AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Rue hurried back in, then guided me out of the bath and wrapped me in a plush towel. “I recommend the lovely teal gown in your wardrobe. Does that suit you?”
“Sure,” I said. I dried off and stepped into the undergarments and silk slip Rue had brought for me.
“I’ll prepare it,” Rue said to Amity.
These two seemed to work as one. Amity gestured for me to sit down at the vanity and carefully unwound the towel around my hair, sweeping it down over my shoulders with a small, pleased hum. Her delicate but callused hands worked carefully through the fine strands before she picked up a brush from the vanity.
“I think we should leave your hair down for today,” she said as she smoothed the brush over the strands. “Do you typically wear it in a plait?”
I nodded. My hair was long and fine, and the plait kept it from getting tangled or damaged as I went about my day back in humid Daybreak. Loose like this, it fell in white-blonde waves nearly to my elbows.
“It’s lovely down like this,” she said. “And the king does love long hair. He likes to have an idea of what a wolf may look like before he actually sees the wolf. Especially for his potential queen.”
I tried not to scowl at my reflection and mostly succeeded. I hated the thought of the king looking at me and imagining my wolf—she was a private part of my soul, and I loathed to share her with the world at all.
“That’s fine,” I said.
To her credit, Amity seemed to understand I wasn’t interested in chatting. Hopefully, she’d just chalk it up to nerves. True to her word, she only put a small amount of makeup on me—a tint to my lips and a blush on my cheeks, making me look a little more doe-eyed and innocent than I wanted to. Then, from the drawer of the vanity, she pulled out a fine silver box.
“You’ll be wearing this today,” she said. “Lady Glennis had them made for all the contestants of the Choice.” She opened the box and revealed a delicate tiara.
It was silver, with delicate white stone cut in the shape of a semicircle, flanked by nine small diamonds. “This stone… Is it…?”
“Moonstone, yes,” Amity confirmed.
“It’s lovely,” I murmured. I’d seen jewelry made with moonstone at the marketplace, but I didn’t wear it myself. It was too valuable as a resource and too important to trade. Even the highest-ranking women of Starcrest, the pack responsible for its mining, only wore it decoratively. Gazing into the stone, I suddenly realized the design was particular to me as well. “This is my coat of arms.”
“Exactly,” Amity said. “Do you like it?”
“It’s gorgeous,” I said. And that was true, even if I didn’t exactly like it. Amity carefully fixed it in my hair, so the gems that represented my pack were centered above my blue eyes. I had to admit it looked nice, and not too ostentatious, tucked into my loose hair. As Amity adjusted the tiara in my hair, I noticed a similar gem, small and gleaming, embedded into a silver ring she wore on her middle finger. “You wear it as well?”
Amity blinked at me in confusion, and then followed the line of my gaze to the ring. “Oh, this?” she asked. “No, this is just a servant’s ring.”
“What do you mean?”
“Moonstone for function, not for beauty,” Amity said with a smile. “The tiara will look even better with your dress. Come with me.”
In the bedroom, Rue and Amity carefully helped me step into one of the gowns my father had commissioned on such short notice. The tailors had done a remarkably good job. The dress fit perfectly: a full teal skirt with an ivory bodice, with full long sleeves and teal embroidery detailing.
I wasn’t used to dressing like this, in heavy layers and long sleeves, but I was grateful for it now. This manor was drafty. Rue fastened the lacing at the back, carefully sweeping my blonde hair out of the way.
“All the women have these tiaras?” I asked.
Rue nodded. “Yes, each fashioned after their coat of arms. It shows your status and illustrates to the king which pack you represent. Four of you are ladies of your packs, and one competitor is a commoner.”
My mood, buoyed by the bath, soured again. Retorts sat sharp on my tongue: would a nametag be easier? Does he often forget the identities of the women he courts? But I was used to holding my tongue in my father’s court so I steeled my expression into neutrality. We were just wolves to him, weren’t we? This competition wasn’t about who I was as a person—it was about who I was as a lady and as a wolf.
A lady I could be. A wolf—not like him. Never like him.
“A commoner?” I asked instead. “How was she chosen?”
“Nightfall held a lottery for their representative,” Rue said. “All packs are to be represented in the King’s Choice, of course, but the king wanted to ensure the Choice was fair to all.”
That was an eloquent way of putting it—Rue was good at her job. Obviously, tradition said that all five packs had to participate, but this Choice was mostly to increase Frasian faith in the king. Having the king choose a bride from his own pack would certainly not do that. The council had made a good decision by instituting a lottery. It adhered to tradition, made it clear the king would not be choosing the Nightfall wolf, and would most likely provide a good show for the spectators in Efra.
This Choice was well-planned. To the point that it almost made me a little nervous.
“Ready?” Rue asked.
