27 Winning Bet, Perfect Show, and Raging Jealousy

"Oh my God, am I seeing this right?"

"Hey, should we check if he's really Max?"

"Yeah, I think some bloody imposter has taken his place?"

"I agree, did you see that smile? Aah, oh God, look at these goosebumps!"

"Uhun, I am still shivering."

Ares rolled his eyes at their banter in the background while I suppressed my laughter, as we walked side by side on our way to the hall.

"Stop it." He grunted, throwing them a glare, and they all turned silent.

"Oh my- he really is Max himself."

"I never thought I would get to witness such an abominating honor."

"Hey, what is going on between you two?" Azar jogged in front of us, and crossed her arms in front of her chest in a questioning manner.

While I was on cloud nine, and overly happy at the fact that Ares was my mate, I could not help worrying over their reaction.

Would they want to accept someone like me as their Queen?

I am not really worthy, afterall. I have just awakene my abilities as a lycan, but I am still weak compared to the average werewolf. I don't really have the brightest personality to charm anyone. Since I was his mate, isn't it a given he would love me? Wait, I am carrying the same misconception as I did with Rowen.

Being mates doesn't mean that they will love each other for sure.

So does Ares simply likes me because I am his mate? Because we are 'destined'?

Coming to the point, I really am just like any other girl minus the fact that I haven't gone through my transformation yet so that puts me in the negative.

Would they even want to consider someone so lacking and give me the honor of their Queen?

I didn't realize my fists were so tightly clenched that my nails dugged into my palm tearing the flesh until I felt it being engulfed in a warm hand.

What facial expression was I making right now?

Turning my head to the side to look at Ares, I found him staring at me with those light eyes of his and that soft gaze, and the corner of his lips stretched the tiniest bit into that microscopic smile, well if you could even call that a smile, but you get the gist.

He tightened his hold on my hand, and I felt the cuts on my palm disappear.

"We are mates."

Pin drop silence. Except for the distant chattering and noise from the banquet.

My heart raced faster, the longer thet remained silent.

Agh, the silence was worse than anything they could say.

Azar's blank expression turned into that of triumph as her lips twitched into a devilish smirk.

... what?

Elio let out a grunt as he covered his face with his hand, amd Damien let out a small chuckle.

Umm, hello? What is going on?

"Hahaha, I called it. The training ground is mine for the entire month and you have to be my practice dummy."

"Piss off."

"..."

"Did you two seriously- wait, I am not even surprised at this point." Ares stopped in his words as he shook his head like a disappointed mom.

Wait, am I only one lost here- Oooh.

All my anxiety disappeared into thin air as I felt myself relax and all the tensed knots of anxiety vanished

Looks like all my worries were for naught.

~ ~ ~

There were a lot of things going different from the vision.

First it was this beautiful dress that I was wearing.

Second, the hall was decorated more extravagantly than in the vision.

And third, was the attendance of the Lycan pack.

I am 100 percent sure that they weren't present in the vision.

Is this some sort of a butterfly effect? Did sharing my vision really resulted in such a turn of events?

Hmm, maybe this ability had more useful purposes than I initially thought.

The hall went limp and all the chatter died, the moment we stepped inside the hall, and gaped at the monstrous Ares with threatened expression.

Ares radiation an immensely powerful and frightening aura that made every single wolf in the hall feel small and forget all about their noble positions and high ranks.

It was.... extremely satisfying to see. I enioyed every second of their cowering expression.

Especially the ex-Alpha and Beta, who stood shaking and trembling like a leaf in the quiet corner.

Heh, only I know how much control it took for me to not laugh out loud maniacally like a villain.

After we made our way to our designated table, and Ares ignored everyone, the crows filled with life once again, and the murmuring resumed.

"Ugh, I wanna go home." Elio groaned.

"Yeah same, I hate every second in this disgusting place. Uwah." Azar whined as she slammed her face on the table, and several heads whipped at her at the loud thud she resonated.

"Aah, f-ck it, I am going." She got up and ran towards the food table.

"I will see to it that she doesn't do anything embarrassing or kill someone." Um, did Damien really put those two things on the same pedestal?

With that he left us three in an awkward silence as Elio shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Um, ahem, so I, I am going to- go." I smiled at his nervousness as he ran to join them both.

How precious.

"Wow, the Delta is soo handsome. His delicate features are just my type."

"Kiyaaa! That Beta is more my taste. Just look at his broad muscles."

"Oh my- the Gamma has no regard for the time and place. Hm, she's pretty though."

"Oooh look at that! Is that really Seraphina sitting on the table? Wow, I never thought she could look like that."

"Kekeke, well she always behaved like a drowned rat, every dog has its day."

Ares jaw clenched, and his eyes became alarmingly dark at the gossip that surrounded us, especially the last two, so I pulled his hand in mine under the table, clutching it tightly.

His eyes snapped to mine, and jaw loseened at my touch, and I threw him a small grin.

"Calm down, we don't want to ruin our perfect show now, do we?"

That managed to tame down his fury a bit.

"I am going to head around then and talk with the allied packs, just shoot me a signal if anything goes wrong." He squeezed my hand and glanced at me with concern filled eyes, and I nodded my head.

"Oooh damn, the rumors made it seem as if he was some hideous monster, but looking at him now, my entire body feels like it's on fire."

"I know right! I feel like I have been blessed for eternity."

"Ugh, I am so jealous of that bitch. She gets to see such a hot guy on a daily basis, lucky wench."

My blood boiled, jaw ticked, and fists clenched once again at their talks, and I controlled myself with utmost desperation.

How dare they? Well bitch, I will let you know that he's my mate. My mate, so keep your f-cking eyes off him if you don't want me to gauge them ou-

Hold up. Oh my God, what was that thought?

Is this- am I feeling jealous?

F-ck, I am down bad.

I hardly suppressed the urge to get up and slam theor head on their plates, and focused my hearing on another table.

"Is the werewolf king in attendance today?"

"Ooh him? I almost forgot he existed for a minute there."

"Hmph, what king? A king who stays hidden in his pack and rarely shows face?"

"I agreez I hardly remember how he even looks like."

"Does he really deserve the title? I mean, there are far... "

And I tuned their conversation out.

The werewolf King. Silas Huxenberk. Hardly anything is solid about him, and I couldn't jog him up anywhere from my memory.

Hm, he could be an interesting variable, I should keep my eye on him.