s words confirming my assumption. How could grandparents look that hot? That should be illegal in any and every world!

“Nice to meet you Nina,” his grandfather kissed my hand gently.

To my surprise, his grandmother hugged me tightly just like Queen Livia did, “Welcome to the family, Nina!” she beamed.

After a little small talk they left and Lola and Helena approached us. Lena had a little frown on her face.

“Oh, you met our grandparents. They are amazing! They have twin sons, can you see them?” Helena asked, motioning to two tall men with silver hair. One of them had blue eyes like Mel and the other one amber-golden eyes like Maximus, “They are hot, I know. The blue-eyed one is nice, the other one is a damn j.erk,” Lena shook her head.

Zorion chuckled, “They are both fine, but Dante has a temper. Cedric and I used to be very close before I–”

“Before you left everything to go to Earth to find your girl. Come on, it’s not bad, you found her. She is here, pretty and real. Now you can reconnect with your buddy and play Fae-wine pong!” Lena added, making my mate chuckle.

Poor Zorion, he had been completely dedicated to me lately, and even forgot his life, friends and so on. A sigh left my lips.

“Lena, why do you have this sour face?” I asked, as my gaze roamed around searching for a certain hazel-eyed Werewolf. He was on the corner, talking to another tall and strong man.

“It’s the Wolf, you know? Hector. I want to dance with him again,” she murmured.

“Why don’t you do it?” I asked, raising my brows and trying to contain my chuckles. She was a goner.

“I might have told him that I never repeat meals, that means a dance per guy. Now I can’t go back with my word,” she replied with a whisper.

“That’s silly, Lena! Just go there and take what you want, just like you always do,” Lola encouraged her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“No, I can’t,” Lena bit the inner part of her lip and looked almost shy. Who would ever say that Helena could do shy? The girl was an unstoppable wrecking ball. “We have to think about something, come up with a plan as to why I am dancing with him again,” she murmured, making Lola shake her head.

Seeing Lena in that light was kind of cute. Hector might not be her mate — like she said — but the special connection between them was almost tangible.

“You will think about something brilliant and insane, I am sure!” Zorion chuckled, reassuring his blond sister.

Their cousin, Emma, strode closer to us, a huge smile on her face, “Guys!! I have news! Mum finally popped the baby out, little Lara is finally here!”

“That’s why aunt Lea and her mates aren’t here,” Lola muttered, looking thoughtful.

“Exactly, now that the new baby is born, the three of them are all over mum. Treating her as if she were made of porcelain. Sweet and overbearing, right? Anyway, I am not the only girl among three brothers now. We got one more for the vag-team!” Emma laughed.

Lena looked at her cousin and a mischievous smile surged on her face, “Emma, dear. I am very happy about little Lara and all, but I need your help now for something very important. As the Werewolf Princess you can pull some strings no one else can,” Helena said before walking away with her cousin.

“I don’t even want to imagine what Lena has in mind. It would be so much easier if she talked to Hector; by the way he looks at her, it’s so clear he likes her too,” Lola sighed, her gaze moving up for a moment, as if her thoughts had wandered above to a certain jerkAngel.

“Things can’t be simple for her, Lola. Not with everything she has to face every day, the many voices and feelings leaking to her mind,” Zorion exhaled deeply, whispering to his sister’s ears only. Yet my hearing seemed magically sharp lately.

Alexander greeted and hugged the three of us, before his eyes met Lola’s blue ones. She was under some kind of spell to conceal the pink colour of her eyes. Just like in a contact lenses version of a Cinderella story, the spell would only have effect for a few hours and at midnight Lola’s eyes would become as pink as a dragon fruit.

“Lola, my beautiful cousin, would you dance with me?” Alexander offered her his hand and our sweet Lola smiled before they headed to the dance floor.

“Do you want to eat something, Honey?” Zorion asked, running his fingers up my arm and I was about to nod when I heard an unfamiliar voice and my mate turned to look at the man. He was wearing funny purple clothes and had not a glass but a bottle of wine in his hands.

“Lady, Prince Zorion,” the man bowed down.

“Linus, is everything okay? You look nervous,” Zorion observed, looking intently at the – how can I put it? — exotic man.

“Not quite, not quite, your Royal Highness. You see, Prince Zorion, I know this is not good timing and you want to enjoy the party, but we have a little issue with one of the guests. Since I can’t find King Avalon, I request you to help me with this little thing, please,” the man told him.

“I will be back soon, Honey,” Zorion told me, placing a quick peck on my cheek, and in response, I nodded.

My stomach growled, Zorion’s food question made me even hungrier. So, I headed to the feast, which was richly decorated with colourful shrimps and things I’d never seen before.

After I tried a funny and sour salad, I was about to help myself to some shrimps when a well-dressed woman with flawless chocolate skin approached me.

“Miss Nina, may you please come with me?” she asked with a smile.

Was that a surprise from Zorion or something like that? Well, he was full of romantic surprises.

“Okay,” I nodded, following the lady down a small hall, and crossing a smaller dancing room, until we reached the entrance of the balcony. I still couldn’t really see what my mate had prepared for me since thick and over the top golden and navy curtains blocked half my view.

“You can head to the balcony, he is waiting for you,” the woman told me, motioning for me to walk further.

Doing as she said, I crossed the curtains threshold and under the shadows of the moonless night, I saw the back of a tall man. Wait, that wasn’t Zorion, but rather–

He turned around, interrupting my line of thought and confirming my assumptions.

“Avalon,” I murmured, still a little shocked, my chin dropping and my eyes as wide as they could be. Zorion’s father wouldn’t do anything bad to me, right?