Wolf-less Omega Luna

CHAPTER 15: NEW THINGS

Alana’s POV

“Mabel happens to be the best stylist in all of Crescent Moon Pack. She styled the previous Luna multiple times and I think she'll do wonders on you.” Coral grinned too giddily. “She’ll take care of our dresses.”

“Our?”

“Yes,” Coral beamed. “I figured I could use a new dress for the announcement tomorrow.”

“Right.”

“Hello, Luna, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Mabel’s French accent sizzled through the air.

“Hi, Mabel, it’s nice to meet you too,” I said.

One look at Mabel and you’d know she was a stylist. A badass one at that. Her costume said so, the way her hair was styled, her bold lipstick and eyeliners that made her green eyes pop, and even the way she cat-walked around the place.

Her workshop was breathtaking. Mannequins adorned with elegant (and expensive-looking) outfits surrounded the place. Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

“You make these or?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Yes. All of our pieces are handmade, Luna.”

“Wow.”

“See,” Coral flashed. “I told you she’s good. Impressed?”

“Beyond impressed.”

A large mirror stood just elevated to reflect people trying on the amazing dresses.

I glimpsed a reflection of my auburn hair plaited in two halves. It looked as silky as I thought, thanks to Coral. My ever-violet eyes that never flickered or glazed, earning me a human look, had fading dark circles around them from lack of sleep.

They darted to the worn-out undersized jeans, hugging my legs tightly way above my ankles, oversized polo, and my only surviving sneakers. One glance and I realized I was out of place.

Embarrassed couldn’t cut it. I was gravely mortified.

“Luna,” Mabel began.

“Alana, please.”

“I wouldn’t dare, Luna,” she said as she bowed her head in my direction.

I tossed a bewildered glance at Coral who was nibbling on some strawberry cookies in the complementary sweet treat section and she said, “It’s only right that pack members accord you the respect due as Luna. Higher ranked wolves ‘can’ address you on a first name basis if you put them up to it, but anything less from pack members is regarded as disrespectful,” she explained. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. It’s not a big deal.”

Except that it kind of was. Having people who once stepped on my head for breathing the same air as them being compelled to accord me with respect or be considered disrespectful was more than a big deal.

“Okay.”

Mabel continued with a sharp two-clap. “Sully, bring out the piece!” A proud look spread across her face, lifting her already high cheekbones.

“This piece, Luna, took months of dedication to come to quintessence. It is a replica, the only one, might I add, of the original bridal dress that Katniss Della, the bride of Alpha Cole Crescent Blackwood, of the first werewolves of Crescent Moon pack wore on the day of her joining with her mate.”

She spoke proudly, practically worshiping the dress on the mannequin that a young she-wolf of about my age rolled out.

“I made it,” she continued, “because my mentor told me that I couldn’t.” Now, her smile was that of morale and credit for the work she had done.

Looking at it, my jaws dropped. Mabel didn’t accord herself the slightest bit of accolade that she deserved for this masterpiece.

The gown was coral peach colored, flowing to form a train at the pool. The sleeves were made of lace that looked like but weren’t see-through. Beads that glistened in the store's light adorned it from head down. The dress looked like it was made perfectly for the mannequin as it hugged its body like a layer of skin.

I would be an imposter in a dress like that.

“Since I never had any reason to wear it, I kept it aside waiting for the perfect occasion to showcase it. Now that you’re here, it’d be my honor for you to wear my piece.” She ended her speech with that.

“I’m sorry, Mabel, I can’t accept it,” I said to her. Her brows had creased with a frown. “It’s a very beautiful gown. Perfect. Too perfect. It’s not for me.”

“No, Luna, it is. Please, take it.”

“You will look beautiful in it, Alana,” Coral came into view, smiling lightly. “How about you try it and see? If you don’t like it, we can drop it.”

And so I did.

I gaped when I looked in the mirror. The reflection I caught couldn’t be me. It couldn’t be Alana whose alarm for as long as she could remember was the sound of rats fighting for territory in her room.

Alana, who had passed out and woke up in the dungeon more times than she could count.

Alana, whose greatest achievement was cleaning the toilets in the pack house squeaky clean better than anyone ever did.

I looked completely different in it.

“And it’s your perfect size, Luna,” Mabel’s voice was low. “Another sign that you’re meant to have it. Please accept it as a gift from me.”

“Thank you,” but it only came as a whisper.

Coral hoarded ten? Fifteen? Twenty? Or more shopping bags into the trunk of the car, grinning from ear to ear like someone who had just broken an impossible world record.

After we wrapped up at Mabel’s store, she drove us to different shops in parts of the pack I never knew existed.

She insisted I got a new set of everything I had and those that I didn’t have.

Cosmetics, make-up products, hair products and tools, casual and formal clothes, shoes, bags, underwear, nightwear, accessories, you name it.

I panicked as she added more and more things to the overly large cart we took. We paid for them with the card Axel had made for me which surprisingly had just enough money in it.

Coral also bought herself some things, including heels and some clothes which she paid for with her card. She was good at telling which pants matched with which shoes or shirts, and which didn’t.

I settled for flats since I ended up falling like a sack of potatoes when I tried on low heels.

“This is a lot of things,” I said to her as she closed the trunk of the car and skirted merrily to the driver's seat. I followed through the other side and settled beside her. “I think Axel will be affected by the amount we spent. He might be angry,” I said dejectedly. “I have to find a way to pay him back.”

“You worry for nothing, Alana,” Coral snorted. “Axel has more money than you and I combined can spend in years. You do realize that he’s Alpha right? And everything we have in this pack that makes us the richest and most feared pack in the north is all thanks to him.”

“Oh.”

“So don’t shit your pants over a few thousand dollars. I doubt he’d even notice.”

Coral arranged for the ‘boutique’ she had bought on my behalf to be moved to my room since they were too much for us to carry alone.

I had decided to give Axel his privacy and stay in a different room, just beside his. I didn’t want to cross any boundaries or overstay my welcome by imposing on him. Seeing how the shopping bags covered more than half of the floor in my room, I knew I made a good choice.

I turned around to lock the door to my room when we finished and I bumped into Axel standing by the doorway.

“Axel, you’re back from your business with Tyler. Coral and…”

Wait, why were his eyes dark, brows snapped, nostrils flared and his growl low, thick, and deadly like he was ready to kill someone or he already did?

Coral said he wouldn’t notice. He did. He noticed. And now he’s mad.