#Chapter 30 Girl’s Night

Olivia’s POV

Even through the differences in the real Queen Luna and myself, Celine and I have a good time together. We talk as if we’ve been friends for years and I feel relived to have one more person know my deepest secret, a person not gunning for my heart like Eugene. I fill her in on that drama at once, both of us talking through the day and into the early evening.

She listens as I spill the gossip over Alpha Herold daring to claim me again, in this form, and the friction it has caused with Gabriel. She speaks of his as cold and callous to her old friend, the stark opposite of how he is with me now. We murmur about his affection for me, about denying me of a divorce, and she speculates he is accommodating for his rejection of his mate for so long, but I think it’s something else.

I try not to focus on it too much.

“I guess you’ve come to see that my girl Rebecca has very little friendships in her life aside from the long-term sisterhood we have formed through the years,” she says, slouching in her seat now. “Has it been lonely?”

“It’s nothing new to me,” I admit. “In my last life, I was a loner. I lived for my mate, Alpha Herold, and we can see how well that turned out in my favor.”

We both cringe, recalling the story I told earlier today that explained his maltreatment of me, his ignorance to Alicia and how she got her revenge and pushed me out of his arms, killing me. Celine seemed genuinely disgusted by her behavior which shows me she is amorally just individual; one I could definitely see as a true best friend in the near future.

“Who needs stupid guys anyways? Love is so overrated.” She throws her hands over her head at once, exasperated by her own unfortunately squabbles in love and loss. “You know what is underrated, though? Girl’s night!”

I groan. “That sounds like a lot of work, Celine.”

“Oh please,” she huffs. “Take a break from work and go play. You are in a beautiful body, you have so much power as the Queen Luna, and I’ve been out of this pack for so long that it’s like I’m the new girl again. Guys will flock over to us just to buy us drinks. We have to go out!”

Looking out the window against the far wall, the sky is shaded in moonlight and street lamps. “Well, if it means free drinks, then there really is no harm, right?”

“That sounds like a yes!”

She drags me from the office and we charge into my empty bedroom, Gabriel nowhere in sight while we rummage through the closet of my endless outfits. Celine finds something sweet and attractive for herself, a cute set of shorts and matching tube top. For me, though, she forces me into a black, tight and sparkly dress that hugs me down over the edge of the curve of my ass.

I blush at the sight of it in the mirror.

She kisses her fingertips as though finishing a masterpiece. “Beautiful.”

“It’s so short,” I groan, Celine forcing me into a set of heels and hooking them together in little buckles. I push my light hair back, eyeing myself in the mirror with a newfound sense of pride. “Damn, though…”

“I know,” she says, giggling. “You look so hot!”

“I would never normally wear this,” I admit. “It’s so flattering, though.”

“Very flattering,” Gabriel says, moving into he doorway and making us both jump back in surprise. He drinks in the sight of me slowly, my knees wobbling in the heels as his Alpha aura is so strong, so enticed with the sight of me, that I take a cautious step backwards. “You ladies look stunning, but where are you two going out dressed like this?”

Celine hooks an arm over my own, possessive of me already. “It’s girl’s night, Gabriel. You know the press has beaten our girl down so much lately, it’s only right that we solve this with a little bit of alcohol induced dancing.”

He seems somewhat receptive to her words, but not completely. “Well, can you be back by midnight? And take a warrior with you two. I don’t like the thought of you both getting drunk out there unprotected.”

“She’s the Queen Luna, she can kick ass, Gabriel,” she hums. She flips her hair over her shoulder, sticking her hand out as she admires her freshly polished nails. “And I’ve got claws like a mountain lion, Alpha. Don’t ruin our fun with babysitters.”

I’m almost envious of her ability to convince the King Alpha wish such ease. He agrees to her request and we leave the palace unfiltered by warriors, skipping down the sidewalk in our cute outfits and new looks, ducking into the first club that seems of interest to us both.

The drinks are slung onto our table at once, the music blaring through my every fiber as the bass rattles my body, Celine handing me shot after shot, and it’s still not enough to keep up with the amount of drinks being brough over to us from the weary waitress. I already feel the affects of the alcohol, not much of an avid partygoer but I am having a rather good time.

Celine gets up to dance, pushing away the guys when they get too close to her. I feel my eyes spin, my heels unsteady as I bring myself to the bar, needing a break from the hard liquor for once. I reach out, the bartender skipping the focus of the other waiting patrons.

“Yes, Queen Luna?”

“A water, please,” I groan, feeling sick otherwise.

He grins and offers me the glass right away. I sip on the straw turning to make the unsteady walk back to the table but I’m stopped short, some sleezy looking man pinning his arms on either side of me, his palms gripping the edge of the bar top beside me.

“Excuse me,” I say, trying to push his arm aside.

He flinches slightly, knocking the glass from my hand and breaking it all over the floor where we both stand. He hardly seems worried over the mess, pulling his body flush with mine as I press my lower back into the edge of the bar, my breath catching as his alcoholic stench invades my nostrils, and my personal space.

“Move, now,” I command.

He laughs over the sound of the loud, pulsing music. “Oh, come on, Luna. Everyone has read the papers. We’ve all seen your extramarital flings. Don’t act like you’re not good enough to take on one more lover.”

He grinds his hips against me and I freeze, feeling helplessly pinned in place. I look aside, as though to call the bartender back for help, but the stranger takes this as an opportunity. He jumps forward, hands cradling my ass, grabbing at my short dress, while his teeth sink into my exposed collarbone, biting down so hard I feel the pain strike down my veins.

I can’t even push him away now, his fingertips brushing against my ass as he pulls me closer, wanting more. For once in a long time, fear and helplessness returns to my system.

It’s cut short by the grace of the moon goddess, a shifted wolf tackling the stranger off of me, sending me to the floor with the broken glass. My shoulder bleeds, as do my hands and knees now bleed as well, the stranger pinned on the dancefloor by a daunting blonde wolf.

My stomach churns. I’d recognize that wolf anywhere.

Alpha Herold is here and he is extremely furious.