Conquering His Cold Heart

The first woman he had his eyes on was the one wearing a full mask, and a crimson-colored gown. She was standing alone in a corner of the ground floor. Since she was alone, Everard hoped that it was Ruby.

While he made his way to that cautious and scared-looking woman, he grabbed another glass of red wine. He was rushing to get to that woman.

However, he got utterly disappointed when she suddenly vanished from his sight the moment his vision was blocked for a millisecond by a huge column.

He angrily slammed his hand on the railing of the balcony and screamed in his mind, ‘Where did she go?’ Since she disappeared, now he was even more sure that it was Ruby whom he just saw.

Everard’s anger calmed down a little when he suddenly heard a familiar voice from behind him.

“That’s your third glass of wine, if I am not wrong.”

Everard smirked and then turned around. “You don’t need to worry even if this was my third bottle, Alex. You have no idea how many bottles it takes for me to actually get drunk.”

Alexander snatched the glass of wine from Everard’s hand nonetheless, and lectured him like a strict elder brother, “Well, I am in no mood to know how many bottles make you drunk because this is your big day. And I don’t want you to black out for the most part of it. Don’t you want to remember each and every moment of such an important day of your life?”

.....

“Oh, come on, Alex!” Everard tried to snatch back the glass of wine and mumbled in an agitated tone, “Cut me some slack. I promise that I won’t drink until I am on the verge of blacking out. I will stop once I start feeling a little tipsy.”

Even with half of his face covered, Alexander could see the desperation on Everard’s face. He took pity on his friend and said while handing out the glass, “Okay, just this glass and no more. If you take another glass even after finishing this one, then you are welcome to find another babysitter.”

Everard chuckled and said, “There won’t be any need-”

Everyone’s attention was suddenly grabbed when the guard at the door announced, “Please make way for His Majesty Caspian Heradi, the King of Sorvando, and Her Majesty Anastasia Vairina, the Queen of Sorvando.”

The moment the guard finished announcing the names, a small-scale panic ensued inside the ballroom, especially among the werewolves who were aware of the true identity of the King of Sorvando.

Whispers started to float around the hall.

“Did I just hear Sorvando?”

“Was he even invited? Or did he come here on his own?”

“What did our King have in mind when he invited an enemy here?”

“Shh... they can hear us. Stop making it worse!”

Just like all the guests, Alexander was also surprised because Everard had not once mentioned that he had invited Anastasia and her husband. When he didn’t see them along with the other monarchs in the morning, he assumed that they weren’t on the invitee list and didn’t ask anything.

“Why didn’t you say that you had invited Anna as well?” Alexander excitedly asked Everard while eagerly gluing his eyes at the door, waiting for his sister to appear.

Surprisingly, Everard was the one who was the most surprised and who was in an extreme panic right now. ‘When the hell did I send an invitation letter to Sorvando? Jerome had restricted me from inviting them saying that it would be unwise to do so. So, when...’

Everard forgot everything that he was thinking when his eyes fell on the new entrants.

Not just Everard, but everyone else was dumbfounded when they saw the most elegant couple walking inside the hall, closely followed by two tall and equally sophisticated gentlemen.

The King of Sorvando was adorned in a white shirt paired with a black waistcoat and black overcoat. He was wearing a pair of trousers that matched the color of his coats, and a pair of handmade black leather boots. He was wearing a half-mask, painted black and golden in color, that perfectly fit on his face as though it was his second skin.

The Queen of Sorvando was wearing a gold sequin gown that had designs made from countless gold and silver discs sewn into it. The gown had a boat neckline which perfectly revealed her beauty bones, and the sleeves of her gown were tight-fitting until her elbow and below that, it floated down like budding roses. Her half-mask was designed to look like a golden butterfly which perfectly complimented her dress.

Likewise, Vincent and Hamilton were also wearing their best formal attire, and they were also wearing masks that covered the upper half of their faces.

As they all made their way to the center of the large hall, everyone who was already present in the hall noticed a very unique attribute that those gentlemen shared. They all had blood-red eyes that looked so dangerous, yet at the same time, so captivating that none of the guests could look away from them.

Not just the guests, even the old werewolves who hated the vampires based on their bitter history were captivated by those vampires who exuded immense confidence as they strode right in the middle of a group of werewolves.

The young group of werewolves was giving an intense glare to the vampires, ready to intervene in case they were here for the trouble.

Sensing that tension in the air from the balcony, Alexander asked the dumbfounded friend of his, “Eve, aren’t you going to welcome them?”

Everard finally snapped out of his trance state after getting poked by Alexander. He gave up trying to recall when he sent out the invitation to Sorvando. He assumed that he had done that when he was drunk out of his mind, and then made his way toward the grand staircase.

Alexander also happily walked behind Everard, while constantly looking down at his beautiful sister, hoping to make eye contact with her.

However, Anastasia was too nervous to look around at the sea of people she didn’t recognize. She was busy trying to look as confident as her husband.

She was even succeeding in looking confident. But in her mind, she was restlessly talking to herself, ‘Eve, brother, where are you two? Please find us soon.’

Her eyes instantly lit up when she heard a familiar voice.

“Anna!”

She happily turned in the direction from where she heard the husky voice. She saw a tall man in his cream-colored outfit and the mask that matched the outfit.

“E- Your Majesty!” Anastasia gave a wide smile to Everard. Her eyes immediately fell on another man who came and stood beside Everard. She controlled her urge to immediately run to that man, and greeted that man with a wide grin on her face, “Brother! It’s nice to see you here.”