Maisie
"Rise and shine, princess!"
I opened my eyes to Jenny's face approximately four inches from mine and immediately closed them again.
"No," I groaned, but sat up abruptly when my door slammed against the wall harshly, Regina appearing in the doorway with two women I'd never seen before in my life. "What the hell is going on?" I glanced at the alarm by my bed with wide eyes. "It's 7pm in the evening–what is that?"
Regina had a garment bag pressed against her chest, wrinkling her beautiful, floor length pink dress with dazzling shimmers and a low cut neckline. Her hair was styled in elegant waves and her face was beat beautifully. Jenny's dress was shorter, but just as extravagant. A strapless gown that cinched her waist and flared at her hip, halting just above her knee.
I suddenly remembered the ball. I could hear the music all the way here at the servants' quarters.
I was staring at the cases the women were setting up by my bed and I scrambled off the mattress as I noticed the hair and makeup equipment. "Regina… Jenny… Hell no."
Jenny was grinning and grabbing my wrist. "Hell yeah. Call us your fairygodmothers for tonight because you aren't just attending that ball, you're going to fucking kill it!"
I felt like I had wool stuffed in my brain for the first five seconds as I glanced from Regina's to Jenny's face. To the garment bag, the shoes I hadn't noticed and the jewelery.
I shook my head. "No. I can't attend. Luna Kaida specifically ordered me not to leave my room tonight."
After my 'accident' earlier, Luna Kaida had found me in the kitchens and with a scowl, ordered that I was not to be found anywhere around the engagement ball. They didn't want my bad luck ruining the event, considering it always seemed to follow me around.
I was grateful, because it meant I was confined to my rooms and didn't have to pretend that my wolf wasn't hurting inside.
Regina held up a black intricate mask. "It's a masked event, Maisie. She won't even know it's you."
"Lana and Cole will, and even if no one does, I don't want to be there."
"Well, fuck Lana. And double fucks to Cole," Jenny quipped and shoved me into the bathroom.
Regina clung to the door frame and dunked a towel at my head that I clumsily caught. Her eyes pleaded with me, like she knew I had begun to panic and was on the verge of belting out a 'NO'. "I need you to trust me, May. After today, I don't think I can stand one more moment of abuse aimed at you. We are going to get you out of the pack. Let us try to help you."
My eyes watered.
I didn't know what I did in my previous life to earn their friendship or love. I swallowed and nodded. "You're going to get me in trouble."
***
Approximately thirty minutes later, I was being assaulted, pulled this way and that. My hair was being straightened and then curled, and then pulled tight across my scalp in a gorgeous bun, leaving out a few curls that showcase the natural blonde highlights in my hair to frame my face and tease the long length of my neck.
I'd lost a considerable amount of weight since the rejection, but somehow… I looked… different. The good kind. In a way I couldn't place my finger on. It was so different from my first make over weeks ago. That had been for the purpose of getting railed by someone.
But this was sophisticated. Intricate.
"And now, the make up," the shorter woman said with a very stern expression that reminded me of Mom.
I pushed back the memory as she jerked my chin this way and that. "Your best features are your fierce blue eyes and the fine, harmonious shape of your lips. In a mask, the rest of your face is hidden from sight, framing only those two things." She picked up a brush. "I will accentuate and give each character. Eyes no man can look away from and lips they cannot help but covet."
Jenny made a sound from across the room that was mostly just vibrating excitement.
I was, once again, attacked. With brushes of varying sizes. She was doing things to my face that made me really, really want to sneeze.
"Here's what we know about the Lycans," Regina said, crouching down to my eye level. "They are mouthwateringly gorgeous. They are powerful. They have been wanted by every person in every room they have ever walked into for their entire lives. Which means they are completely, catastrophically bored."
I frowned and got whacked in the shoulder by the artisan who was fixing my brow.
"Think about it," Regina explained. "Every woman throws herself at them. Every Alpha defers to them. Every room rearranges itself before they even speak. Nobody pushes back. Nobody surprises them. Nobody refuses them. Nobody is–" she searched for the word, "--unpredictable."
She smiled. "Except you, Maisie. You never have been. And tonight you're going to use that."
My eyes narrowed with distrust. "I don't see how that's going to–ow!"
The artisan had whacked my shoulder again. "Keep moving and you'll smudge it!" she shrieked at me.
I glared at Regina, expressing with my gaze that I was certainly not on board with whatever madness they've come up with, considering the previous plan was the very reason I had been at the mixer in the first place and gotten bitten.
But Regina ignored my glare, raising a finger. "The first step is… You do not go to them. Every person at that ball will gravitate toward them." She looked at me steadily. "You will do the exact opposite. You move through the room like they don't exist. Like you have somewhere and someone far more interesting to be with." A pause. "Which drives men like that absolutely insane, by the way. Especially men who are used to being at the center of every room."