Adelaide's face brightened with a smile as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. Dressed in a new flower gown made by her maid, her hair now darkened, she looked like a pure-blood fae.
"Princess Adelaide, can I ask you something?" Her maid's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
She took her gaze away from the mirror to her maid. "Isla, you can ask me anything."
"Why do you always darken your hair? And why are you bent on attending the ball?"
Isla's question made the room go silent. It was as if her questions were too much. A part of Adelaide she had never talked about to anyone, not even her father.
"I want to look like the others. I want to feel included," she finally broke the silence in the room. "Isn't it nice walking in there, finding a fae who would stretch his hand to me and ask me to dance with him?"
"Princess Adelaide, you are so funny. So it is just for that? Why are you bothering when you are a princess—"
"That is the reason why I am doing this. I want to get married to a man I love and a man who loves me, not because my father wants it to happen," she interrupted Isla before standing up. "Help me arrange the dress," she requested.
After Isla was done arranging the dress, she left for the ball, hoping she would meet a man who would make her his.
This is going to be the fifth annual event for all fae in the kingdom she was attending. An event where the kings of other kingdoms are invited aside from the king of vampires, who is her father's sworn enemy.
"Princess Adelaide, I think he is looking your way," Isla's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
"I didn't know you were coming with me," she muttered before turning her gaze to the direction Isla pointed.
She hesitated before walking up to the man who was standing alone, his gaze fixed on her direction.
"Would you—"
"Princess Adelaide, I would rather stand alone in this hall than take your hand and dance with you," he cut her off immediately, sounding as if she offended him.
She wanted to just turn and leave as she had heard worse from other men who criticized her for her red hair but not anymore.
"And you think you are so special? A nobody like you?" She tried to sound arrogant but her voice failed her.
"At least I am not a cursed red-haired princess, Princess Adelaide," his words were like rock, shattering the confidence left inside her. "I wonder why you keep showing your ugly face in this ball every year when every man would rather choose your maid over you."
"Princess Adelaide, ignore him, please," Isla's voice calmed her down before she could do something silly.
She inhaled deeply, holding back her tears. It was as if she suddenly realized her five years of attending this ball only make her stupid.
No man ever wanted her.
"Princess Adelaide, I can report that bastard—"
"Isla, I am ignoring him just as you said. After all, there are countless men who would be lucky to have me as a wife," she lied through her teeth, trying not to reveal how hurt she was. "I would go change into the usual gown because this one is making it hard for me to breathe."
"You don't have to follow me," Adelaide added before Isla could take a step.
She hurried out of the ball, unable to hold back the tears that were clustered in her eyes. Somehow it came back to her; the days she spent with her mother.
There wasn't any boredom. There wasn't any reason to hide herself, to try to impress anyone just as she has been doing for the past five years.
She has been trying to impress her father, her stepmother, stepbrother, and everyone in Shin-ey kingdom but it all came back to her— they all see her as a cursed red-haired fae.
"Are you blind?"
A sharp voice snapped her out of her thoughts, making her raise her gaze to see who it was.
They are two huge men, one dressed in a regal robe while the other one was dressed like a guard, a sword stacked by his side.
"I am sorry, I… I am really sorry," without waiting to hear them out, she hurried out.
Cedric stood there stunned, unable to take his gaze off the young lady who just bumped into him.
The way his chest tightened upon inhaling her scent, he felt his beast awakened and his sharp instinct the moment they made skin contact.
After going feral during the last full-moon night, this was the first time he is feeling his instinct and his beast which only awakened at full-moon night.
"Your majesty, is everything alright?" His assistant, Eric, asked.
"Who is that lady?" Cedric asked all of a sudden.
"Your majesty, don't tell me it is—"
"Eric, I think she is my mate. I felt it…" Cedric's voice echoed, loud and certain.
"Your majesty, you—" Eric went silent at Cedric's hard gaze. "She is Adelaide, King Woodshin's illegitimate daughter. A rumored cursed fae."
Without waiting for Cedric to speak, he continued, his gaze lowered. "Your majesty, I don't think she is your mate. Never has a fae been paired with a beast."
"I know but I have to find my mate before the next full-moon night…"
Even though he is afraid she might meet the same fate as the last five women he claimed to be his mate, he has to keep trying until he finds HIS MATE.
He doesn't care if she is fae or whatever; in as much she is his mate and would be a great tool to break his curse… he would risk having a sixth wife!