Chapter 34

• ELOISE (A WEEK LATER)
• The whole scenario played out just as Fergus had wanted. I gave all the visiting emissaries my condition if I was going to align. They each collected my blood sample and two days later, I got the reply I was already expecting. The Aster pack found something interesting in their labs. I was the great-granddaughter of some minor noble blooded elder that lost all her family to war. Fergus had planned this so well that the supposed girl whose existence I was supposed to take was created two months after the Carnation family tragedy. In simpler words, my grandfather was a calculated man and he wasn't taking any risks with me. I had been visited again by the Aster pack and I swore my allegiance. The woman who I was supposedly related to, took me to her house, two towns away from Ashlake to prepare me. It was no intention of mine to leave but Dad and grandfather were insistent on consistency and method acting. It wasn't all bad though. I had learned from Orla Aster, my stand-in relative more about my grandfather, the kind of person he was, what he stood for and why Orla herself was doing this. Apparently, while Orla was still young and in love, she was betrothed to Fergus but she didn't love my grandfather. Someone else held the keys to her heart. Fergus had noticed how horrible it would be for him to stand in the way of true love so he had rejected Orla and put in the good word to Orla's parents about a young gentleman that would be a better fit for their daughter. Orla was forever indebted to Fergus. So she had no issues creating a false profile of my existence years ago when Fergus asked. It was not all roses and vanilla though. In terms of consistency, Orla was only picked for this role because she had suffered a horrible tragedy. The loss of her two boys to a war that ravaged the supernatural world years ago. The same tragedy took her husband whose heart couldn't handle it. Since then, Orla Aster had been the proverbial 'witch in a hut'. Except she was a werewolf and her hut was a mansion that looked more like a castle. Orla did everything in her books to prepare me for what was coming. The way she had described my introduction into werewolf society made it sound as if I were attending a ball. It was funny picturing myself in a comical colossus gown and walking down some aisle, whilst someone called my title but as the days passed, I realized my introduction was indeed going to be a ball and nearly all the packs around would be in attendance to welcome me into society. I was a debutante in the peace era, Orla would say.
• The night before the reception, I could hardly sleep. My head scattered between a hundred ideas at once. What if I was figured out? What if no one liked me? Yes, somehow, getting strangers to like me made it to the list. It was funny to concede to the fact that the first day of my existence in werewolf society would involve being the center of attention. I kept tossing and turning until I finally fell asleep.