Joel

I was having more fun than I ever thought was possible in this place.

I was nervous at first about having to talk with all these high ranking guests, but really when it came down to it, they were very easy to get along with.

And by that, I mean it was very easy to read them, and tell them what they wanted to hear.

The next lady to come in was very pretty, but gosh, did she know it. She looked like she didn't want to be here, and that she was doing us all a service by allowing us to be in her presence.

"Good evening Miss. May I take your coat?"

She didn't answer me, but began taking her coat off. It was this cream fur monstrosity that I am sure probably only had a heartbeat yesterday.

"My, my, this is exquisite!" I said enthusiastically as she handed me her coat. "I'll make sure I put this one with the family coats and keep a close eye on it," in case it suddenly runs off on it's own!

This earned me a half look of acknowledgement. Well I tried!

She didn't seem to make any move to go and titivate herself in front of the mirror, so I said, "I'll go and see if he's ready for you now."

I hurried through the cloakroom, momentarily dumping the offending coat on a table, before scooting over to the hatch.

I noticed that someone had brought Casper another cup of coffee and he was sipping at it tentatively.

"Psst," I said trying to get his attention, but also very aware that the next guest was just on the other side of the doors.

"A Peacock," I said, then quickly shot away before I could see his reaction.

I opened the door for the lady and then quickly went back to retrieve her coat, which had now slipped off the table onto the floor, then hung it up properly.

I couldn't hear the interaction with Casper very well from where I was, but I could hear enough to know she wasn't his mate.

When I heard her go into the ballroom, I went back to the hatch. "Was I right?" I asked.

Casper spun round to look at me and smiled. His eyes lit up when he smiled, but I quickly looked away.

"I can see why you said that. She was very beautiful, but also very proud."

I smiled like a child who'd been told he got the answer right.

"But I'd have said she was a sheep."

"Really?" I said in disbelief. "Are you sure you know how to play this game? From what I saw, she was neither a follower, or wooly."

He smiled at me in a slightly condescending way.

"Have you ever heard of the phrase 'a wolf in sheep's clothing?"

"Yeah" duh!

"Well, she was a sheep in wolves' clothing."

"Why?" I asked, still not getting this.

"Who do you think she was?" he asked, placing his coffee back down on the table.

"I don't know," I said shrugging, "I'm guessing she's either the daughter or sister of an Alpha in one of the Southern districts?"

"Exactly!" he said, looking rather pleased by my answer. "She was actually the daughter of an Omega in the McInerney pack."

Wow, the McInerney pack was one of the smallest, and therefore had less power and lower status than the other packs. "Oh right!" I said, "I get it now." I let out a little chuckle, "I don't feel so bad now for throwing her coat on the floor."

"You what?" he said, the smile suddenly replaced by a frown.

"Just kidding," I said with a wink.

I looked away quickly, but not before I saw his eyebrow raise. What was wrong with me!?!

The wink was just a nervous tick from having to quickly lie, but winking at an Alpha??! I must have a death wish.

"Ooo, I think I hear someone." I said, relieved that I had an excuse to go. "I'll be back, don't go anywhere," I said, still distracted by my faux pas.

"Where do you think I'd go, idiot," I heard him grumble as I walked away.

Ok, maybe they weren't the best choice of words, but I shrugged it off.

The stream of guests continued to arrive. We had a deer (an incredibly shy lady whose expression exactly summed up that phrase 'a deer caught in the headlights'), a falcon (a lady who looked like she would swoop down on Casper like he was her prey), and a frog (an absolutely stunning lady who looked and talked like a princess - I just wanted to throw Casper off a bit with the whole frog image.)

There were only a couple of hangers left so most of the guests had arrived. I was glad because I was getting exhausted being this polite to people!

The next guest was a female and with what I presumed was her father. I went over to greet them.

"Hello Sir, may I take your coats?"

"Why thank you, yes," he replied, taking off his coat.

I smiled widely. That was the first genuinely polite response I had got that evening. Another older man came in, and after handing me his coat, the polite man went over to join him.

I approached the lady who was currently taking off her coat, which was more like a dark red velvet cape.

As she handed me her coat I said, "You look lovely tonight Miss." As I said this I bowed my head, looking at her shoes, as was the custom.

I heard a light giggle from the lady. "How can you tell if I look lovely if all you can see are my shoes?" she said in a hushed voice so as not to be overheard.

I took a chance and looked up at her face, to see that she was smiling and had a cheeky sparkle in her eye. I liked her already.

"Well, to be fair, they are beautiful shoes." I replied, looking back down at them.

"More beautiful than the lady in them?" she said while grabbing hold of my chin and tilting my head back up to look at her.

Her eyebrow was lifted on one side, and I could see she was just playing around with me. I suppose I could be offended.....or I could join in.

I took a step back which made her hand drop from my face. I then proceeded to run my eyes over her from head to toe, while pulling my best 'analysing' face.

The lady giggled quietly as I looked.

She was indeed very beautiful, but not in an obvious way. She had her mahogany brown hair cut short but it was shiny and sleek and framed her face beautifully. Her face was pretty enough, but not a face that would attract a lot of notice. But it was her eyes. Her blue eyes sparkled with personality. They were the type of eyes that made you feel alive.

Her body was slender and she was wearing a black velvet dress that clung in all the right places. Her dress was beautiful but understated. I would have guessed that she didn't like to attract attention.

"Well....." I said, drawing this out as much as possible, "there is no doubt that you are beautiful..... but I still love the shoes the most."

She smiled and blushed a little.

She was fascinating. She seemed to flit from confident to slightly shy.

"I'll go and see if he's ready shall I?" I said, gesturing towards the door.

Suddenly her smile fell from her face, and I could see she looked a little nervous.

"Don't worry" I said, leaning back towards her, "his bark is definitely worse than his bite."

She smiled again, and I felt pleased that I had managed to squash her feelings of anxiety, even if it was just for a second.

I was about to walk away when I noticed something. "Oh, you might want to give me your gloves?"

She looked down at her hands in surprise, obviously forgetting she still had them on.

"Whoops, silly me" she said, and again I saw a slight blush appear on her cheeks.

She slid off the black silk gloves and handed them to me, then I shuffled off into my room.

I shot over to the hatch and saw Casper looking over, as if he had been waiting for me.

I opened my mouth but nothing came out. Casper raised an eyebrow, looking rather amused.

What kind of animal was she? Suddenly it came to me.

"A Snow Leopard," I said, then shot back to hang her coat up.

I ran round and nodded to Jeremy to signal that he could show the lady through. Jeremy opened the door and said, "Miss Emily Hartley," as if he was announcing her presence to Casper.

I paused and turned to Jeremy. He hadn't called out the names of any of the other guests, so why this one?

I played it back in my mind. 'Emily Hartley, Emily Hartley, Emily...oh no!'

The penny dropped as I recognised that familiar last name. What on earth was a Hartley doing here? I wondered if my uncle knew. No, of course he knew! He knew everything that went on around here.

But what about Casper. Shit! Casper.

I charged off back into my room to get close to the hatch so I could listen.

What if they were mates? That would cause all sorts of problems. Maybe I should have let her keep her gloves on. I almost laughed at my own joke. I blamed the nerves.

I strained to listen and could just about pick up the thread of conversation.

"If it worries you, would you like me to assign a member of staff to you while you are here?" Casper said.

What would worry her? That she was his mate??!!

"Oh I don't want to be a bother," she replied. "I'm sure it's worse in my mind than in reality."

Woah! If she's talking about being his mate, then that's a bit insulting.

"I wish I could reassure you on that, but I can't be sure."

Ok, so he's now just insulted her right back. Surely they can't be mates then??

"Look" Casper said, "please let me get a member of staff to look after you. It would make me feel better."

Maybe they are mates....

"Ok then, I'll do it for you" she said, and I could almost hear the smile in her voice. "I think I might be the last one here, so I'll have the guy who's been taking the coats. Unless he's got another job to do."

My heart suddenly stopped beating......or at least it felt that way, seen as I wasn't passed out on the floor right now.

"Are you sure?" Casper said, sounding shocked at her choice.

Well the cheeky bastard!

"Quite sure," she replied. "There's something quite....endearing about him, don't you think?"

Endearing? Isn't that what you'd say about a small child?

"I suppose," Casper replied hesitantly, "but he is fairly new so if you have any bother, don't hesitate to let me know and I'll get one of our more experienced members of staff to assist you."

Well that was insulting. I may not be experienced but I'm sure I can handle......wait did he agree that I was endearing??

"I'm sure he'll be fine. And thank you for caring."

Shoot! I couldn't afford to be caught eavesdropping, so I quickly made my way back out of my room.

Just as I walked into the guest cloakroom, Casper appeared too. He closed the door behind him, then made his way over to me.

He ran his hand through his hair. He looked stressed to me. He opened his mouth to say something, but clearly decided against it and grabbed my arm before dragging me out of the front door.

We went passed Jeremy who scowled at me like I'd done something wrong. I hadn't had I? Now that I think about it, he did seem rather angry. But it was hard to concentrate with his hand grasping my arm. Who would have ever thought the drop dead gorgeous Casper Bournville would be grabbing my arm and leading me to somewhere private. I felt shivers of excitement travel up my arm and down my body.

I was brought out of my daze when Casper let go, but not before he flung me around so I was facing him. And he looked cross. Very cross.

"What did you say to her?" he demanded.

"What do you mean?" I asked, still feeling rather flustered at being dragged here.

He had taken me just round the side of the house, out of sight. As it was dark now, it was unlikely that anyone would be walking through the gardens.

If it was possible, he seemed to get madder.

"FOR ONCE COULD YOU JUST ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION!"

I cowered away. This was the first time I had felt scared in his presence. And I didn't even know what I'd done wrong.

"Please Sir," I said with my head bowed low to the ground, "I just spoke to her like I did everyone else. I swear I didn't even know she was a Hartley until Jeremy announced her to you."

He didn't say anything so I just studied the grass under my feet. After probably only a few seconds I started to feel uncomfortable with the silence and desperately wanted to look at him to see if he still looked mad. I couldn't look up though. What if this was a test? I needed to do something to distract me. So I started counting the blades of grass on the ground.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 oo that's a big one, 7, 8..

"What are you doing?"

"Counting grass," I replied automatically without thinking.

I internally groaned at my mistake. He probably thought I was taking the piss.

I couldn't stand it anymore. I lifted my head to look at him, just as his hand was reaching over to me.

I jumped back out of instinct, in fear that he was going to strike.

His eyes widened in shock at my sudden movement, and I realised that there was no malice behind his raised arm at all. In fact it looked as though he was going to....stroke my head?

"Sorry...I didn't...I thought..." I trailed off not sure what to say.

"No, I'm sorry" he said, "I shouldn't have shouted at you like that. I don't know why I did. It's just.......I.....oh I don't know," he said with a sigh.

"Can I suggest we start again?" I asked, trying to get us out of this mess of apologies.

"Miss Hartley has asked for a member of staff to accompany her, given the potential for hostility, so I recommended you."

I let out an involuntary snort of laughter at his lie. On seeing his scowl, I stopped smiling and attempted to look serious.

"Are you sure you want me? I am quite new and so may cause her bother..."

"No you'll....." he paused, and I bit my lip to stop me from laughing as I saw the flash of recognition of my words cross his face. ".....were you listening?"

"To what?" I said, keeping my expression blank.

He narrowed his eyes at me, but decided to not to press the issue any further...thankfully.

"Anyway, it shouldn't be too hard. Just stick close to her, assist her if she needs anything, and take her someplace safe if anyone gets nasty with her. Although I don't think we'll have any issues with tonight's guest list."

"Ok, I can do that." I said, trying to sound confident.

"Ok," he said and started to walk back. I followed behind, already feeling the anxiety growing inside. I thought I was just supposed to be dealing with coats tonight. I did not sign up for this!

As we got back into the warmth of the hallway, Casper turned to me and holding up his finger close to my face said, "if you need anything, you come and find me alright?"

"Yes Sir," I said bowing slightly.

Casper opened up the door that led into the ballroom. "She's in there," he said nodding towards the room where he was greeting the guests. And don't call me 'Sir'. It sounds.....weird."

And then he was gone.

So what should I call him them?