My legs were trembling. My breath came in frantic gasps, cheeks painted a crimson hue, while staring at this beguiling man before me.

Perfect.

"Ah, yes," my father agreed with a slight chuckle and shuffled to stand from his comfortable chair.

"Yzavel, Alpha Zakharov was kind enough to grace us with his presence tonight. He just came from Montana on discussing with Alpha Lucas." Why did I feel like papa was acting as if Alpha Zakharov's status was higher than his?

"Why is he here, then?" I asked guardedly, my father looking at me with horror at my sharpness. "Yzavel!" He scolded.

Alpha Zakharov smirked at me and rose from his seat. Startled, I took a shaky step back as he approached, never taking his eyes off of me even as he kissed my hand.

The sparks, they were overwhelmingly beautiful. An entire galaxy of stars burning me with cusps of desire and longing, yet beckoning me to seek more from his heated touch.

I think I'm about to faint.

Pull yourself together for Goddess' sake, Yzavel! We cannot faint like a sheet of paper right now.

My wolf was right, I had to redeem myself from my spectacle with the table a while ago. Straightening my back and fixing my expression, I gave him the sweetest smile I could muster.

"It's an honor to finally be acquainted with the birthday girl." Goddess, any more and I would swoon.

"I-" don't know what to say. I exhaled loudly, clueless that I was holding my breath all this time.

"Uh, thank you for coming, Alpha Zakharov." I don't even know if he coherently heard what I said with my voice being akin to a gentle whisper.

He flashed me a smile and I swear my heart fell to the tiled floor and sprung back in full-force.

Sweep me off my feet, my Alpha. My wolf decided to make a deep guttural sound aloud and I quickly placed a hand on my lips, shocked at my wolf's actions.

Bella, stop being such a wanton wussy!

I could feel her rolling her eyes at me and settled somewhere to give me the reigns to my body.

I can't believe she would do that! I felt so embarrassed, yet couldn't help but peer at Alpha Zakharov, but he was already preoccupied once again with talking to papa.

I felt funny with his lack of attention and acknowledgement with our bond. Perhaps, he was just being a gentleman and decided we would talk later privately? But I wanted to be smothered with affection. Right now!

"The princess has requested to be smothered with affection. I repeat, the princess is to be smothered with attention."

Right on cue, my brothers came and hugged me to death, muttering nonsense words of "sweetness." I didn't even notice when they gathered around me. Oh goddess, did they witness everything?!

I ignored the thought and giggled, "Did you really have to say it like that, Ben?" They proceeded to hug the life out of me.

Not long after, it was well past midnight and a generous number of people were already retreating to their homes to rest. I bid them well and wished for a safe journey with my family.

I was beyond exhaustion at this point, having to stay in heels and with my face layered with makeup for so long.

I decided to go back to the gazebo to catch some much needed fresh air. Making myself comfortable, thoughts of the Alpha Zakharov once again consumed my being.

He was devastatingly handsome, with eyes so striking its stares suck your meager soul towards it.

Was he also thinking of me? What did he think of me? Was he happy with what he's got? I'm going to be a Luna, I wonder what his pack would think of me.

"Hello, darling."

• •
Oof  👀 who do you think said that?

Out of 1k+ stories, you got me to 306th! Amazing, that's what you all are 🥺

Anyways, just a quick heads up, I won't be able to update as much next week cause it's the end of my online summer classes (I. Hate. Online classes.) and college sucks so we have a lot of work to do before summer class ends.

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you next chapter! 💖