"Congratulations, Princess," said a soft voice, and I turned to see a woman with a gold dress and golden hair bowing to me.

I was exhausted from standing in a gown for so long, sore from the permanent smile etched on my face. However, I was already aware that the day would come when I would be officially declared as the crown princess. I was born to rule the witch-kingdom; it didn't quite matter if I wanted this or not. My mother had said that the Goddess gave me this responsibility, and it was my duty to follow her.

Standing straight with my head held high, I could see every coven member was present to see their future queen. Hundreds of witches were gazing at me, but I didn't feel nervous. I was prepared for their eyes. It was what my mother wanted. If only she could be here, she would be so proud.

"Thank you, Cassandra," I replied with a smile on my face. The golden witch stood straight with a smile of her own, mischief glinting in her eyes.

Cassandra Woods was a powerful enchantress. With the beauty of a Goddess, she could make men bow down to her with a flick of her hair. Though almost all witches were able to sense the auras of people present around them, some were powerful enough to control them too, and Cassandra was one of them.

"Have you heard about him, Princess?" Cassie asked with excitement practically spilling out of her honey-coloured eyes.

"Who?" I questioned, furrowing my brows in confusion.

"The new werewolf king!" she exclaimed, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"He is a king, Cassie. You should respect him," I chided. I was usually amused by her, but I couldn't encourage her to use such terms for a king regardless of the rumours about his vicious temper.

"Still, he is a werewolf, which is equivalent to possessive, controlling, and demanding, which makes him a not so respectable king, Princess. But I am not here to talk about his species. Have you heard about how he killed the entire Blackwood family? I heard he is an offspring of a werewolf and a shadow witch! And he has both the powers!"

She kept on talking, but I tuned her out the second I heard that this werewolf had both powers. Werewolves could have children only with their true mates, and sometimes it happened that their mates were of different species, but acquiring the powers of both the species was very rare, especially a combination of such potent magic.

A faint jasmine smell caught my attention. It wasn't any jasmine smell - the familiar undertone of ice magic instantly made my heart beat faster. My eyes watered a little as I caught a whiff of that smell, my mother's scent. It wasn't possible though, she couldn't be here. I tried to look around inconspicuously, but I wasn't able to find anything suspicious.

Crystal chandeliers spiralled down from the ceiling, which was the exact blue shade of the sky on a sunny summer day, illuminating the glowing golden walls and a floor so polished it could have been a frozen lake. And it wasn't just the ballroom that demanded attention. The women present sparkled like jewels too. Shades of ruby, emerald, and sapphire swirled before me, their low chatter accompanied with an array of different smells - mostly rose, jasmine and various beauty spells. It was a beautiful sight but I sighed sadly when I realized that my mind was conjuring smells that weren't there. No ice magic was present in that room.

"Are you even listening to me, Princess?" An irritated voice broke me out of my thoughts, and I found Cassie looking at me with an annoyed expression.

"Yes, I am, Cassie. You were talking about how the new werewolf king butchered the Blackwood bloodline and that you're excited to see this not-so-great masterpiece of God today," I replied with my best poker face.

Cassandra opened her mouth to say something when we heard a commotion from the entrance of our ballroom. She hastily bowed and ran away from me. Soon enough, I saw my father, King Alexander Magnus, coming towards me with a man beside him: a werewolf, and not just any werewolf, but the werewolf king himself. He was a prepossessing sight. All werewolves were usually good-looking, but there was something different about him. He was tall with a powerful aura oozing out of him, more powerful than anyone present around him, animalistic but graceful. That was a rare combination. But being a half witch, he was bound to be graceful. Witches were known to be elegant, even when they were fighting.

"Eva, this is Alpha King Conrad Westwood. Alpha this is my daughter, Princess Evanora Magnus." My father's stern voice snapped me out of my reverie, and I looked straight into the eyes of the man standing beside him. His hair was dark brown, closer to black but not as dark as mine, and he had stormy grey eyes. He carried off an imperious nose well, and his angular cheekbones carved down towards a chiselled jawline. This man seemed to be moulded from a completely different cast as he had an ethereal look uncommon to most people. I bowed to him respectfully, observing how his finger twitched as I did so. I wondered if he wasn't comfortable with people bowing to him yet. That would have been a good reason for his reaction.

I straightened and looked into his eyes again. I liked to believe that I was quite good at observing people, but the way he was looking at me was close to a feeling I would rather not think about. I had a suspicion that he was looking at the food laid behind me. I knew that I got that expression whenever I saw a cake.

"Congratulations on your throne Alpha," I politely said with a smile. He closed his hands into fists and nodded, after which he straight-up ignored everyone and sauntered away in the direction of our food table.

I sighed contently upon solving that mystery. The look we both gave our food was exactly the same. I looked at my father, who was still standing where he had introduced me to the Alpha King, frowning in the direction of the Alpha.

"Ignore him, dad. He must be hungry," I said. My father looked at me strangely, sighed, and then calmly went to entertain other werewolf guests who came with him. I, on the other hand, was tired of entertaining the guests, so I decided to go to our food table. Looking that way I saw the Alpha King standing with his brows furrowed, looking utterly confused.

He stiffened when I got closer to him. I thought that he might have needed my help to decide which cake tasted good but was too embarrassed to ask directly. That was the typical Alpha behaviour.

"Chocolate flavour is the best, Alpha," I suggested politely.

He looked at me again, but this time, it wasn't the same look; this time he was sizing me up. He was looking at me like a predator looked at his prey. I thought it was the right time to show this Alpha that I was nowhere close to a prey. With that thought, I unleashed my aura, allowing the unperceivable hidden powers to be noticeable. I knew he felt it by the widening of his eyes. I smirked at him, extending my hand to take a slice of my cake, when my hand touched his and sparks erupted.

I stilled. My magic erupted in golden flames inside me. Each particle of magic running in my veins was dancing with joy. I looked at him with wide eyes, and his eyes were completely filled with lust.

Hey!

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