The Vampire Duchess's Secret Marriage Contract

6| Werewolves in a Banquet

The week went by in a blur, the preparations for both the balls occupying the entirety of my time. Now I stood alone in the crowd of the Imperial Ball, the object of everyone’s attention. I looked down at the comfortable but gorgeous deep red dress that matched my crimson eyes.

It was an off-shoulder long dress with a dark red flared tulle skirt, laced with a black shimmery material and studded with tiny rubies. Simple, but elegant, enough for such an occasion.

My father had already left before me because the emperor called for him, and now I had no one escorting me. I didn’t bother keeping ladies-in-waiting, and my maids never showed up before me as I had instructed them. I sighed.

To think of it, I had really led a wealthy commoner’s life rather than a proper lady’s. I didn’t mind the loneliness. It was uncomfortable for me to be among humans, but on days like these, when even my father was not with me, I wished I had friends.

Not that I needed them no. I was better off alone; I convinced myself.

A gentleman made his way to me through the crowd. I could clearly see his motive. I subtly bared my fangs, disguising it as a yawn, which made him stop in his tracks and turn the other way around. I shook my head in dismay as the nearly one meter of free space around me widened.

I had arrived only five minutes early because I was used to being punctual. But it seemed higher ranking humans had a penchant for arriving ‘fashionably late’ as I had gathered from the surrounding conversations.

I scanned the crowd to see if any of father’s friends and their daughters were free. Those people were nice enough to me and were adequate conversation partners. Furthermore, I kept smelling something delicious.

I did not know if it was a human or just the amazing Imperial food. I looked in the direction from which the sublime smell came from.

That was when I spotted him.

Dark red hair clicked back neatly, gorgeous grey eyes gleaming under the candle lights, his peach lips moving sensually, as he looked completely and utterly bored with the conversation. Dressed to the nines today in a highly fashionable all black three-piece suit, he looked like a charming demon.

Azrael Gvantsa stood there, completely oblivious to the way I was salivating over him, like he was a piece of deliciously cooked steak. I gulped.

Why did he smell so delectable to me? He was not even human. It was unfair! As if noticing my hungry eyes on him, his gray eyes met mine over the crowd. I spun away, pretending to not have seen him, and made my way to where the pastries were.

I would have preferred to drink blood, but I guessed that wouldn’t be polite to ask the servers. To my surprise, I found a group of werewolves and other shifters gathered near the desserts. They were talking about stealing the Imperial chef.

I held back a laugh. Shifters were on pretty friendly terms with humans, so they were often invited to Imperial occasions in order to promote better relations between the empire of Farkas and Kainosia.

They were not quite fond of vampires though, and I had only met werewolves under a disguise, never as myself, so I thought it was better to not converse with them, in case things got heated. Shifters were… temperamental.

I went past them and found myself a plate of absolutely amazing looking chocolate cake. I cut a small piece with my fork and ate. It was so soft it melted in my mouth. My eyes widened. Those werewolves were not kidding.

‘I should ask father to steal the chef,’ I thought. I felt a lot of stares on me suddenly. I looked up to see the group of shifters stifling their laughter and staring at me curiously.

Oh, had I said that out loud? I gave them an innocent smile that said I did nothing. Three of them stepped towards me at that, all huge and all strappingly handsome young men. In two long strides, they had come to where I stood.

‘So tall.’

I was only one sixty-five centimeters tall. Which was pretty short for vampires, but decent among other humans, but these shifters were huge. My sense of smell told me that the black-haired one and the one with brown hair were werewolves, but the one with gorgeous blonde hair up to his shoulders was a mystery to me.

I blinked up at them in confusion. Why had they come over?

“Ah, forgive me if we’re intruding, My Lady. It’s not every day that we see a vampire in an Imperial event, so we were curious,” the blonde-haired one with twinkling green eyes said.

Ah, so they were curious. It didn’t seem like they had come to pick a fight with me. So that was good. I figured that they did not know my identity, since they were from a different empire.

“Understandable.” I nodded.

I waited for them to introduce themselves to me.

Usually, a mutual acquaintance introduced the lower ranked aristocrat to the higher ranked one, but I felt like the shifters did not follow such cumbersome etiquette since they came up to me directly.

The shifters seemed to realize this, too.

“Where are my manners? I am Dylan Eclipse, Beta of the Eclipse Pack, my brother is the Alpha. This,” the blonde said, pointing to the black-haired man with light brown eyes, “is Raven Calor, our gamma, and this fella is my little brother Diego,” he said, putting a hand over the brown-haired man’s shoulder.

He had green eyes, just like his brother.

“And that concludes our introductions. May I be bold enough to ask for your name, My Lady?” Dylan asked.

I gave him a curt nod. I had heard of the Eclipse Pack. It was one of the more powerful packs in the Farkas Empire, and the wife of the current Eminent, the ruler of Farkas, was from the Eclipse Pack, so they had quite the political base.

“I am Celestia Kadirah, from the Duchy of Kadirah. You may address me as Princess,” I informed them kindly.