John R. Dallas Jr.

Braiding her hair had always been something that had fascinated Daphne. It was art...just with a medium that was far less easy to use than a brush and paint.

She liked doing it, liked that it could be something that she could do to make herself look prettier that cost nothing.

Most of the times, Daphne threw her hair up on her head in a messy bun or braided it in a quick French braid down her back. If she wanted to do something a bit prettier, then she made a waterfall braid around the side of her head, the bread weaving in and out of the hair, keeping it out of her face, but not taking any more hair with it.

And then, like today...it was very rarely that she got the opportunity to do it on another person.

She was braiding Kiana's hair, the dark brown hair thicker and much more beautiful than Daphne's would ever be. She braided it tightly along the scalp on the side of her head, teasing the top section and pulling it in a low ponytail.

"Where did you even learn that?" Kiana asked her amused as Daphne continued to weave the low ponytail in a braid that looked like chainlinks.

"It's the cheapest way to look like you put some thought into your appearance," she admitted softly. "I always wore my hair long and we didn't exactly have the money for a hairdresser, so I just always...I always pulled it back and then that got bored...so I started braiding," Daphne explained, finishing the braid and fishing for a clear hair elastic on Grace's dresser.

"I'm sorry about...I wasn't thinking when we went dress shopping. I mean...I knew that it was bad, I just...I didn't think about how bad it must have been. I am sorry about how I reacted," Kiana apologised, a far cry from her usual brash personality. Daphne hadn't expected that at all. She tightened the hair tie, for a moment being quiet before she answered.

"It's fine, Kiana. Really. It's not your fault. I know that they look...pretty horrific to an outsider," Daphne answered finally. "I should get used to them. I'll always have them," she added with a sad grin.

They would always be there.

In all their terrible .

Luke didn't care. Maybe with time, Daphne would learn not to care as well. But she couldn't help but smile softly when she remembered the feeling of his lips on her skin, couldn't help but smile when she remembered his words.

He didn't care.

And she wouldn't either.

"Daphne?" Grace called her name and ripped her out of her thoughts which she cleared away with a shake of her head.

"Sorry," she told Luke's sister, "I am being a bit..." she trailed off, unable to find the right words to explain this.

"You aren't nervous about this evening, are you?" Grace asked her gently. "Because you don't need to be," the other girl told her, as she sat down on her bed, brushing freshly washed hair.

They had decided to all get ready for the ball together and so they were ensconced into Grace's room, which was a girl's dream.

The walls were light blue, but you couldn't go three steps in the room, without being hit with an avalanche of decisively girly items, from dresses and skirts thrown haphazardly over a chair, to a whole shelf full of nail polish in the bathroom that Luke had built for her, over more makeup than Daphne had ever seen outside of a store.

"What if I do something wrong?" Daphne finally asked. "What if I manage to embarrass Luke in some way or start some kind of weird werewolf war?"

"I very much doubt that will happen," Grace told her with a laugh but grew serious when she realised that Daphne wasn't in a joking mood. "What could you possibly do wrong?" She asked Daphne gently. "I doubt very much that Luke is going to leave your side once throughout that evening. Stay with him, and it's going to be fine."

"Look, they know who you to. Anybody who is going to challenge Luke's claim to you is waiting to be killed, to be honest," Kiana told her drily. "Starting an argument with Stephen Schuyler's is the most stupid thing somebody can do tonight. Other than starting an argument with the alpha himself."

Great, that did not make Daphne feel any better. She didn't want even more violence or death. She wanted peace. She wanted to be left in peace and have a nice evening with Luke without being interrupted by some stupid guy.

Still, the idea that Luke would need to physically defend her...that was making her ill to the stomach.

"Hey," Grace reached out for her arm. "Come on, sit down. Let me do your makeup."

She listened to her and sat down on the chair that Kiana caveated with a grin. She disappeared in Grace's bathroom, probably to clean her face because she would also let Grace have a stab at her face with far too many makeup brushes.

"Nobody is gonna die, I promise," Grace promised her softly. "There hasn't been any bloodshed in years, Daphne."

"Luke could...?" She brought out, unable to form her questions in words. Probably because she didn't even know what questions she actually wanted to ask.

Could Luke kill somebody? Would he do it? Was he able to? Did werewolves kill other werewolves?

"If it was another werewolf that hurt you as Kyle did, Luke could and would have been able to rip him to a thousand pieces and nobody would have anything to say about it," Grace said drily. "Attacking a Werewolf human mate like that..." she trailed off, shaking her head and Daphne felt like s shiver was running through her when she remembered the pain.

She should be scared. She should go on a tirade about how self-justice was wrong, about how they couldn't go around killing other werewolves but she couldn#t bring the words out.

"There are animals lurking underneath our skin after all," Grace said with a smirk. "Protecting the pack...protecting our mates...that will always be our priority. And anybody that would attack a human mate like that...he would live with the consequences."

"But I am not human anymore," Daphne protested softly. Then it was different, right?

"You aren't shifted either. And no, Luke would still have the same right to retribution as he would have when you were still human," Grace gave back with a shrug. "This is theoretical, Daphne. Nobody is going to be stupid enough to lay a finger on you tonight," Grace promised her, finally putting some kind of translucent powder all over her face after having finished with Daphne's eye makeup and handing her a lipstick.

"Are you going to shift sometime soon by the way?" Grace asked her curiously as Daphne applied the lipstick and she stayed quiet for a moment.

That was the one million dollar question, wasn't it?

And Daphne still couldn't decide on an answer.

Luke had very carefully not pressured her but she knew. She knew that he wanted her to, that he wanted her to be with him as completely as possible and that would mean that she would finally shift and figure out her life as a real werewolf.

It wasn't helped by the fact that sometimes Daphne felt like she could feel the wolf press up inside her, like she was done with Daphne's indecisiveness and wanted to decide for her. Daphne press down as harshly as she could, tried to ignore it, but that didn't mean that she wasn't acutely aware of the feeling of having a beast slumbering within her.

"I am terrified," she admitted softly.

"Why?" Grace asked her surprised. "It's fun!" Daphne wanted to laugh about the ridiculousness of the whole situation. She was terrified of changing into a giant beast and her friend, who changed into said giant beast on a regular was trying to tell her that it was fun.

"What if I go crazy and rip out Luke's throat?" Daphne blurted out and Grace just stared at her.

"That would mean that you actually manage to get your teeth anywhere near him," Kiana told her drily, from behind, letting herself fall onto Daphne's bed. "No offence, Daphne, but that's so not gonna happen. He's probably twice your size. He's not going to have any problems to physically dominate you if the need arises." Kiana winked at her which just resulted in Daphne's cheeks heating up. God. Did they need to have that discussion?

"Let me guess that's not actually sounding that scary but pretty good, doesn't it?" Kiana asked her with another wink and Daphne. averted her eyes.

It should scare her. Daphne should be terrified about the idea to be at Luke's mercy like that but...she wasn't. She wasn't at all. A part of her recognised it. Just as she had recognised that he was safe and right the first time they et. He didn't scare her.

"Is that normal?" Daphne brought out hesitantly and Grace laughed softly.

"It's fine. He's your mate. And he's also your alpha. Your wolf recognises that even if you don't, Daphne," Grace calmed her down.

"You said that before...when you told me that he wanted to me," Daphne said drily and Kiana laughed.

"He does. But right now it's more about...wanting to mate with you. Making you his in any way that he can get away with," Grace told her seriously. "There are going to be a lot of unmated werewolves here tonight. If Luke gets...possessive for lack of a better word, it's his instincts being primed. He does not mean to subjugate you."

Daphne accepted that as advice. Right. No Freaking out if Luke was going to be...possessive. Not that it would bother her probably. She couldn't help a shiver that ran through her when she imagined how that would be.

***

He couldn't help but pace around in his father's office. It was the only room in the house that hadn't been subjected to his mother's deep cleaning and decorating and as his mother was ruling downstairs with an iron fist...Luke figured that staying upstairs was probably a safer bet.

He fingered the purple tie that his sister had thrown at him that morning, unable not to let the nervousness bleed into his movements. The tie was supposed to match Daphne's dress, a silky purple, some subtle pattern woven into the fabric.

He should probably be happy that his mother and sister hadn't decided that he should wear a whole purple suit.

"Ah, there you are," his father exclaimed as he entered the room. "You could have gotten it out yourself, you know the code."

"I didn't want to get into Mom's way," Luke answered with a grin and his father chuckled.

"Who wants that?" He gave back amusedly as he unlocked the safe, pulling out the velvet box that Luke knew held what he was searching for. "There you go."

He opened it, for a moment allowing himself to imagine how Daphne would look if she wore the whole set. Then he pulled out the bracelets, the diamonds and amethyst softly clinking in his hands. 6 rectangular amethyst, set with diamonds and connected with fragile chains. It was the most obvious show of...bleonging that he could get away with that evening.

Luke left his father's office with the bracelet carefully tucked in the pocket of his suit and the thought that hopefully, Daphne would like it.

He knew that she was getting ready with his sister and cousin so he didn't have to wait that long to see her. By the time his mother had finally decided to get ready herself, and downstairs everything was decorated, he could hear her voice from upstairs.

He looked over to the stairs and he was pretty sure that he stared at her like an absolute idiot.

Not that he cared.

Daphne normally was beautiful. But Daphne that day...she was breathtaking.

Like Cinderella as she walked down the stairs, her eyes finding his, biting her lips but then she smiled.

The dress she wore was purple, the same colour as her eyes. Layers upon layers of a soft and gauzy fabric were covering her, her waist looking even tinier than he knew it was. Her shoulders were cupped by near translucent sleeves, the neckline dipping down in the middle, letting him have a peek at what he knew to lay beneath it.

Daphne looked beautiful.

Her hair was held in a high undo, and while he missed how her blonde curls looked when the flowed freely over her shoulders, this let him see her neck without anything obstructing the view. It was like somebody was dangly everything he wanted right in front of him.

He wanted to bite her.

The thought came so suddenly to him that it scared him, but he couldn't help but stare at her neck. Right now, the ivory skin was marred with a teeth marks of him in wolf form but he wanted to put a real claiming bite on her there. He wanted to bury his face in the side of his neck and bite, bite until he drew blood until he could hear her gasp until he could feel her whole body submit to him, her mate and her alpha.

She was his.

However, he couldn't do anything against that right now. And he shouldn't think about her like that either, not when he didn't want to scare the crap out of her.

"You look...gorgeous, sweetheart" he brought out instead, offering her his hand as she arrived next to him.

"Thank you," Daphne brought out. "I really like the dress."

He wanted to protest, to tell her that it was her that it was beautiful and not that dress, even when it was pretty as well, but as he saw her face and realised that his compliment had resulted in bright red cheeks and her scent changing into something...much warmer.

"You look..handsome," she whispered, biting her lip again as she reached out to righten his tie and he let her, unable not to reach out and touch the flawless ivory of her arms.

She smiled at him, standing up on her tiptoes to press a kiss against his, and that was something that Luke was never going to have enough from.

"I...I have something for you," he finally said when she leaned away from him and she looked at him, her eyebrows furrowed.

"My birthday is only tomorrow," she told him drily but he shook his head, unable not to grin at that.

"It's...not a gift per se," he answered truthfully. "You would be doing me a favour if you wore it."

He snatched up her wrist with one hand, with the other one plucking up the bracelet from his jacket pocket and she stared at him.

"No, Luke that's..." she protested but then he already closed it around her fragile wrist, tightening it down so that there was no way it would slip of her.

It looked right at him there, the dark purple stones contrasting with Daphne's flawless ivory skin.

"Please, tell me that aren't real diamonds," she blurted out and he couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Sorry," he answered mirthfully, flitting her hand to press a kiss to her knuckles.

"It was my grandmother's," Luke informed her, keeping his eyes carefully trained on her face, to catch her reaction. Her eyes snapped up to meet his, wide open and looking at him nearly fearfully.

"Luke," she breathed his name and he knew exactly what she was thinking at that moment. He was putting a piece of his family history on full display on his mate and he knew that she would want to protest. There was still a part of her that didn't think that this relationship was going to hold, that thought that Luke would try to find something better.

Like there was something better than Daphne and the smell of vanilla, pineapple and .

"The older generation will know exactly what this means," he whispered, his voice broken open in a way it rarely was. "And the younger...They will recognise my family's crest of arms."

He didn't tell her that it would be as obvious as putting a neon sign above her head that spelt out TAKEN. Nobody would be stupid enough to say anything to her when Luke had done the next best thing other than putting a bite to the side of her neck.

And as much as he wanted to do that...really wanted to do that...he couldn't. Not right now.

Right now that bracelet would be enough for him.

And tomorrow...when her birthday came, he had something else to her. Something at least a tiny bit less obvious that he would maybe be able to talk her into wearing every day.

"Is...Is it like a collar?" Her words pulled her out of his thoughts and he could only stare at her in horror.

Oh god. Alone the idea of keeping her as some kind of was making him want to murder somebody.

"Oh god, Daphne, no," he breathed out. "If anything...they'll see as a very old fashioned courting gift," he admitted. "around 70 years ago...if I would have wanted to make my intentions known to you...that I was interested in mating with you, then I would have given you something like that," he explained gently. "Today only the very traditional packs still hold onto that."

"My grandmother left the bracelet to me. It was a wedding gift from my grandfather," Luke continued. "It's yours. You will be the only one who will ever wear it."

She looked startled at that but finally, she nodded. She glanced back down to the bracelet for a moment, finally reaching out to touch it.

"It's beautiful," Daphne finally whispered. "Thank you."

She leaned up to press a kiss against his cheek and he turned his head so it landed on his lips.

There would never be a time where he wouldn't want her to kiss him.

***

The Schuyler's...Ballroom (Was it a Ballroom? Whatever the heck it was, it was huge, running the whole was all decked out in midnight blue and silver decoration. It managed to both look tasteful and elegant and Daphne was unable not to take in everything with huge eyes and the feeling that that was not the world that she belonged into.

She had always been the girl with the jeans that had been ripped because she had worn them through. The one with the shoes that had holes in them and that had worked three jobs to support herself and the mother that had managed to drink every money she had gotten her hands on away.

No, she was not going to think about Michelle tonight.

Not .

, she would enjoy the evening, with her hand tucked into the crook of her boyfriend elbow and his grandmother's bracelet on her wrist.

She couldn't help but look down to it every few seconds, paranoid that it would somehow get loose even with it encircling her wrist tightly.

It was a beautiful piece of jewellery, obviously expensive, at least as far as Daphne could possibly guess it. 6 rectangular purple stones, surrounded by diamonds and the clasp a relief work. It was a crest of arms, she could recognise that.

It didn't surprise her that there was a wolf on there. They were a family of werewolves after all.

What surprised her, however, was how many people were actually showing up. Daphne somehow hadn't expected quite as many werewolves to live in the near vicinity.

"We tend to have rather big families," Luke explained to her, his voice quiet. "My parents and Matthew and Caroline are more the exceptions than the rule. Kiana's family on the other hand..." There was a joking lilt to his words. Kiana was the oldest of 6 kids, all boys, other than her and Thalia.

She got to meet some of the extended family, some of Luke's maternal cousin, of which he got at the last count.