Hades' Cursed Luna Chapter 36 To The Dance Floor

Eve~

After the little incident with the reporter who looked like she wanted to sink her fangs into my neck, I felt a bit more at ease. The mont the question had co out of her mouth, it hung in the air like an anvil waiting to fall on my head if I didn't do sothing quickly.

I wanted nothing more than to run, but when every eye had landed on , my anxiety spiked. There was no escape. There had been a ti when public speaking had been my forte. I had been tutored and trained to be a girl who was supposed to inherit the throne. I was supposed to be Alpha soday.

But the years had changed and shifted my course. Still, when it ca down to it, I managed to channel the princess I once had been and found my tongue enough to put the reporter where she belonged. As much as it pained to admit, Hades' warning had helped.

I was sure he had only helped because he didn't want making a fool of him in front of his royals, politicians, and ambassadors. Still, he had helped .

Now, I stood awkwardly as Hades was approached by an obviously influential man. None of them paid any mind to , so I just stood there.

I looked around, but after catching so eyes on , I trained my gaze elsewhere, anywhere but the guests. A server ca up to with a platter of red wine. I picked up a glass, my throat parched with anxiety. I took a sip and froze.

I pulled the glass away from my lips, my eyebrows scrunching in confusion and mild apprehension. I sniffed it, and my stomach turned.

It wasn't red wine. It was blood wine. The kind only Lycans drank because they were part vampire. My gut lurched, and I felt myself going faint before a hand steadied .

I looked up and saw the blond man I had seen at the Obsidian Tower.

He didn't look as severe as he had back then. Here, he was dressed like the rest, his light hair styled and gelled.

He had a lopsided grin on his face as he handed a flute of champagne. "Here, drink this instead," he offered.

I eyed him warily.

The blond man's grin widened. "I promise, this one won't make you sick."

I took it hesitantly, still feeling slightly queasy from the blood wine. "Thanks," I murmured, raising the glass and taking a small sip to make sure it wasn't sothing else I couldn't handle. Thankfully, it was just champagne.

The man leaned in slightly, his voice lowering conspiratorially. "They really should label the drinks better. Not everyone's... used to the Lycan palate."

His light humor caught off guard, and I felt a small smile tug at my lips. He radiated an easygoing charm that helped lt away so of the tension still lingering in my body. "Yeah, a warning would've been nice," I replied, feeling a little more at ease with him.

He gave a mock-serious nod. "I've been aning to write a strongly worded letter to the event planners. It's on my to-do list, right after convincing the Lycans to take a break from blood-soaked power struggles." His eyes sparkled with amusent, and I couldn't help the laugh that escaped .

It was a genuine sound, louder than I intended, and the ease of it surprised . I hadn't laughed like that in… well, longer than I cared to admit. For a mont, it felt good—normal, even.

"See?" he said, his grin widening as I laughed. "Not so scary after all."

I smiled, the tension slipping from my shoulders. "You're not so bad yourself."

He winked playfully. "Glad I could help." His tone was light, friendly, but not intrusive, and for the first ti that evening, I felt like I wasn't completely drowning in the atmosphere of the gala.

But then I felt it—an unmistakable prickle down my spine, like the air had thickened. I could feel eyes burning into my back. Slowly, I turned, the pleasant warmth from the champagne and laughter fading as I locked eyes with Hades.

He was still a distance away, but his gaze was unmistakable—dark, intense, and very, very displeased. His jaw was clenched so tightly I thought it might snap, and even from where I stood, I could sense the tension radiating off him like a storm about to break.

The easy, carefree mont shattered. My heartbeat picked up, and I swallowed nervously, my fingers tightening around the champagne flute. The blond man noticed the shift imdiately, his playful deanor fading as he glanced over his shoulder and spotted Hades.

"Well," he said with a slight chuckle, clearly unbothered by the sudden change in mood. "I think soone's coming to claim his date." He gave a quick, reassuring smile before taking a step back. "Good luck, princess. It was nice talking to you."

I barely managed a nod in response before he disappeared into the crowd, leaving standing there, exposed. Hades was approaching, his movents slow and deliberate, as if he were holding himself back. His eyes never left mine, and the closer he got, the more I could feel the heavy weight of his presence.

By the ti he reached , my pulse was racing. His dark gaze flicked from my face to the champagne flute in my hand, and then back to . "Making friends, are we?" he asked, his voice low and deceptively calm. But there was an edge to it, a barely restrained intensity simring beneath the surface.

I hesitated, unsure of how to respond. "He was just being friendly," I said, my voice quieter than I intended.

Hades's jaw clenched tighter, and he took another step closer, his presence almost suffocating. "Friendly," he repeated, his tone cold, though the tension in his body told there was more behind it than he was letting on.

I could feel my earlier confidence slipping, and that familiar nervousness returned in full force. But then, sothing in his gaze caught my attention—sothing raw, sothing unsettlingly possessive. His darkness pulled at , threatening to swallow whole, and yet… there was sothing about it that made my heart race in a different way. Almost as if... part of didn't mind the attention.

But I pushed the thought away quickly, shaking it off as I t his gaze. "Is that a problem?" I asked, trying to sound stronger than I felt.

Hades didn't answer imdiately, his eyes still locked on mine as if searching for sothing. Then, with a sharp exhale, he leaned in close, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. I gasped when he pald my hips, so low that he could've groped my ass. "Let's dance, princess." And just like that, he pulled onto the dance floor.