Fighting With Him

Chapter 25

The party has already begun by the time we walk in arm in arm. The room is overflowing but that is no surprise since the whole pack is in this all in one place, there are more people here than who turn up for pack meetings.

The detail that we left out about this party to the Wilson family is that it isn’t just Liam’s birthday party; it is also the pack party that introduces me as the next Alpha female. There has to be two formal events before I can officially take the role and this ticks off one of them. It’s a little earlier than first planned but it gets it out of the way and it is also masqueraded for those who may be paying close attention to our pack. This also happened to be my idea.

Penny and Brent are on their platform, with the same chairs, or thrones, that were positioned there for the first ball I attended. Way back when Hunter was my date and Liam was judging every girl that was presented to him. As we approach Penny jumps to her feet and Brent in surprise moves to catch her. She laughs and waves him off, her deep green silk dress capturing the light as she moves.

“Don’t you two just look lovely.” She coos with tears in her eyes.

“I’m sorry I’m not wearing the dress we chose.”

“Think nothing of it dear, I had forgotten all about this one and it suits you much better.” She turns to her son. “And look at you, so handsome.” She starts to mess with his tie and he pulls away.

“Muuuum, stop it.” He whines.

“I can’t believe you are matching.” She giggles like a girl. “It’s so lovely.”

“Leave them alone Penny.” Brent interrupts her gushing and gently takes her by the arm. “You look absolutely stunning Scarlett.” He smiles at me and I return it.

“She does doesn’t she.” I look up at Liam who is beaming and I can feel my cheeks turning pink.

“Thank you Brent.”

“You’re family are here, have you seen them yet?” I freeze up for a second with the nerves of seeing them again.

“I haven’t yet. We’ve only just arrived ourselves.” He nods his head and then his attention is diverted over our heads. “Ah, the Wilson family have arrived.” I start to turn but before I can Penny’s gasp and I turn back to her.

“That bitch!” She whisper shouts in outrage and I am so in shock to hear Penny swear that I don’t turn around for a good moment, but when I do I am outraged. My face turns red for a whole different reason as my blood begins to boil. Luckily for me my training takes over and my body kicks in to try to calm my heartrate and level out my breathing. Poker face. Think poker face.

The Wilson family weave around our pack members as they make their way towards us, but I can only see one of them. Nina’s dark hair is tied up in an intricate braid and pinned across her head like a crown and this means that all attention is diverted to her dress. Her red dress. Her red dress, which is so like my original dress that it can’t be just a coincidence. Only hers is slightly different, the cut of the neckline is lower, exposing more flesh and more cleavage and hers has a cut up the leg much like the dress I am wearing now. She wanted to show me up, she wanted to be the hotter of the two, to make me look plain and bland beside her.

As the family reaches us Brent does the welcome and I slap a smile on my face instead of outright slapping Nina’s. Nina looks me over as I do her and I think, or hope, that I see disappointment in her eyes. “You look nice Nina.”

“I don’t remember you trying that dress on Scarlett.” Is her reply.

“That’s because I didn’t. This was a present from Liam.” I look up at him and kiss his cheek. “It’s a good job I had this though, otherwise we would have matched. That would have been embarrassing. Should we do the rounds Liam?” I ask innocently dismissing Nina completely.