{two}

Aria's POV

I slowly wake up, my wonderful dream long gone. I turn on my side to look at my clock, it read 7:34am. I could still sleep for a bit until I had to get up for breakfast. I almost drift back to sleep, when suddenly Sarah barges into my room.

"Princess Aria, it's time to wake up, you must get ready for the ball." She scolds.

Then it suddenly hits me, I'm going to the Royal ball. I bolt out of bed, and into the en suite, turning on the shower.

"I'm sorry, Sarah, I completely forgot." I apologize, coming out of the bathroom to give her a hug. "Good morning."

"It's fine, Your Highness, you've spent 18 years without it." She smiles, rubbing my back. "Good morning to you too."

I grab my dressing gown, and hop in the shower. You must be wondering 'why does she have to get ready so early?'. Well, the Royal ball is an all day thing. First is the Royal breakfast, where my parents will announce me as the Princess to the Royal village. Then comes the Alpha meeting, where all the Alpha's that have traveled to the kingdom and the King have a meeting. Then comes the Queen's tea time, where the Queen picks a few women and all the Luna's who traveled to join her in the garden and have tea with her. Then everyone goes to get ready for the ball, which somehow takes all afternoon. Then the Royal ball starts, where every Alpha is supposed to attend. Each Alpha brings a few unmated Wolves from his pack and his beta in hopes that the wolves will find their mate.

The only issue is that the Blue Cresent pack never comes, at least that's what I've been told. This ball has been a tradition for years, started by the very first King, as a way to bring a sense of community among the packs. Sarah always explained to me how amazing the ball was because multiple packs were able to connect and form friendships between not only neighboring packs but also packs far and wide and brought down the chance of disagreements leading to wars. Apparently, it's all Alpha Damon's fault, as my father rants about, he's the most hated Alpha of the Royal Kingdom as he never shows up to these balls or any social events which has caused his pack to be a very secluded and independent without many allies.

Once I'm done showering, I wrap my dressing gown around me, and walk out into my bedroom. I see Sarah taking out the hair supplies and makeup, I look over to see a gorgeous light green dress decorated with flowers. These are the types of dresses that the women wear to my mothers tea time, I would always watch from the windows above the garden admiring all the beautiful dresses these high-status women wore.

"Does this mean I'm going to mother's tea time?" I ask in disbelief, pointing at the dress. Ever since I was a little girl, I've wanted to go to tea time but since I didn't exist to the world, it never happened. Sarah looks at me from my vanity where she was organizing some makeup brushes, then to the dress I'm pointing at.

"Yes, it took a lot of convincing your mother but she agreed." Sarah smiles, as tears start to form in my eyes. I go over and give her a big hug, she always tried to do what was best for me.

"Now go put it on, we have more stuff to do!" She says, pushing me and the dress into the bathroom. I change into it and I can't help but feel special in it. It makes my figure look great and my eyes pop. I walk out and do a little twirl.

"I love it!" I laugh, jumping up and down.

"Come and sit, so I can do your hair." I sit down on vanity stool, looking at my self in the vanity mirror.

She curls my hair into pretty, long curls letting them fall down my back. She does some light makeup, knowing I don't like a lot. Then tells me to go put on some nude heels, nothing too tall as I wasn't too comfortable with heels just yet.

"Now, for the final thing to make you a princess." Sarah says, holding something behind her back. She pulls out a red velvet box with the royal logo etched in gold on the top, she slowly opens the box to reveal a beautiful gold tiara with diamonds and sapphires spread throughout. "This was your grandmother's, your mother refuses to wear it , saying it's too old fashioned. But I thought you'd like it as a token of good luck."

It is a bit old fashioned from what my mother wears but I've seen this tiara in all the portraits of my grandmother, it meant so much to get to wear this tiara.

"I absolutely love it, thank you!" I smiles, hugging her. She places it right on top of my head and it feels weightless. I've always thought that they would be heavy but I guess not. I look at myself in the mirror and smile. This day will be a dream come true.

"Now, go meet your parents in the garden." Maid Sarah says, pushing me out the door. I head downstairs and into to the garden to see my father in a button up shirt and dress pants, and my mother in a dress that made her figure look perfect and the tallest heels I've ever seen. They notice me walking outside and head over to me.

"You look very nice, Aria." My father compliments, he's always been more accepting about me than my mother. My father was a born Royal and my mother was the most popular girl in the whole Royal village and I think having me would have ruined her reputation. My father doesn't really care though, he just has a very hard personality because he's a King and my mother has way too much influence over him.

"Thank you, Father." I smile at him, I look at my mother and see a scowl on her face.

"Let's start heading to the breakfast, so we can get this over." My mother groans, walking back inside. I look at my father, but he heads inside too. Right when he's about to step inside, he turns back and holds out a hand to me. I silently take it walking back into the castle. My mother walks a few feet ahead of us as my father walks right next to me, keeping my pace.

"How are you feeling about the kingdom meeting you?" He asks, rubbing my shoulder. I had never really been in contact with him so his hand felt foreign on my shoulder.

"I'm a bit nervous, but mainly excited." I say, trying to not come off as too nervous. I had always strived to make my father proud, I think it was in my DNA.  As we almost arrive at the dining hall, where all the village is, I can't help but feel a lump form in my throat out of nervousness.

"I'm excited for the kingdom to meet you." He quietly states. I stop for a second, did he really just say that?

"Dear, please go in without us, I need talk to Aria for a bit." My father calls to my mother. She easily waltz into the dining hall. "Aria, I know it seems like I want nothing to do with you, but I had to. If I had gotten close to you, I would have told the world that you're my daughter. Your mother would have killed me for telling anyone. I am so proud you and I can't wait for the world to see who you are. I know this isn't going to fix everything but I hope you understand, now let's go in."

He grabs my hand, and pulls me to the door. We slowly walk in and as soon as the crowd sees me, the whole room erupted in whispers. Which isn't really whispers since we all have wolf hearing.

The beautiful dining hall is filled with five very long tables, each side stuffed with the village werewolves, there was a raised platform towards the front of the room which had a smaller table and 3 chairs facing the other tables. My mother is sitting in one of the chairs and my father is pulling me towards the other chairs. My father sits in the middle, as he is the king, my mother sits to his right, and I guess I sit to his left. I slowly sit down, staring at crowd, some pointing fingers, some wide eyes, some pure shock.

"Who is she?"

"Is that their daughter?"

"Maybe she's our new queen"

"She's so pretty."

I couldn't help but blush at the last whisper I heard. My father soon stands up and everyone is silent. They all stand up in unison, I look around and everyone is standing up, I don't know if I should stand up or not. But soon my father starts speaking.

"Thank you all for coming to the annual Royal breakfast." He says, using his alpha voice. Small cheers and claps come after.

"I know you all are wondering who this lovely young lady is next to me. I would like to introduce you to our daughter, Princess Aria, next heir to the throne."

The room exploded in cheers and claps. My father grabs my hand and pulls me to stand up. Everyone starts to bow at me and I can't stop blushing.

"I know this may come as a surprise to many of you, but Aria has been kept in hiding for the past 18 years of her life from the fear her mother and I had of the dangers of this world. Enemies would have a easy target to hurt the crown, but as she is now of age, we must release her to the world to find her mate. The queen and I have decided to step down from our position whenever Princess Aria has found her mate." My father says, I cringe at the amount of lies he used in his speech, no one would ever know the truth of my childhood.

"Let's eat!"

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The breakfast went really well, once I was done eating, my mother told me to go around and meet some people. I feel like I met everyone in the village, and my hand felt numb from all the hand shakes I was giving. I was surprised at how welcoming the whole village was, I didn't expect to be accepted so fast.

Currently my mother and I are walking to her special tea garden. It was time for the Queen's tea time while all the guys are finishing up their meeting. As we walk outside, all the ladies in the garden smiled at me. Most of the Luna's don't know who I am since they weren't at the breakfast but the news travels fast in the werewolf community due to mind-linking. By this evening, everyone will know who I am, I don't know how much I like that.

"Queen Scarlett, is this your daughter I heard about?" One of the older Luna's asked. My mother gives a cheerful 'yes'. Her whole attitude changed when she was around other people. I guess that's what queen's have to do.

"Hello, Princess, I'm Luna Sallie of the Red Forest pack." The Luna says, extending her hand for me to shake. After meeting all the Luna's and few pack members, we start the tea time. I quickly realize what this really is, it's just a place for all the Luna's to gossip. I notice a girl about my age, I think she was Luna Catarina of the Royal guard pack, that's the pack my father has pack around our kingdom as a guard. She's seemed as lost as I was, so I moved to sit next to her while all the older ladies gossip.

"Is this your first time?" I whisper to her, leaning next to her a bit. She seems shocked for a second but shakes out of it.

"Yeah, I found my mate a few months ago, and haven't really been trained to be a Luna yet." She whispered.

"Don't worry, the kingdom just found out about me today." I smile, she gives me a confused face. "You're Catarina, right?"

"Yes, Princess Aria." She nodded.

"Well, you have a new friend." I can sense that the party is almost over as a few people leave. "Would you mind coming to my room to get ready for the ball?"

"No, not at all. Let me just mind-link my mate and grab my dress." She gasps.

"Tonight's gonna be really exciting." I smile, grabbing Catarina's hand and we start running through the garden, to the castle

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The second chapter done!!! Thanks for reading!!!

Word count:2176