Jan wrapped his arm around my shoulders, grinning widely, his crazy red hair matching his personality. "Let's go!" he cheered and led me out of my room. We walked around the large castle that had been passed down through my family for a long ass time, it was grand, basic but comfortable, I liked that about the place, I wasn't for fancy things, wood, stone and fire were my style.

We didn't head for the main entrance to the ballroom, but the side entrance, to see if we could hear anything. Jan was very excited, hoping to see a cat fight as he'd said.

We passed the kitchen, the smell of breakfast strong in the air, making my stomach rumble and mouth salivate, I could eat right about now, well I could always eat, my appetite was pretty insatiable.

We made it to the door of the ballroom and Jan eagerly pressed his ear to the door, not that it was required, werewolf hearing was pretty good, I could hear just fine standing where I was, he liked theatrics though, I'm surprised he doesn't have a glass or stethoscope.

I could hear raised voices, shrieking and squabbling, just great, they were a bunch of brats then, I just needed to find the least bratty one. I stepped around Jan, opening the small window in the door, it was only about an inch squared, a pretty good peephole. A few of them were out of their chairs, shouting in each other's faces, pointing and gesturing. Seemed they weren't happy with the seating arrangements.

Wait.

One of them was just sitting there, blanking the whole thing, like he couldn't even hear them, staring ahead with an expressionless face.

Colour me surprised.

I closed the hatch and promptly opened the door.

Jan straightened and looked at least somewhat professional at my side.

The room had gone deathly quiet, four pairs of eyes staring at me, the fifth blinked, seeming to come back into the room, his head turning enough to see me but he didn't stare, his eyes focused somewhere around me.

"Take your seats please," Jan ordered and the four of them scampered back to their seats, acting as if nothing had happened, sweet smiles on their faces, all elegance.

I fought off rolling my eyes.

I just headed over to my chair, not having spoken a word yet, let them wait.

I sat down and the one to my left seemed tense but limbless at the same time, it was the one who hadn't gotten involved in the fight, the pale one with the amber eyes. He bared his neck to me, murmuring "Alpha" in a soft and low carrying voice, the others scrambling to do the same, glaring subtly at him, as if he was showing them up.

Sitting beside him I could smell his innocence, he was pure, completely, the sweet heady scent clouded my senses, making me feel a little light-headed.

To my right, however, something was amiss. The leggy blonde didn't smell sweet, not in the same way, the sweetness was artificial, perfume, behind it, was a slight bitterness, I wouldn't have noticed it by itself, but compared to amber eyes his scent came up short. I had been deceived, the leggy blonde wasn't innocent, and someone had tried to cover it up and hide it from me.

I turned to look at him, a welcoming, sultry smile on his full, pink lips. I leaned down and sniffed his neck, he stiffened and I could almost feel the others growling in envy. I ran my nose along the column of his neck, hearing a needy whine from him.

Being this close the bitterness was more obvious, someone had definitely already taken this one.

I pulled away and looked over at Jan who had taken a seat beside the side door, he was my shadow, outside of my room I was never alone, he was always a few steps behind me, watching my back. You'd be surprised how often someone tried to kill me, wishing to take my place as top dog.

His eyes met mine and he stood, we knew each other well enough to read each other's expressions, no words required. He came over and I gestured to the leggy blonde. "Take this impure, mendacious mutt out of my sight," I commanded and quite a few gasped around the table. The leggy blond went deathly pale, knowing he'd been caught out, the consequences of lying about such a thing to me were dire for him and those who'd helped him.

Jan pulled out his chair, firmly taking a hold of his arm and leading him out via the side door, reappearing moments after without the whore, taking a seat again.

"Anyone else having something to confess?" I asked the room, no one spoke, some looking around at the others, not the one to my left though, he kept his eyes to himself, they did not wander.

The side door opened again, servers coming out with breakfast, thank god for that, the silence was killing me. They laid down the platters of various breakfast foods on the table, the cutlery and dishes already set out beforehand. Another server came out with a drinks cart, coming to me first. "A drink Alpha?" they asked.

"Coffee," I answered, they bowed their head, quickly but carefully making the drink, they all knew how I liked my coffee, very strong, with no sugar with a splash of milk.

The server went to the pale beauty next. "A drink sir?"

"Black coffee please." he requested, his voice as low and soft as before, and like before it carried well despite how quiet it was. He got handed the coffee and he thanked the server politely with a slight smile.

The server continued on, asking the others if they wanted drinks, not forgetting Jan on the way out, he declined though. The food was quickly all set down and the rest of the servers made their way out.

One of the contenders, the green-eyed twink as Jan called him reached out to take some food but the dark beauty slapped his hand and earned a glare. "The Alpha always eats first." he chided quietly to him, causing the twink to blush in shame and lower his head.

With that I started to take what I wanted from the selection of food, piling it onto my plate. Once I was done and only after I'd taken my first bite did they start to plate up their own food. Some went for the many freshly baked pastries and breakfast muffins, the meat or the fruit.

The twink took mostly fruit and a muffin, the dark beauty a large amount of meat with a few eggs, the tall and slender swede for the pastries.

The pale beauty looked around for a moment, taking portions of a few dishes, some meat, some eggs, some fruit and a slice of toast. He ate the bowl of fruit first before moving on, his table manners obviously well versed, no elbows on the table, taking small bites and chewing with his mouth closed, not letting the food drip from his chin, despite how bloody the steak was or how juicy the fruit.

I didn't care about etiquette but it was important for a Luna to have, I could be a savage animal at the dinner table but the Luna couldn't be, they had to be elegant and sophisticated, other wolves had to either want them or want to be them.