Chapter 229
Ellie’s POV
The guests flooded in more quickly than I expected. At first, there was just a trickle, but then the line of cars along the roadway grew longer and longer, and the packs started coming out in droves, all clamoring to get a look.
I was standing in front of the row of hay bales now, on my tiptoes as I looked over the sea of guests. There had to be at least two hundred attendees, already, maybe even more, and not all of them were from our pack. I saw license plates from many of the surrounding packs in the area, and even a few from out of the region.
Dominic appeared at my elbow as if out of nowhere. “Quite the turnout, huh?” he asked, sticking his hands in his pockets and leaning against the hay bales.
I glanced at him. “Way more than I expected there to be.”
He smirked. “I may or may not have paid a little extra for an advertising campaign.”
I turned to face him fully, dumbfounded. “You didn’t say you were going to do that.”
“Was I supposed to tell you?” he asked.
“Well, no, but…” My voice trailed off. I didn’t want to admit that it felt sort of humbling to find that the reason behind the sheer amount of people in attendance today was thanks to Dominic, one of the two people who I was trying to humiliate.
I felt a little bad for that all of a sudden, because while I had been scheming to get my way, he had been trying his best to genuinely make the festival a success. But I reminded myself of my past life, and pushed the feelings down.
The guests were gathering nearby now, looking around in confusion. There were two signs, two banners, two entrances to two different festivals. None of it made sense.
Sarah, having expected this, walked over to me and handed me the microphone. I took it, tapping on it to get everyone’s attention. The sounds boomed across the field, making the guests go quiet,
“Thank you all for coming today,” I announced. “To clear up any confusion, I want to explain why there are two festivals; my sister, Vivian, and I, have decided to each throw our own festival. Enter through the left and you will find my festival. Enter through the right and you will attend hers.”
Dominic shot me a look, but I ignored him and went on, “We ask that everybody enjoy each festival, trying everything it has to offer. At the other end of this row of hay bales is a voting station; feel free to drop a vate for whichever festival you think was better, and the winning side will celebrate with a fireworks show tonight.”
The crowd murmured and began to part into two halves, some going straight for my side, others for Vivian’s. I handed the microphone back to Sarah and looked at Dominic. He was staring at me with wide
eyes.
“What?” I asked.
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“You two are competing?” he whispered. “She was supposed to be your assistant!”
“I told you I didn’t want that,” I said.
Dominic pursed his lips. “So it was your idea?”
“Sort of.”
He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Goddess, Ellie… I thought you two could, I don’t know, try to put your differences aside. But you’re just using this as a way to get back at each other.”
I shrugged. “If you knew Vivian like I did, you would understand.”
Dominic looked like he wanted to argue further, but he didn’t. Instead, he asked, “Did she agree to it, at least?”
“Obviously.”
He huffed. “Fine. Whatever. As long as you’re both in agreement.” He looked at me sideways. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t admit it’s a little genius of you.”
“Really?” I asked, surprised by that.
He looked loathe to admit it, but he nodded and gestured around us at the guests, who were smiling and laughing, already trying out the various attractions on either side of the bales. “The guests seem to be enjoying themselves so far. Maybe it’ll garner attention for the pack.”
“That was my goal,” I said, although I kept out the part about how, when I won, I intended to publicly make it obvious that I had put together my half without Vivian and Dominic, and use it as leverage to initiate the divorce.
Just then, one of my staff came running over, breathless. “Luna,” he said, panting, “I was looking all over for you. There’s been an incident.”
I stepped away from Dominic. “Already? What happened?”
“I think it’s better if you take a look yourself.”
Sighing, I left Dominic standing there and followed the staff member. We wove our way through the crowd, past the vendor booths and a bobbing for apples game. A commotion had seemingly risen from the center of my area. I could hear shouting.
I rounded the corner, pushing my way through a gaggle of kids to see what was going on.
There, at the center of my picnic area, someone had pushed the tables out of the way-scattering several of my floral arrangements across the ground-and created what looked like a fighting pit.
“What the fuck?” I whispered, frozen.
Two men were in the center of the makeshift arena, grappling with each other on the ground. Both were shirtless and covered in dirt already. Families were staring at them, some cheering them on, others completely speechless. Across the area, I spotted a mother gasp and drag her kids away by their hands.
Just as one of the men pulled his fist back to knock out the other, I stormed over, grabbing his wrist.
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“What do you think you’re doing?” I hissed.
The man looked up at me and I stiffened. “Hey! I know you,” I said. “You’re one of Vivian’s staff!”
The man’s eyes widened. “N-No-”
“She sent you here, didn’t she?” I hauled him to his feet. “Was this her plan? To ruin my festival was tomfoolery?” I released his wrist with a shove. “You’re going to answer to the Alpha now-”
At the mention of Dominic, the guy’s face paled. Without a word, he turned and fled, pushing through the crowd hard enough to send a toddler falling onto his little behind and start wailing.
“Hey!” I shouted, chasing after him. “Get him!”
Several of my staff converged on the guy, but he was quick and agile. Before we could catch up, he climbed up the side of the hay bales and jumped over, knocking a few bales down and nearly hitting some guests
with them.
I cursed, snapping at the exit. The staff members ran that way to catch him, leaving me standing there, scratching my head.
“What’s going on here?” I heard a voice call out. I saw Vivian’s face appear through the gap in the bales. She was feigning innocence, her eyes as wide as saucers, but I knew she was the one who had orchestrated all of
this.
“I thought we weren’t going to resort to dirty tricks,” I said, storming over to her. “Just competing based on the merits of our events, not…” I threw my hands up in the air. “Whatever that was.”
“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” Vivian protested.
Planting my hands on my hips, I was about to say something else when, out of nowhere, a familiar presence appeared beside me.
“Miss Vivian,” Dominic’s mother said, her voice low and dangerous. “What makes you think you can get away with disrupting my daughter in law’s event?”
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