Ivy’s Point Of View
"Miss Ivy? It’s time to get up."
I hear Willa’s soft voice next to me, but I don’t want to open my eyes. It took me forever to fall asleep the night before, and now that I am in dreamland, I don’t want to leave. It doesn’t matter that I can’t even remember what I was dreaming about.
"Miss Ivy? The race will start soon!" she repeats.
"Race?" I ask. "What race?" My eyes open, and I blink up at her. This bed is way too comfortable. I never had this kind of trouble waking up back at home.
"The race the four Alphas are having, my lady," she relays. "The race to decide who will... be your first." Her cheeks turn red, and I realize what she is implying.
"Oh," I say, sitting bolt upright. "That race."
She nods. "Yes, that race, my lady."
All of this "my lady" business is so strange to me. It’s giving me a headache. "Okay," I say as I roll out of bed. "I’m up."
There was no point delaying the inevitable. I head to the bathroom to take a shower while she gets my outfit ready, but I lock the door. It’s not that I don’t trust Willa not to walk in on me while I’m showering. Actually, it’s Callie I’m more concerned about.
It’s a little harder to hide in the shower than the bathtub, I can imagine Callie pressing her face against the glass and trying to talk to me while I’m washing my armpits. I’d rather just keep the door locked to be safe against any perverts walking the halls here.
The day before, Callie had been so upset about Beta Owen. But then... he had come by later and brought her flowers, and then everything was well with the world.
Relationships are complicated... And I’m about to have four.
At the same time.
I finish showering and wrap a towel around myself.
As I walk out, I see a nice outfit laid out on the bed for me. It’s a pair of white, wide-legged slacks and a coral-colored tunic with one wide strap and nothing on the other side; it will sit on one shoulder while the other is bare.
"What do you think, my lady?" Willa asks. "Is the outfit I’ve selected to your liking?"
"It’s beautiful," I tell her. "But you can call me Ivy. Really."
Her eyes widen, like I am saying something unheard of. I have a feeling she won’t take the note. Rather than letting her dress me, I take the clothes into the bathroom and change. When I come back out, she styles my hair while another maid puts my shoes on me—gold strappy sandals. Apparently, ’ladies’ can’t bend at the waist.
I also have my makeup done and jewels added to my ears, neck, and wrist.
I feel like a proper lady now.
But when I look in the mirror, I still just see me. The words that other woman had shouted at me yesterday, about my nose, come back to me. I wish I could hide my nose somehow...
I wonder if she will be there.
I’ll find out soon enough.
A knock on my door lets me know my escort is here.
Willa opens the door to reveal a way too happy Callie with her husband. "Are you ready?" she asks me.
I finish off a piece of fruit from the breakfast platter I was brought and nod. "I’m ready."
Ready or not, I have no choice.
"You look beautiful!" she gushes, hugging me.
"Thank you. So do you." She waves me off, but honestly, she does look super cute in a yellow sundress.
"Let’s go," Owen declares. "We don’t want to be late."
Callie rolls her eyes, and we walk out.
We wind down the long hallways and out a different door than I’ve been through before. Out in the woods, I hear a congregation of voices. Apparently, the majority of the people who live in the castle will be here.
I see the king seated on a throne-like chair, and Owen is walking me right to him, to an empty chair to his right.
King Victor remains seated as he greets, "Good morning, Ivy."
"Good morning, Your Majesty." I bow to him, and Owen gestures for me to sit. He takes his place on the other side of him, and the chatter continues until we all see movement off to the north.
Four figures are walking toward us, followed by other men behind them, and I realize the four in front are the Alphas, and the ones trailing them are their Betas and other servants.
The four of them are only wearing short, tight, athletic shorts, and my heart starts beating out of my chest just looking at them.
When the four men come to stand in front of the king, I can hardly keep my eyes on their faces, not because I want to stare at their chests, although that is also the case. I’m just too nervous to make eye contact. With everyone else quiet, the king begins to speak. "Good morning, Alphas."
"Good morning, Your Majesty," they all four say at the same time. I catch the eye of the man I saw in the garden the day before, and he winks at me.
Feeling my cheeks heat up, I drop my eyes.
The king doesn’t seem to notice. "As you know, the winner of this race will determine who will lay with the lady, Miss Ivy, first. In fact, the order in which you finish will determine the order in which the four of you have an opportunity to lay with her."
Again, my face begins to flame. The entire crowd can hear him and knows that I will be having sex with all four of these men. It feels like everyone is undressing me mentally as the king speaks and they imagine the pornographic scene. It makes me feel so dirty. While some might be envious of me, others would probably think I was some sort of wanton whore.
King Victor finishes giving the directions, but I don’t even pay attention. I just look at the ground in front of me.
I gather the gist of it, though. Whoever comes in first will get first dibs on me, and so on and so forth. The king said he trusted all of them not to cheat, but he wouldn’t be monitoring the race track, which was a two-mile loop through the woods. Whoever gets back to him first will be the winner.
It is as simple as that.
The king gives the signal, and the four Alphas, who had already gotten into position, start running, leaping into the air and shifting midleap. I watch in amazement as their rippled, muscular bodies take on their wolf forms.
Of course, I am used to seeing people shift, but seeing such fine specimens of men turn into equally majestic wolves is pretty amazing.
Personally, I have never shifted. We just don’t shift a lot at my pack, and I needed my hands most of the time—to shovel up waste and the like. I’m not even sure I’m capable of it yet.
I quickly lose track of who was standing where, so I’m not sure which wolf is which. They are all different colors, and even though sometimes a shifter’s hair color will transfer to their fur, I am not sure if that is the case with these Alphas.