The Queen Of Darkness

14.The Sleepover club

I sat next to Anna and Mathias, the pureblood looking characteristically bored. I was trying to ignore the burning stare of the Iron Moon Alpha.
The awkwardness that followed my late arrival had silenced me for the next twenty minutes. The Queen had had a glint in her eyes as she stared between the two of us, until Alexeron had whispered to her.

"So, Alpha Finian, tell us what happened." The Queen addressed, his name causing my hair to stand on end. I chastised myself, glaring at the table. I looked up at him under my lashes, trying to be inconspicuous.

He coughed and wiped his mouth on a napkin before starting.

"My pack was celebrating a birthday when there was a commotion at the other side of the compound. Hunters, witches, vampires and even other werewolves were slaughtering my pack. Men, woman and children were murdered in cold blood. Orion was there, standing behind his soldiers, laughing. His people were preaching about equality and freedom. His Mate was there too, the one with green eyes. At least she looked ashamed of what they were doing." I swallowed, fiddling with my hands. Orion knew that Finian was my mate, he saw him at the Shifting ceremony. He attacked the Iron Moon pack. And my own sister played a part in it.

I took a swig of blood, bagged but in a chalice, and had to press a hand to my mouth to keep it down. Anna's hand reached under the table and patted my leg. I looked up at her and smiled slightly, taken in her blond hair and blue eyes. She wore a wine colored dress, the sleeves ending at her wrists. Lace covered the top half, the bottom flowing out. I hadn't spent much time with her since we'd arrived in Romania, and I felt a twinge of regret.

"I didn't understand why my pack had been attacked, but I'm assuming it has something to do with you." My eyes widened at Anna. I turned to look at my mate, my face heating.

"Ah, well yes I think that he attacked because of me, but there are a lot of things you don't know yet." I announced, speaking to him for the first time that night.

"Like what?" He asked, rasing his right eyebrow. His eyes were a dark blue when they weren't gold. He wore all black, a button up, long sleeved shirt that stretched over his broad shoulders, with black dress pants. He watched me in a way that warmed my blood and caused an ache in my stomach.

"Well, there's an ancient prophecy that involves the souls of Orion's mother and aunt, me and my sister, three objects that could or could not literally open the gates of hell, and to make matters worse I'm magically bound to Orion." I looked around the table, making sure I'd covered everything. My eyes found my mate, his angular chin propped on his hand.
"Magically bound how?" I fidgeted under his scrutiny, wincing.

"A magically bound mate bond." Finian's eyes were ablaze before I'd even finished. Tension surrounded the room, electricity licking my flushed skin. The eyes of the werewolf entourage surrounding the Alpha all lit up, one by one. The man to his left; one eye gold, the other navy blue, the colors of a beta, the second in command. The rest all a pretty teal, the hue of a member, a warrior. All werewolves are trained for combat, and are ready to fight to the death for their Alpha. They were communicating telepathically, through the back bond.

The rest of us watched on, awkwardly looking between each other. Finian had both his hands clenched, the muscle's in his arms bulging against his shirt. I found myself transfixed, my mouth slightly open as I stared at him. His head was tilted down, his gaze on the table.

I looked him up and down, taking in his dark unruly hair, his clenched jaw, the prominent jawline, his full, pouted lips. He had a dimple in his chin, and a vein that ran diagonally across his temple to his eyebrow. His nose jutted slightly to the left, halfway down the bridge. A small amount of stubble covered his jaw, leading to his neck and broad shoulders.

Too preoccupied with literally checking him out, I didn't notice that he was also staring at me from under his eyelashes.

Our mate bond wasn't forced upon us and it would be, if Valerie was telling the truth, significantly stronger than the one with Orion.

I definitely felt it. A constant, deep tug in my stomach and around my heart; like there was a physical tie around my body trying to pull us together. Ignoring it caused a light sheen of sweat to highlight my body, my blood to sizzle with electricity.

My eyes traveled back up his body, catching his gaze. I held his golden stare, my cheeks heating. My own blue eyes began to change to their colorful cracked appearance.

Anna's hand constantly smacking me under the table dragged me away from Finian's face. I glared at Anna, opening my mouth to seethe, taking in her raised eyebrows and amused expression.

I whipped around, awkwardly laughing as everyone stared. I kept my head down as the Alpha spoke, pushing around the food on my plate.

"What is the prophecy?" The Queen responded, repeating the long rhyme off the top of her head. It was silent for a few minutes before Finian spoke again.

"Has Orion ever attacked here?" The King and Queen exchanged glances.

"Yes, a few times but he hasn't ever succeeded with getting past the front gates. And he hasn't tried recently." Alexeron answered, confusion tainting his voice.

"You think that maybe the attack was a ploy to lure Regina to you? Or vice versa?" I was startled by Mathias' voice from beside me, and turned to frown at him. He looked between the man at the end of the table and me, his expression finally changing. Perplexed, he tilted his head. I almost wanted to shout for Madeline to come see.

Finian was nodding to the statement, "Orion has sources all of the world, some might even be in this very room. He saw us at the Shifting ceremony, and attacked a public place where thousands of supernaturals were converging. I doubt a castle full of a few hundred people would stop him from trying to get to Regina." The table broke out in loud conversation, already thinking of the worst. I groaned and dropped my head into my hands, too tired to even worry about the possibility of an attack.

"Let's not go straight to the worst outcome. How about we retire for the night? It is after all getting quite late." I smiled gratefully at the already standing Mathias, but his expression had already been schooled into disinterest.

I fled from the room in the opposite direction as everyone else, heading down the servants corridors to the kitchen. Madeline stood at one of the benches, Thomas sitting up next her. She was making sandwiches, cutting the crusts off of one. She handed it to the gap toothed little boy who smiled joyfully at the food item.

The red head looked up as I entered, smiling tiredly. She had dark circles under her eyes and she blinked harshly every few seconds.

"How was the dinner?" She asked, wiping her hands on the apron of her uniform.

I rolled my eyes and jumped up on the bench, huffing."Don't even get me started."

"Although, Mathias' face actually moved." Her eyes widened mockingly, both of us laughing. Thomas looked quizzically between us, his mouth full of bread. After a few minutes Madeline ruffled the blond hair on the little boys head and picked him up off of the bench, ordering him to bed. I pulled off my heels and followed behind them, heading to the servants quarters.

"Let's have a sleepover." I announced, looping my arm though hers.

"I've never had a sleepover. What does it entail?" She asked, looking up at me.

"You've never had a sleepover? Oh my god you haven't lived. We can watch movies and eat popcorn, talk about girl stuff. I'll even get Anna to come. Please?" I pouted, pushing out my bottom lip. She laughed lightly, shaking her head before muttering a single, fine.