The woman at the gallery said something about my hands. I tucked the discolored fingers beneath the sleeves of my gown. I had grown used to the whispers of disgust.

I stammered out a reply, I had to be polite. "Beg pardon?" She was tall, and had flowers in her hair. She smiled softly, and motioned to my hands.

"Your nails. They look very well taken care of." She held of her hand as if to shake. I obliged, and her hands turned mine over, pulling my shift back to look at my wrists. "Onyx of darkest might, Goddess blessed." She had breathed the words with such.... awe.

I yanked my hand back, to my chest, trying not to snarl or hiss. Her dark eyes scanned me, and she nodded, her gaze softening to one of understanding. "I'm sorry." I stammered, trying to still my racing heart. All she did was shake my hand and my palms felt sweaty and the fight or flight was already edging closer into the conversation. "I... My name is Meela." I gathered the pink fabric and did a curtsy.

Maybe I was too old for this. I wasn't a debutante, I didn't have a big name, I was a nobody and if some pretty Lady wanted to gawk at me like a spectacle of fangs and claws--

"Goddess... Blessed?" It took me a moment to catch what she had said. When I lifted my eyes to hers, her smile grew wider. She was tall, a head and a half (maybe two heads) above me. Burgundy hair with a pretty pink flower tucked behind her left ear.

"May I... Touch you?" she asked. My skin crawled at the question. Paloma warned me to be polite to the Madams and Alphas, so a simple request of contact should be entertained.

The eyes of others were on my back. Don't insult the Lady, don't cause a scene.

I swallowed to wet my throat, and nodded. She lifted her hands, and I thought she wanted to hold my hands again, but she held my face. "Ah."she breathed, and I felt butterflies stir in my stomach. The corners of my eyes were getting fuzzy, tunnel vision slowly edging in. "This... This is the face of a moon kissed Darling."

she brushed a stray strand of hair from my face and she kept saying things. It was all white noise to me, and I just felt every molecule of my body want to burst in a direction that wasn't here. She spoke with a soft cantor, like one would use to coax a cat from beneath the bed. It was warm and kind, but this was not where I wanted to be. I opened my mouth to excuse myself, and I was pulled at a weird angle.

"Ĥ̴̞̖͎̩̺̠̼͖̼̳̜̫͜ͅa̴͖̠͔̘̤̭̜̼͆̽͝d̴̡̲͉͈̮̯̙̞̦͎̟̺̬̪͎̩̠͚̬̲̘͆͑̂̎͊̿̓̎̍͂̽̃͜͠͝͠e̵̡͉̲̜̫̜̟̠̳͔̼̗͍̮̜͉̯̙̫̣͇̺͛̽͋́̋̓̑͂̐̎̾̽͒̾̃ş̸̢̨͎̬͙̯͚̈́̽͂͂̚͘!" she called into the room, and the dark corners twitched and writhed, "Come look at my daughter! This one has fangs!"

what?