The preparation for the festival was smoother than I imagined. Geldra knew very well which members of the pack to avoid and no one dared to confront me when she was around me. After spending so much time with Khalia, who couldn't stop talking about how sweet her mate was, I had forgotten how scary Geldra could be.

"The decoration is complete," I informed the beta.

There were only hours left until the start of the festival and it was time to go over the last details. The mansion's meeting room was proof of all our work, especially the table that was full of papers with all kinds of images and information.

"And the wine?" Geldra asked, taking a seat. She almost fell out of the chair from the force with which she collapsed her body.

"They had a delay because of the hunters but everything went well." I leaned my body against the table.

"I think that's it. Thanks to the goddess, I was already on the verge of driving myself crazy."

"It wasn't that bad," I told her with a smile and handed her a bottle of water. "I expected it to be much worse."

"That's because you didn't have to convince Adira to let you use her tablecloths, if anyone stains one I'm dead."

"Khalia can defend you from Adira if something goes wrong." I took a look at the photos of the decorations. "Seriously, I enjoyed it more than I expected, it's good to feel part of a pack once again."

"Well, you better get used to it 'cause you're part of us now and Almec will kill anyone who says the contrary." She stood up. "Surprisingly he is happier than ever, although the possible invasion has him quite nervous."

"He feels the weight of being the alpha, I hardly saw him these last few days, all he does is work to protect the pack."

"Maybe you can help him distract himself tonight." Geldra's tone made the implication clear but her expression remained serious as always. "Let's hurry up and clean up this mess so you can go get ready. Khalia told me that she's going to be in charge of helping Faustina so you only have to worry about yourself."

***

I arrived at my room with the intention of changing into the dress that Khalia was supposed to have bought for me. The insistence with which she had asked me to be in charge of choosing my clothes made me give up after the first day, but after discovering that the dress was nowhere to be found I ended up regretting it.

What was I going to wear to the festival? It was important to make a good impression in front of the pack members. They already had doubts about me being the right choice to be their luna, if I made one single mistake I was going to prove them right.

Desperate, I took all my clothes out of the closet. My breathing quickened as I moved piece after piece, searching for something decent to wear.

Little by little, tears began to wet my face and my body lost its strength, causing me to end up kneeling on the floor.

I was startled when I heard a knock on the door. As quickly as I could I dried my tears and threw the clothes into the closet without worrying about folding them.

"Wait a minute," I responded, my voice weak from crying.

"It's me." Almec's voice came from the other side, calming my nerves a little. "Can I come in now? I can sense something is bothering you."

If it had been someone else I would not have hesitated to reject him, but for him I could make an exception.

"Alright."

With shaky legs I got up from the ground as Almec opened the door. Even though I had the courage to let him in, I still wasn't ready to look at him, so I kept my gaze on the ground.

"Treasure, what happened?" he asked me, caressing my cheek. "I can feel your fear, I know something is wrong."

"How can you know that?" I murmured.

"I can feel some of your emotions through the mate bond and the one right now is particularly strong."

"I don't have anything to wear to the festival," I whispered, slowly looking up. "What if I make a fool of myself?"

"I'm so sorry, that's my fault." He kissed my head, then walked to the door and picked up two boxes off the floor. "I told Khalia I was going to take care of your dress but I had to take care of something else at the last minute. Here it is."

I took the boxes and placed them on the bed. The anxiety was killing me so I took off the covers without even saying a word. There was a beautiful red mermaid dress, the long sleeves were decorated with embroidered flowers, and hidden in the skirt were small pockets. In the other box, I found some sandals of the same color.

"What do you think?" Almec asked me, giving my hand a gentle squeeze. "I'm really sorry, I should have told you before but I wanted it to be a surprise. Next time we can go buy it together."

"It's beautiful," I said, taking it out of the box. "I'd love to go shopping together next time, but I want to buy something for you too. I'm not going to take no for an answer."

"It's a date, then." He smiled. "I don't want to pressure you, but you better go get changed now if you don't want to be late."

"I'll be back in a minute."

I grabbed the dress and ran to the bathroom. My hands shook as I put it on due to my fear of ruining such a beautiful gift. Everything was almost ready until I tried to zip up the back, my hands couldn't reach it no matter how much I stretched my arms.

"Almec, can you help me?" I yelled at him, not thinking about the consequences of what I was asking.

"I'm going in," he said, opening the door. His eyes found me and he froze.

I felt my cheeks heat up under his intense gaze, the desire present in his eyes was enough to make me melt.

"Can you help me zip it up?" I asked him, snapping him out of his trance.

Almec nodded and carefully approached me. He moved my long hair, leaving my back exposed and I could see his smile through the mirror.

"You look beautiful," he said, zipping up the dress.

The feeling of his breath against my neck made me shiver.

"You look very handsome too," I answered, telling the truth but also trying to hide how weak his words made me.

Almec kissed my shoulder and held my hand to pull me out of the bathroom. He guided me to the bed, kissed my knuckles, and motioned for me to take a seat.

"Let me help you with these," he said, taking one of the sandals out of the box. Then he knelt in front of me.

"It's okay, I can do it myself."

"I want to do it."

Almec lifted my right leg, caressed my ankle, and carefully placed the sandal on my foot. Before moving on to the next leg he placed a kiss on the inside of my calf.

While Almec repeated the entire process with the other sandal, I struggled to stay calm. I wanted to ask for more of his touch, fall into his arms, and completely forget about the rest of the world.

"All done," he said, standing up. "I have to leave for the festival before the others, there are still some details I have to take care of. Khalia is going to help you with the rest. I'll be waiting for you."

***

I felt like I was going to vomit. My stomach was jumping more than Faustina, apparently they were both equally excited. I had never been so afraid of going to a festival. As a child I loved food and dancing under the moonlight, but it didn't sound so fun to me anymore.

I really wanted to go back to that time in my life when I could act freely like my sister did. Her excitement and knowing that Almec was waiting for me were the only things that helped me leave the mansion.

"Valen, look at the lights," Faustina said, pointing to the string lights hanging from poles and trees. She ran to the town square, dragging me with her. "I want to go to the food table."

"Alright, but don't eat too much now because your tummy will hurt later."

I followed in her footsteps, ignoring the looks of disgust from some of the people as we passed by her. Instead of giving in to their hurtful murmurs, I decided to focus on looking for Almec.

It was a little difficult to find him without getting away from Faustina who refused to move from the food table. The square was so full of guests that I could barely recognize those next to me.

In the end I was distracted by one of the guests from Blue Moon Pack.

The tall, muscular man approached me, offering me something to drink.

"No, thanks, I'm fine," I smiled at him, trying to get rid of him quickly.

"Just a little, I would love to be able to spend a few minutes with your beauty." He looked me up and down with a smirk plastered on his face. "It's a party, you should have a good time."

"I'm already having fun with my little sister, I don't need any more distractions," I told him, pointing at Faustina. Perhaps her presence made him retreat.

"You're going to have a lot more fun with me." The man tried to touch my shoulder but I dodged it. Instead of stopping, he stretched out his hand towards me again.

"I think my mate made it clear that she doesn't want to be with you." Almec appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the man's arm. "Go now, and I don't want to see you near her again."

"Yes, alpha," he responded scared, not even able to look Almec in the eyes.

"Are you okay?" Almec asked me, caressing my cheek.

"I'm perfect, my hero arrived just in time." I joked.

The rest of my words were about to come out when Almec wrapped his arms around me. Everything I had to say was forgotten the moment my head found my mate's chest. The warmth and calm that came over me were so much that I would have preferred to continue like that and leave the party.

"I'm sorry," Almec told me after letting me go. "That was impulsive on my part, it's just that his scent was very strong and I—."

"Don't even mention it, I really enjoyed it." I kissed his cheek.

I could have sworn I saw Almec blush, it must have been the lights playing tricks on me. He remained silent for a few seconds, scratching the back of his neck, it was as if he was trying to think of his next movements.

"I have to say a few words to officially start the festival. Would you like to be with me? You don't need to say anything, I just want to have you next to me."

"You don't even have to ask," I said, holding his hands. "I'll stay with you anyway."

It was easier said than done. Being next to Almec was not the difficult part, but standing in front of the entire pack at such an important moment was.

All their gazes were fixed on me, Almec was already a regular presence for them, I, on the other hand, was a novelty. At least some people were there to support me, especially Faustina who kept waving at me while Khalia tried to calm her down.

"Thank you for coming tonight." Almec began his speech. "I'm not used to this kind of thing, we all know that usually I would let Geldra speak in my place, but today I felt like I should at least try. I know that the pack is going through a difficult time, I know that many of you aren't in the mood to celebrate, I even thought about canceling the festival. Having a party seems unnecessary when the hunters are surrounding us but I decided that I am not going to give them the satisfaction of ruining our happiness. The time to prepare for battle will come soon but for now I would like us all to be able to enjoy and remember why and who we are going to fight for when the time comes."

The people present began to applaud, all the tension present in the atmosphere disappeared.

Almec held my hand and smiled at me before continuing. "One last thing. I want to officially introduce you to the person who changed my life. This is Valentina, my mate, soon she will be your luna and from now on I hope you treat her as such."