Emily's dress is as seen in the picture below.

Emily's Dream

There he was, standing in broad daylight, though all I could see was his shadow. He was muscular, that I could definitely tell from where I stood, nearly ten feet away.

We were in the woods for the oddest reason. I was wearing a white nightgown – something I had never worn in my entire life and to be honest, it was quite ugly. I didn't notice that I was walking towards him, whoever he is.

As I slowly approached him, the light from the sun started to fade, turning into the darkest night I had ever seen in my entire life. It scared me. He scared me. I didn't want him to turn around, I wanted to turn back and run. I felt fear crawling up my spine like some kind of evil spirit would as they possess you.

He was angry. I made him angry. I knew that, but I didn't know what I did to make him angry. He was confusing me already and I didn't even know who he was. I tried to stop my feet from walking, but I couldn't. I couldn't control my whole body and that scared me more than the man no less than two feet in front of me did.

I suddenly stopped, and that made me let out a sigh of relief. But, that didn't last long. I was soon struggling to breath as the man turned around, his deadly gaze casted upon me like I had just convinced him to trust me and then stabbed him in the back without mercy.

And even though I had never seen what he actually looked like, I knew for a fact that the man who stood before me, shooting me down with his dark stare, was Carlos Bennett.

Emily had shot awake from her nap-mare? She didn't know what to call it. Sweat was beading down her forehead and she was shaking like crazy. She took a few deep breaths to try and calm down, and it seemed to be working. Emily heard her mother call for dinner.

She then glanced at the clock hanging on the living room wall and her eyes widened. The clock read seven o'clock, which meant that she had slept well over seven hours – much more than he had planned to sleep.

Oh, well, Emily thought to herself, believing she deserved that much sleep seeing as the school had been shoving pointless assignments in her face left and right. Sometimes, she wishes she was homeschooled, but she knew that she'd get easily bored from it, so she was slightly glad that she wasn't homeschooled like majority of the teens in her pack.

Emily stood from the couch, just now remembering that her mother had called for dinner. She made her way into the dinning room and took a seat in her usual spot which was across from her mother since her father say at the end of the table. Eliza and George were already seated, waiting on Emily so they could all say Grace and dig in.

"Sorry I took so long, I fell asleep." Emily explained as she stretched in her seat, still not completely awake from her nap. Her mother just smiled, putting her apology to the side and then she began to say Grace.

After Eliza said Grace, they all dug in. George took a sip of his drink before looking at Emily who sat to his right, munching down some steak like her life depended on it. After all, it was her favorite food. George smiled at his daughter, "So, do you believe that you or one of your friends will be Carlos' mate? Or maybe that your mate is a member of the other packs that are attending the Ball?" George was just trying to start a conversation.

Emily gulped down her food with a sip of her water and thought for a moment before replying with a stern, "Well, I certainly hope not – about the first one, not the second. I wished that no one had to be cursed with having Carlos for a mate, but someone out there does, and I'm praying to the Mood Goddess that it isn't someone from our pack."

Eliza and George were taken aback from their daughter's words. She had never expressed that much when it came to pack matters seeing as she was only sixteen years old and had plenty of years ahead of her before she would have to become a Warrior to protect her pack. But, the way she spoke about Carlos with deep sorrow and sympathy for Carlos' mate had her parents a little more than surprised.

"Why do you say that, sweetie?" Eliza asked her daughter after wiping some A1 off her mouth. George noticed this and smirked.

Emily cocked an eyebrow at her mother, "I'm surprised you two aren't agreeing with me. Carlos is a monster, and anyone who has heard about him knows that. Haven't you heard of the rumors?"

Eliza and George shook their heads. Emily was genuinely astonished that they hadn't heard the rumors considering that her dad was the Beta of the pack and knows everything that there is to be known.

"Oh, well, the rumors don't help his reputation." Emily stated, wanting nothing more than to stop talking about Carlos Bennett. It was all she heard about today, even in her dreams, and it was honestly annoying the hell out of her.

Luckily, they dropped the topic the second Eliza brought up what color Emily wanted her dress to be for the Masquerade Ball. That lengthened their dinner by over thirty minutes, much to George's despair.

+

The next morning, Eliza and Emily headed out to go dress shopping. They were going to a shop downtown that belonged to a human friend of Eliza's whose name was Esther. They were good friends back in high school, so that meant that Eliza and Emily could get discounts on their dresses.

When Emily walked through the door of the cute little boutique, she was immediately hit with the aroma of candles. They were lit everywhere, and with her Wolf's ability to smell, she couldn't even smell herself the candles were so strong.

"El!" Some lady called from Emily's left. She assumed it was Esther, and she was proved right when her mother hugged Esther.

Emily quickly got bored of listening to her mother and Esther talk, so she walked over to the dresses and scanned through them, but nothing particular caught her eye. There were all different kinds of dresses to choose from, too. From short and ugly green dresses to long and beautiful pink ones. But, none of them were for her.

Emily had looked through every single rack to look through by now, and she still hadn't found the right one. That was until Eliza walked up to her with a stunning pink-red dress that was sort of mermaid styled. Right then and there, Emily knew that she had found the dress.

Emily squealed and ran into the dressing room to try it on. When she came out to show her mother, her mother fell in love with the dress, too. Eliza gushed, "It looks magnificent on you, darling. Every wolf there will either want to be you or dance with you." Emily couldn't help but laugh at her mother's words. Yeah, right, Emily thought to herself.

She never really attracted the attention of boys at her school, so why would guys from other packs be attracted to her? It made no sense to Emily, but she didn't say anything because she wanted her mother to stay in a good mood.

After Emily had gotten her regular clothes back on, they found her mother and dress and both of them a mask to wear to the Masquerade. They went to the cash register to pay and after they did, they went home.

That night, Emily had another dream where – for some, unknown reason – Carlos Bennett was invading her dreams, yet again. She pictured his face perfectly even though she had never actually seen his face in real life. How strange.