Emily's POV
"Hey." I said, as soon as Dathan picked the call.
"I see you're one stubborn girl." Dathan laughed.
"I'm your Luna." I said, in mock contempt of how he addressed me.
"Pardon me, Ma'am." Dathan replied in the same tone.
"I'm really sorry for whatever I've cost you." I apologised, getting to the business of why I called.
I didn't care if Damon had my calls intercepted.
If he wasn't gonna let me see Dathan physically, I had to do it some other way.
"Are you?" He asked, humour in his voice. "Are you really sorry?"
"Uhm. I guess that depends on what being sorry entails." I replied to him.
"It kinda involves repenting, not repeating." Dathan said, chuckling.
"Then I'm not." I replied, with utmost conviction. "But that's if it's totally fine with you."
"I've got nothing to lose." Dathan said. "Lost them all already."
"You don't mean that." I brushed his attempt at stoicism away.
"What are you doing?" I asked him.
"Do you want to invite me to dinner?" He replied with a question.
"Questions have no place in your replies to me." I mocked Damon's voice.
Dathan laughed so hard that the phone fell out of his hand.
"You know," he started, "he really does take after our father. They are hard people."
"I wish I knew more about what I was getting myself into." I said.
"Well, I kinda know a way to make wishes work." Dathan said.
"Tell me. I have so many of them." I replied impatiently.
"Let's go outside." Dathan said.
"Where outside?" I asked.
The palace is in a high class estate, but between all the city lights it's hard to make the stars out.
"Even the mountain has a top. We've got a rooftop, Emily. Come on." Dathan said.
"Just for context, how high is this building?" I asked Dathan. retching in my mouth as I imagined being so high.
"It's just fifteen floors." Dathan laughed.
"That's a lot." I shuddered. "May I ask why it's so gigantic, given that the Damon's have a history of keeping small families. Your father had two, his father had two sons too."
"We also have a history of doing things big." Dathan replied. "But that's not the interesting part."
"What is?" I asked impatiently.
"They have a history of keeping many women. Those women need room, so the paparazzi do not get to them." Dathan said.
"Really?" I asked in disbelief.
"It's the part of history they do not write down. My father had over twenty children, which is far less than the number of women he's kept in this house." Dathan continued.
"What becomes of all of them when the Alpha passes?" I asked Dathan.
"They take their piece of the pie and go. It's all they ever wanted." He answered. "Now stop quizzing me. We have some climbing to do!" Dathan snapped.
"You mean there's no elevator?" I asked Dathan in shock. There's no way I could make it through over twelve flights of stairs.
"I'm kidding, there is." Dathan replied.
I heaved a sigh of relief.
"There better be." I said. "I'll change out of my bed clothes now. Where do we meet?" I asked Dathan.
I was already so excited.
I loved adventure, and it was cute to see that being Luna didn't take that away from me.
"I'll be at your door in a minute," Dathan replied.
"Make it two." I laughed nervously, as I mentally scanned through all the clothes in my wardrobe, deciding which would be a good fit.
"In two minutes then." Dathan concurred.
"Make it five?" I pleaded with him.
"Five minutes then." Dathan laughed, and I cut the call.
The excitement I felt that night, I hadn't felt it ever, throughout my stay in the palace.
Not even when I had to put myself together to go attend to Damon every morning. I literally just brush my teeth and wash my face. I go into his room with my hair still looking like a poorly woven bird's nest, and my face a little swollen from retiring late the previous night.
I dashed to my wardrobe, the one with clothes I wore in the palace.
It had all sorts of kimonos, gold laced, diamond jewelled and all.
I tried to scan for something simple, but they were all so fancy.
I ended up settling for one that did a good job of covering me.
The fact that we were gonna be above the city didn't mean that I wanted to be caught in a picture, with my husband's brother, looking like he and I just had it rough in bed.
I tied the straps around my waistline, accentuating my hips.
When I looked in the mirror, I almost gasped at the image staring back at me.
I'd gained so much weight I almost couldn't recognise myself.
I was no longer the skinny girl who was brought to serve as a kitchen maid, I was Luna.
The flesh I'd gained made my body well rounded, like a young woman a little over my age.
In two months, I was to turn nineteen.
Two gentle knocks on the door distracted me from my musings, I quickly straightened out, and packed my hair in a bun.
I put a headband on it just so my face pops more, and then I opened the door to Dathan.
He looked like the devil's personal gift to me.
Dathan wore a complexly patterned shirt, but the buttons were loose, and so the shirt covered nothing really, except his back.
He had black pants on, sleek and smooth like it had just come off the ironing table.
Worse still for me, Dathan had shaved his overgrown hair.
I stood speechless, ogling at him.
There's no way who I saw was Dathan.
He looked so sinfully beautiful. Like his brother.
As I took troubled breaths, I said a little prayer of thanks that our plans were all outdoor, and none included me sitting to watch him play the piano, cause if I did…
"Use your words." Dathan said, and chuckled.
I knew he was very aware of the effect he had, so I snapped out of my thoughts, and regained composure.
"I'm ready to be led." I said, in a formal tone.
Dathan chuckled and took my hand.
I hated that he understood me.
As we walked hand in hand, I hoped badly that he would not feel how hard my heart was beating, or hear the dirty thoughts in my head.