ANASTASIA
"Hurry or we'll be late."
"But the event doesn't even start in an hour." The second voice was breathless, panting.
I scrambled to my feet and hurried over to the window just as the first voice said, "I can't wait to see the decorations in the palace"
"Who cares about the decorations? I can't wait to see Princess Raven's dress for the occasion. I heard real diamonds were sewn into her"
This was followed by a scream as the girl who had spoken first pointed at me.
"It's just her," she spat out.
The girl and her friend stared at me with identical expressions of disgust. I imagined how grotesque I looked with my face pressed against the glass of the only tiny window in my room. The taller of the girls grabbed the hand of the other and they hurried away, as though afraid that if I looked at them for too long, I would somehow ruin their fancy clothes . I backed away and waited until I couldn't hear their footsteps anymore. I waited for another couple of minutes to be sure that no one else was coming before I went outside.
It was a moonlit night and you could almost feel the excitement and anticipation in the air. Up ahead, in the distance, a thousand pretty lights, draped around the grounds, columns and pillars of the palace winked like fairies. A gust of wind from the east brought of whiff of the delicious food being prepared for the event. I pressed my hand against my stomach when I felt the pang of hunger there. Maybe I would be able to get some scraps of food after everyone was done eating.
"Out of the way, you!" someone growled from behind me.
I quickly stepped out of the way as a stocky, redfaced man carrying several heavy trays barreled past. He turned back once to glare at me and muttered a few choice swear words. Again, my eyes were drawn to the palace where a banquet would be held in about an hour from now, in celebration of my sister, Princess Raven's first shift.
The girl had said Raven's dress was stitched with real diamonds. I sighed as I ran my hands over my own threadbare clothes that had seen too many washings. It was hard to believe sometimes that Raven and I were sisters, twins actually. The vast difference between us was laughable, if I had been able to laugh at my own plight, that is.
Raven lived in the sumptuously furnished palace. I lived in a little run down house on the palace grounds with a tiny window, a leaky roof and walls whose large cracks I covered regularly with stiff pieces of cardboard.
Raven was pampered, and was given everything she wanted. I did my own laundry, got my meals from the kitchen along with the workers in the palace. I almost always got food after everyone else had eaten. This meant I usually got scraps, burnt, unwanted portions, or most times, no food at all.
And all this ill, unfair treatment stemmed from an ancient prophecy of the Moongrave kingdom. This prophecy had changed my life for the worse, and so I had it etched in my brain. I closed my eyes. Even now I could see every word of that prophecy written in an old book with yellowed pages which I had read obsessively over and over again, as though by doing so I could change what was written in it.
'Let the prince and peasant, the highborn and lowborn of the Moongrave kingdom beware. Let them heed the signs and the portents for it is written; two children, twins, will be born. The one shall be full of light, laughter and love, a leader who will bind and unify. It's dark twin shall seek to destroy, to kill and ruin. It's powers and influence shall grow until Moongrave is buried in dust and ashes...'
And so after my mother had given birth to Raven and I she had come up with the idea of hiding one of us until our destinies were clearer. She figured the people of Moongrave might have plotted to kill one of us because of the prophecy. Personally, I thought she was right. Fear made people do terrible things. I, Anastasia Montgomery was the twin who had been hidden. Only few people knew my identity. I was happy and well cared for. Things dramatically changed after my mother, the queen, died under mysterious circumstances. My father turned against me. Raven did too. My father had somehow become convinced that I was the evil twin spoken about in the prophecy. I was alienated, forced to live the life of a servant on the palace grounds. I was miserable and alone until...
A smile curved my lips as I remembered the day I turned 16. The day I owned my wolf, Evelyn. She was not the regular kind of wolf others in the pack had. She was unique, powerful, a wolf who had inherited the wisdom and memories of the Montgomery's family's generation of wolves. The first time I had phased into my wolf form, I had been so excited, but even now, Evelyn's warning rang in my ears.
'Don't tell anyone you own your wolf now,' she had said. 'Keep it a secret so they don't make Things tougher for you.'
It was advice I had immediately heeded.
Now, my wolf stirred as she caught a scent I had never perceived before. It was not a scent of food or of anything I could place. I tried to stand still, but the pull to whatever was giving off that scent was so strong that my legs began to carry me foward; past my house, down the path to the palace gardens where a hundred different flowers were in bloom. The only occupants of the garden were two figures who seemed molded to each other.
I realized threw things simultaneously; The figures were kissing. One of them was my sister. The man she was kissing was my mate. Before I could stop myself, I made a sound halfway between a whimper and a groan. The couple immediately sprang apart. I only had eyes for the big blonde haired man who was staring right at me, with shocked etched on his features. His nostrils were dilated and I knew he smelled it too, that scent that told him what we were to each other.
'Mate,' Evelyn purred.
My heart beat so fast in excitement, then began to beat in dread as he gave me a once over.
"You?" he said in a deep voice that matched his build. "How the hell are you also my mate?"
