"I would be fine. After all, I can't stay scooped up in my room forever."
The way Luna said it sounded like she had ulterior motive, the woman couldn't shake off that feeling, before their aunt could say no to them. Belle quickly added to Luna's words.
"Aunt, you don't have to worry about it, because it's a masquerade ball. Everyone would be wearing a mask. And I would make sure to watch over my younger sister." Belle added.
The elder woman gave it some thought, her eyebrows knitted together. She already read that part in the letter, towards the ending, they had also been a warning that any family who refused to attend the Masquerade ball would face heavy punishment but since it was that person coming, the woman felt the punishment would be better than attending the banquet.
There was no telling that this person would not recognize Luna immediately, since she was the only one with silver hair in the whole pack. There was no going back, the woman though. As she turned in the direction of her window, a distant look on her face, as she reminisced about the past.
Luna and Belle along with herself were not originally from the Shadow Howlers pack. They were from the Crescent Moon pack, the pack was not the largest nor the second to the largest but they were known widely for their large trade route and their port, many merchants all over the continent comes to the alpha to use his trade port. The two sisters were the dethroned daughters of Alpha Aether. It all happened on the day of Luna's fifth birthday.
"You won't understand and I never expected you to…" Mrs. Harristone whispered more to herself than to the girls as her mind drifted back to that night, the incident that started the massacre.
* * * *
Fourteen Years Ago.
~Crescent Moon pack~
Two months before Luna's birthday party, something strange happened that had the alpha and Luna helpless and powerless. A letter came demanding for the hand in marriage of Luna, their youngest daughter, as ridiculous as it sounded it happened. They had thought it was a prank from someone because, who in their right hand would demand the hand of a five years old girl for marriage, it was scary to think, so the couple had brushed it off.
And then it happened that, a delegation team suddenly arrived at the border of the Crescent Moon pack shortly after the letter came, their dressing, too ancient for the people to describe, their aura and air was different — it was heavy from what the pack members were used to. It was said that those delegation had long straight silver hair with otherworldly appearance and unique physiques.
They had demanded to be taken to the pack house. The people of the pack found them strange and immediately called the attention of the tour knights to this discovery, who in turn brought the report to the king. And those delegation were taken to the pack house to meet the alpha. Everything looked strange and surreal, because their pack was known to be the most secretive and they always kept to themselves.
When those delegations got to the pack house, about three of them, they were brought to the throne room of the alpha. It was later revealed that they had claimed to be the revered lycan king's Karka and they came bearing a message from the great lycan king, whose name couldn't be mentioned. This startled the alpha as well as the members of the royal court. The alpha sat up properly in his throne to recieve the order from the great king, but what they said next left him in shock.
The throne room was almost flipped upside down by the alpha.
"This is just ridiculous. She's only five years old!" Alpha Aether exclaimed, as he stood up from his throne with so much force creating a loud screaching sound. "There's no way I'd allow this!" Alpha Aether added.
The three mysterious men, merely shrugged, their icy eyes looking at the man, almost as if they felt he was below them, there was no ounce of tension in their cold body, and that seemed to aggravate the alpha even more.
"Go tell your damn king that I would never allow such a thing."
The people present in the room, held their breath as they felt chills coming from the men and from their alpha, as Alpha Aether was now unleashing his alpha aura that it was getting hard to breath, but surprisingly the three men didn't flinch nor back down. This was frightening! They thought, no ordinary person could withstand their alpha's aura, so this realization came as a shock.
The message the men told the alpha was that, the lycan king was demanding Luna's hand in marriage in exchange for anything the alpha wanted. The elders felt that it didn't make sense because the girl wasn't even up to five years to begin with, it was crazy, but some still felt that their alpha should calm down before he offend the great men.
"Alpha, please you need to calm down. Nothing good comes out of making a decision out of rage, we're yet to hear the full version of the story." a more experienced minister said, the way the old man saw it, the girl in question has always been different from the rest of the children of the pack, the more they looked at it, she looked like she was supposed to be among these men because of how similar their hair and aura looked.
Alpha Aether eyes snapped to look at the man who had spoken, "What did you just say, Lord Orion? What more do you want to hear from these shameless men. I will never accept this and that's my final decision." Alpha Aether declared, he turned his back to them, not willing to listen to their gibberish any longer. When one of the men suddenly said,
"We're not asking for an answer right away as we would be staying here as per order of the great one. You have three days to think things through before deciding." He paused, before adding. "And mind you, the great king already gave you his word that she would be left untouched until she comes of marriageable age, if that is what you're worried of. But she must stay in the lycan's kingdom before that, it's for her own safety and yours as well."