Birthday party (7)

Let by the queen everyone went to the garden and took their seats. They waited for the blood moon to come out, seating arrangements weren't made so Elena decided to seat with her ladies as she waited. She sat down and the ladies sat to her right while some men sat to her left.

She waited patiently for the moon to come out so she could gaze at it. Birthday parties were the worst in Atria, especially when the person celebrated is becoming of age. There are so many ceremonies to do and they last till morning. Every hour was going so slowly that she thought the night was never going to end.

"Are you enjoying the night so far," she heard in her ear and instinctively turned around. In the corner far away from everyone he stood, he was using that necklace to talk to her and only she could hear it. She glared at him and he smiled. "You look so beautiful when you are angry," he continued to flirt with her.

She used her abilities to boil his blood to get him to back off. He grimaced and bit back a scream, he felt so uncomfortable in his skin and he felt all his insides burning. He dug his nails in his skin and he cooled down. She was surprised by his capability to do that and noted to stay clear of him. The devil you know is always better than the Angel you don't and he was nothing but mysterious. With mystery comes a lot of secrets that she wasn't sure that she was ready for.

"Well that was not nice," he said still smiling and she went back to ignoring him. She knew that he was still watching her but she wasn't going to let him affect her anymore. She closed her eyes and turned her humanity off and stopped feeling everything and anything. She became numb to emotions.

She looked up at the sky and at that moment the moon came out and her eyes reflected the color of the moon. Her's and everyone else's eyes turned blood red, red blood flowed down from her eyes and down her cheek. She wiped them off and made a wish. 'I wish that I would find love,' she wished in her heart and opened her eyes and stared at the moon once more. She didn't see the moon but the werewolf that keeps troubled her. The moon vanished and they headed back inside and took their seats.

'My darling, tell me what did you see. The blood moon has a way of showing us the answer to our wishes. So what did it show you?" she asked making Elena go quiet. She didn't know how to tell her that she had wished for love and that stupid moon showed her the werewolf. The blood moon is never wrong so she can only ever find love with him and that was something she wasn't sure she was ready for. To avoid answering her grandma she went ahead and did the next ceremony. She cut her wrist and let her blood which was blue due to the hex her grandmother had placed on her.

She let the blood drop to the ground for a while. "For Atria," she said and the crowd responded in unison, "For Atria."

"What next grandmother?" she asked trying not to go back to the previous chapter.

"Now it's time for you to receive gifts from the guest but first switch your humanity back on," she said and signaled the lady royals to get in position. She bowed her head in the embarrassment of being caught and did as told. They came and stood right next to her and waited to receive the gifts and arranged them. The line was made and one by one they brought her gifts and she happily received them and handed them to her lady royals. She said a lot of thank you's to people she hardly knew and smiled at them. The gift sizes varied from small to extremely big but they were vampires so it wasn't a big deal to carry them. She loved this part of the ceremony the most because she always enjoyed getting new things.

The gift ceremony lasted for about an hour because of how many people had attended the function. She was getting tired of smiling but she kept at it till the last guest.

"Hi, I, unfortunately, didn't get you a gift," said the hot werewolf. "But I am willing to give my heart if you will accept it," he continued softly that only she could hear him. Her heart skipped a beat when she heard what he said, she remembered what the blood moon had shown her and shuddered. She maintains a calm appearance but she was going out of her mind.

"That is a very expensive gift and I am afraid I can't afford it," she said rejecting him. She felt pain in her heart but she ignored it. She was a royal and love is something that was not written in her destiny. That too when the person destined for her was from the enemy land. " Now since you have nothing else to offer please leave," she said returning by her grandmother's side. She smiled and hugged her grandmother as her heart bled for the werewolf whose name she still didn't know.

"You were an amazing princess, just a few more customs to follow and then you can retire to bed," her grandmother said trying to console her to which she responded with a smile.

Esteban was left shocked at the turn out of events. He was quite confident that she would accept his gift, he was certain that she liked him but did not expect her to reject him upfront. He had fallen for someone for the first time in his life and she broke his heart. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry at his defeat, he walked out of the hall and went out for a walk.

"As you know dear a king is someone who has more than one woman. If not at first he will get one eventually, to avoid conflicts in the palace. It is a tradition in Atria that the queen chooses the woman who will share her husband with her," she said and paused to let Elena process everything. "This is the part where you do that," she continued.

She reached out into her pocket and retrieved a blue bracelet with the royal symbol on it. "Here is the bracelet, go among the crowd and select the royal concubine," she said handing her the bracelet. Had she been in a normal state of mind she would have objected to everything and thrown a tantrum about how stupid that tradition was. But her mind was occupied with a certain werewolf.

She got up and went down and walked around, she remembered meeting him at the corner and how shy he acted. And then how they danced to the music without him looking at her once. She also thought of the moment at the garden and how close they were to each other and how nice it felt. She thought of all this as though they were memories from another life and not from earlier that night. Her heart longs for the trouble maker and her eyes kept searching for him but he was not there. She got tired of walking and handed the bracelet to the girl on her right.

She walked away immediately not even checking to see who it was she gave the bracelet because she didn't care. The host of the party clapped his hands together three times to her everyone's attention. "The royal appointed concubine is lady Elsie, daughter of the Santiago Serrano of Atria," he announced stopping Elena in her tracks. She turned around and saw Elsie being adorned with a crown. Icyn got up from her seat when she heard the introduction of Elsie.

She was the late king's illegitimate daughter and the only person that Elena despised more than anything else in the world. She was the cause of all Elena's problems, Elsie walked up to where Elena was and greeted her.

"Greetings to the royal princess," she said but didn't give a response. "I will honor the responsibility that you have given me with all my heart," she added and walked past Elena and sat on the seat next to Elena's chair at the high table. She harbored no ill feelings towards Elena and wanted more than anything to get to know her sister. There were a lot of misunderstandings between her and Elena and she had wished to the blood moon for a way to clear everything up. She wanted to live in peace with her only living family.

Being a concubine was not in her plans but she had no other choice. This is how she was going to get her family to accept her, her grandmother and sister were all she had left in this wicked world. Elena went back to her seat and wished for the night to come to an end soon.