The way Nessa held my hair scared the life out of me. She angled my hair in a way that made me feel like she was going to cut it all off. She held it to its full length, pulling at my scalp in the process and I used my hands to clean my eyes, feeling really sleeping.
I should have slept.
"You have so much hair," She remarked, staring at it in awe as she kept pulling at it from every angle. "How do you manage to even brush this much hair?"
I shrug. I don't brush it often because despite that, I'm just blessed I guess. It's bone straight. Silky bone straight and so it never knots. Well, it does sometimes when it gets this long (it's currently below my ass and almost at my knees) but usually, when it's just above my hips or at my waist then it just never knots. I guess that's the good thing about having silky straight hair, except it can be a pain when you want to put it in any type of braid or bun.
"How short do you want it to be, Raven?" Nessa asks and I stare down at my hair not understanding why I'll miss it. I have hair that grows at an extremely fast rate.
On average, hair grows about 6 inches a year. Mine grows about four times that speed meaning I grow about twenty-four inches of hair a year and two inches a month.
I remember my mother getting frustrated every six weeks when she had to get me a haircut because my private school had strict regulations on hair length and after a certain length, my hair just got in the way of everything. Yet, whenever my hair is either cut or trimmed, I still feel a small loss.
"The assassins' always preferred it to be at waist to hip length. They said that between that length, it was long enough to be attractive yet still short enough to not get in the way. I disagreed but it wasn't exactly my decision to make,"
Nessa smiled devilishly taking the hair above my shoulders between her fingertips.
"This length should be just fine then," Nessa proffered with a smile and I squeaked.
"You want to cut off all of my hair?" I almost screamed at her, my words stretched out due to how drowsy I was feeling.
"Not all. Just to shoulder length,"
I pull my hair out of her wanting hands. "No," I tell her.
"Listen," she starts, once again taking strands of my hair into her hands despite me. "There is a picture of you on the front page of all your pack's newspapers with your dazzling blue eyes and hip-length black hair. The newspaper has most likely circulated. So if we are going to do this then there's no way in hell that you can look like the infamous Raven,"
"But I am Raven!" I argue, groaning tiredly. "This long, full hair is part of the sultry image that mesmerises males, Nessa. If you take that away then how's Enzo gonna fall for me?"
Nessa sighs, sitting down next to me. "For the best Assassin, you sometimes say really stupid things. Men fall in love with personalities and fall in lust with beauty. You know that,"
She was right but most times, I preferred to capitalise on lust instead of love. It's just way easier that way. Love takes a really long time. For that, you have to mould yourself into someone else's dreams.
"Your hair is gorgeous but if you go into that pack looking exactly like the newspaper print then at some point, someone is bound to recognise you, Raven and once your cover is blown then that's it," I think on it for a while, staring at locks of my hair that were gathered like a rug on my thighs. "Besides, hair grows back and yours grows fast,"
I nod in agreement still not liking this and Nessa only smiles. She reaches for my hair once more as well as the scissors and hairbrush.
I watched as locks upon locks of hair gathered at my feet, the vastness of it all surprising even me. When she finished, she refused to let me see myself in the mirror, so instead, I fingered the strands that gathered above my shoulders as she cut me bangs. More hair fell and I pretended not to notice.
I can't wait to get this over with, seduce this Alpha Enzo, steal that stone and then go on vacation somewhere. This is just a necessary sacrifice.
"Done," Nessa declared. I asked her to let me see it but she refused. "No. If you see it and don't like it then you'll probably change your mind and I'll have to spend hours trying to convince you. I don't want that,"
Yea, cause I can literally just pick up all the strands on the floor and re-attach them to my head. I roll my eyes, wondering why we didn't just use a wig. Then again, I know from experience my hair wouldn't have fit in one.
"Give me your ring," Nessa demands, pointing at my assassins' ring on my left second finger.
"Why?" I ask, pulling my hand to my chest. I never take it off. It's against one of our Assassin's pledges to never take the mate bond ring off. We can't ever risk finding our mates.
As if she could read my mind, she says, "don't worry, Raven, your mate isn't anywhere around us so it's safe,"
I stare at her with accusation in my eyes. "how did you-?"
"I know Assassins' wear that ring to prevent themselves from finding their mates. I know this because all mate bond rings are made by witches and they are really common in your pack so no one ever suspects Assassins' when they see the ring. Now, give it," She stretches out her hand.
"I meant that how do you know that my mate isn't anywhere around us?" I question her through narrowed eyes.
"Gift," she states. "I'm a seer. I was gifted with the ability to see who is who's gifted mate,"
"So who is-" I stop myself before completing the question, deciding I don't want to know. It's better for me not to know. So instead, I change the topic. "Why do you need my ring?"
"I need to place a series of spells on it. The first spell will change your appearance. Well, not exactly. It will just change your hair and eye colour,"
I eye her suspiciously. "And the others?"
"Another will conceal your scent so the Alpha can't smell the hundreds of wolves you've probably mated,"
I roll my eyes at her. Yeah, such a turn off it is to actually be good at sex.
"One of the last important spells will make it so if you are ever in any trouble or just need me for whatever reason then you just need to lightly scratch your ring three times and I will find a way to appear to you. It's a personal connection for us so to speak,"
She smiles proudly as if congratulating herself for coming up with these things she considers to be foolproof of some sorts. She wants to change my appearance and I don't like it. Who is Raven without her sleek long black hair, blue eyes and flawless glowing skin? But I understand that she's doing this to make me less likely to get caught. This is so much more reason to hate Alpha Kai. Because of him, now everyone knows how I look like!
Again, she outstretches her hands, her fingers making a motion for me to give her the ring. Reluctantly, I do.
My finger feels naked instantly. Since I got that ring six years ago, I never took it off until now and I feel the loss of it. Staring at the dent around my finger from the ring, suddenly, I don't feel like Raven anymore. I feel like someone else....physically anyway.
Nessa stares down at the ring without saying a word. Her silver eyes begin to glow.
"Tell me about Enzo," I start. "You want me to seduce him yet you and Logan haven't given me any insight into his personality and what appeals to him. It doesn't work like that, you know. For us, whenever we get a target, we also get info about that target - their personality type, favourite food, allergies, sexual kinks and whatever but with this Enzo guy, all I know is that he's the Alpha of the most boring pack in existence,"
"And that's all you need to know," She states, going to sit down while I stand there, staring at her looking intently at my ring, her eyes still glowing.
"That's not enough to do anything, Nessa. I feel like you guys are setting me up for failure here! First of all, you plan to take away my looks from me and now, you're not even giving me enough details about the place I am going to or the person I am supposed to seduce. Does he have a mate? Is he cruel? Tell me!"
Nessa sighs, looking up at me and crossing her arms as she folds my ring in her palm.
"Enzo can read body language very well, Rochelle. To get to him, you have to be your most innocent and neutral self. If I tell you what he's like then you'll act too fast based on your experience over the years and Enzo would catch you. The minute he catches you, everything is over. If you want him to fall for you then you have to make things happen as naturally as if you weren't targeting him and everything was really genuine. For that, you need to get to know him for real so he can see and feel that. This interest you have in mapping your target should be perceived by him as you genuinely getting to know him and that won't work if you already know him,"
What the fuck is this speech for, lord? These guys want me to seduce a man I know nothing about. Are they crazy?
"I'm serious, Raven. If you even go as far as to look at Enzo the wrong way, he'll know. The only thing I'll tell you about Enzo is to get to him, you have to be pure,"
I laugh. Does she mean virginity? I lost that shit when I was fourteen. This is really so hilarious. I bend over laughing, the fact that my hair doesn't plunge over my back and shoulders seems strange to me.
"I don't mean your body, stupid. I mean your heart, mind and reactions. Take this as the biggest test for your acting skills. Also no, he hasn't found his mate yet,"
I let out a hot breath. This is going nowhere. What does this Enzo even look like? How would I know it's him when I even meet him? The only clarity I got from this wasted conversation is that If Nessa ran the Assassins' then we'd all be out on the streets by now. She knows nothing about how this seduction game actually works. It's a fucking mental job and for that I need to identify my target's personality type in order to mould myself into the seducing archetype that he's most likely to be drawn to, seduced by and will fall for.
You see, some males like bold girls. Others, like cutesy ones, quiet ones, over-ly sexual ones, pretentious ones, promiscuous ones and my least favourite - genuinely innocent ones. If I become the wrong seducer archetype for my victim then I would have lost the battle from the very beginning. I need to know Enzo's personality type in order to know which type of girl will get him to abandon his morals.
The only thing I gather from Nessa is that maybe he'll like the innocent archetype? Or maybe I should be all in one until I figure him out? Okay, I think I'll play it safe with innocent. He is after all supposed to be the Alpha of the holier than thou wolves but then again, in my experience, the holiest ones are usually the freakiest they just hide it better than everyone else so I really don't know.
"Another thing Raven," Nessa quips, interrupting my thoughts. "Be careful with his pack,"
"Why?" I ask.
"They speak a different language in their minds," she states.
"You mean the mind link?" There is a concept of mind link where everyone from a pack can speak to the other in their head or else they block it out. It occurs, especially in smaller packs. In my pack, we don't have this because we are just too many and well we just never had it. Although I think it would have come in real handy for the Assassins' if they did have this.
"Yes, that but it's different. When they speak in their minds, it's a different language or way than when they communicate verbally. It's highly specialised and really ancient and can only be mastered if you were linked to them from childhood. Due to this, most of them hardly speak out loud because verbal communication is really strange and in some cases, hard for them to do,"
My mouth drops open. Now, I am convinced that I am being sent to a madhouse. A pack where people don't speak? Moon, please swallow me up whole for I, Raven must be dreaming. This is all a very horrible nightmare. I should have stayed in my pack, seducing rich mofos not trying to do some special mission with the moon's pack!
"My point is, most of the time in that pack, you don't know what anyone is thinking because they won't say anything to you. So be careful. You're going into territory where if someone snuffs you out, everyone would probably know before you even suspect anything," she looks me straight in the eyes when she says, "just watch their eyes very closely. Very few people can lie with their eyes,"
I don't know what she's talking about because I can lie with my eyes very well. It was the very first thing they taught us how to do when we became Assassin trainees. The constant 'don't let your eyes betray you,' warning bellowed out so much that it just became a part of me.
Nessa stretched out my ring to hand it over to me. "Never take it off. The minute you do, your looks will change back to normal and they'll know who you are. So protect this ring at any and all costs,"
I nodded my head then slipped the ring on. When I did, I fell to the floor.
~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~
And so it begins😬.
Raven without her Ravenous hair and eyes? Smash or pass? Good idea or bad idea? Whatcha think?
It may be a day late but Happy Diwali to everyone. Hope you're all happy and enjoyed this chapter.
~Эмма💕✌🏻