The sky was still black as pitch when I woke, the stars and moon hidden behind a thick veil of clouds. Not that the lack of light really ever bothered me; even in human form, wolves could see well in the dark.

I rolled over to check the time on my phone, plugged in on top of my nightstand. It wasn’t even six in the morning yet. Rubbing at my face, I groaned inwardly. I could either try, and probably fail, to go back to sleep, or I could accept defeat and get up now.

After a solid twenty minutes of debate, during which time I did not fall back asleep, I unplugged my phone, heaving a great sigh as I sat up, and threw my legs of the side of the bed. The rug underneath my feet startled me until I remembered that Valorie has thrown it into the shopping cart when I wasn’t looking yesterday.

“Your room feels like what I imagine a college dorm would feel like,” she’d complained. “Add a few more personal touches.”

“But I’ll be leaving, anyways, so why bother?” had been my argument. She pouted at me.

“Come on, Elle. If you don’t want to take it with you, you could always give it to me.”

I had laughed, relenting.

Although, I had to admit, it felt much nicer under my feet than the cold stone floor.

My entire bedroom was beautiful on its own, just like the rest of the compound. It was centuries old, build by wolves generations older than I was with an eye for detail. Reminiscent of a castle, complete with half-forgotten servant passageways, it was almost a miracle it was still in such good condition. It was our pack’s pride, our collective home. And with so many of the wolves going into the “family” construction business, no room went more than fifteen years without being updated. Some of the bathrooms, mostly guest baths, even had heated floors.

The bedrooms, however, did not. I located my slippers before padding over to my own private bathroom, in need of a shower.

That was another thing I was grateful for; the privacy. Being part of a wolf pack meant that you had to get over nudity pretty young, but I had heard tales of other packs sharing bathrooms with shower stalls. I shuddered. No, thank you.

The new shampoo, conditioner, and soap caught my eye as I turned on the shower to let the water heat up. The girls had insisted that I buy new, better quality shampoo and conditioner after getting my hair washed and cut. I had thrown in the rose-scented soap myself for the hell of it.

Was I becoming a pushover?

I pulled one of the long, smooth strands in front of my nose and inhaled. It still smelled like the salon, which wasn’t a bad thing, per se. But again, wolves had a keener sense of smell.

“I haven’t even met the guy, and look at all that I’m considering for him already,” I muttered to myself as I decided to wash the strong smells out of my hair. I certainly didn’t want my smell to put him off. Reluctantly, I admitted that I wanted to make a good impression.

Forty minutes later, I was pleasantly surprised that at least the usual frizz was tamed. My hair was naturally a loose curl, but I never spent the time taming them, instead brushing them out to create waves. Today, those waves were very nearly behaving.

Another small eternity later, and I sat on my bed, reading one of the new books I’d happily purchased yesterday, when someone knocked on my door.

Asa entered without bothering to waiting for me to get up to answer my door.

“Good, you’re up,” she said.

“Yeah, it’s like seven-thirty. Why wouldn’t I be?”

She shrugged, walking over to the pile of new purchases she’d helped me make yesterday.

“It’s not like you haven’t been up until the wee hours of the morning, reading some book or binge watching a show on Netflix,” she answered, sorting through the bags until she found what she was looking for. “But instead of having to make sure you’re awake, I get to decorate your room instead.”

“Asa—” I began.

She threw a pillow at my face, and I had to duck so it didn’t whack me.

“You could have caught that,” she teased, grinning at me.

“And risk losing my place in my book?” I scoffed. She threw the other pillow at me, and I rolled out of the way.

“Is this a pillow fight?” a voice asked from the doorway. Valorie.

“No,” I said firmly, giving Asa a look. She just held up her hands in fake innocence, still grinning. “Why are you both really here?”

“Is it that obvious?” Valorie asked, coming over and plopping down on my bed next to me.

“Your father wanted to make sure that you were, well, ready to ‘receive visitors’ as he put it,” Asa admitted easily. “I guess they’re going to be here shortly after breakfast.”

I groaned, falling back burying my head under a pillow. “Don’t remind me.”

“You should wear that baby blue shirt we picked out for you,” Valorie continued, pulling the pillow off my face. “You look so pretty in that color with your dark hair. And maybe a little makeup.”

“No.”

“You say ‘no’ like you have a choice,” Asa commented. I weakly glared at her.

“What does it even matter?”

“Either you’re about to show everyone that you deserve this sexy man, or that you are so hot that he doesn’t deserve you. You win either way.”

“How do you know that he’s sexy?” I wondered, distracted from her point as my heart rate increased.

Asa shrugged. “I just do.”

“Come on, Elle,” Valorie pleaded. “We mean well, you know.”

I let out a big breath, urging my heart to calm the hell down. “I know. Fine, fine. But only blush and mascara. Deal?”