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“Aw, look at them!”

“Shh, you’ll wake them up.”

“I want to play with Elizabeth.”

“Shut up, Jun. You weren’t even supposed to be at the party.”

A whack and an ouch followed that.

“Let’s leave them alone, okay?”

I opened my eyes drowsily and made out five hazy figures in front of me. I closed my eyes and went back to sleep before my mind registered what I just saw. I sat up quickly. Ashton groaned and blinked his eyes open.

In front of me stood Callie, Melissa, Kristof and Kevin, who had a grinning Jun in a chokehold.

Ashton glared at them. “Why did you wake us up?” he growled.

“I told you guys to get out,” Kevin said, face-palming himself with his free hand.

Melissa and Callie flashed me some secretive smiles.

Ashton looked like he was about to kill them, but I held him back while they made their escape.

He looked over at me and smiled. “Good morning, princess.”

“Good morning, your highness,” I laughed.

He leaned over and placed a light kiss on my lips.

“Was this what you wanted all along?” he teased. “To come over and sleep with me?”

My jaw hung loose and I smacked his arm. “W-We did not s-sleep together,” I stuttered, becoming a bright shade of red.

“Then what do you call this?” he asked, motioning to the couch.

“We… we… fell asleep beside each other,” I pointed out in a rush.

“Hmm… maybe we should change that,” he smirked, moving closer to me.

“Ashton, don’t you dare,” I warned, shielding myself with a cushion.

He tilted my chin and planted another kiss on my lips. I pushed the pillow in his face and jumped off the sofa. Ashton was laughing his head off at my reaction.

I paced back and forth in trepidation.

“Stop, you’re making me dizzy,” he said, placing his hands on my shoulders and holding me in place. “Why are you wearing a hole in the floor?”

“How am I going to face them?” I fretted. “Can I just stay in here and never come out again?”

“Nope,” Ashton said as he steered me out of the room. I tried to dig my heels in the floor to stop, but he just threatened to lift me up like he did at the beach.

“Your choice,” he grinned as I pouted in defeat.

I stubbornly made my way downstairs with him and as we reached the last staircase I could hear the sound of chatter. When Melissa and Callie saw me, their eyes lit up like stadium bulbs.

“Here come the love birds,” Callie cooed.

“Ooohhh,” Melissa and Kevin chimed in.

“Oooohhhh,” Jun laughed from the couch where he was watching TV.

“Stop that,” I scolded them as I felt my face heat up.

Beside Jun, Kristof tapped away excitedly on his phone.

“What’s he so happy about?” Ashton asked.

Kristof looked up at us as if he just realized that we were in the room. A never-ending smile was etched on his face.

“I found my soulmate last night at the party,” he grinned.

Ashton gave him a fist bump. “That’s awesome, man.” He glanced at me. “They’re hard work though.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Love is in the air,” Callie sighed dreamily.

“She’s from one of the neighboring kingdoms,” Kevin said as he poured some orange juice. “He’s head over heels. They were inseparable the whole night and looked like they would die when she had to leave this morning,” he laughed.

“Looks like you’re going to have to stop being so attached to Kristof soon,” Kevin grinned tauntingly at Jun who was trying his best to look at Kristof’s phone. Kristof was still texting animatedly while holding off Jun with one hand.

“He’s going to belong to someone else now,” Kevin teased.

Jun looked shattered at the fact and tried to snatch Kristof’s phone away.

“That’s enough,” Ashton declared as he pulled a struggling Jun off Kristof. He glared at him. “Care to explain how you got here?”

Jun pouted and Ashton irritatedly shook him by the hood of his sweater.

“I asked you a question."

“I snuck out…” Jun admitted. “I wanted to come to the party too, but everyone said no.”

“Why do you think they said no?” Ashton asked, giving him a light whack on the back of his head, but Jun made it seem like Ashton shot him with a cannon.

“This isn’t a playground. You just turned thirteen, you shouldn’t be at parties like this,” he scolded him. “Go listen to KIDZ BOP or something."

Jun winced and then broke free of Ashton’s grasp and came flying at me.

“They’re being so mean to me, Elizabeth,” he wailed, burying his face in my chest.

Ashton rolled his eyes and stormed over to us, but I glared at him.

“Leave him alone.”

“Don’t spoil him like that. Jun needs to behave himself.”

“You sound like his parents,” Melissa laughed, enjoying the show.

“I’ll talk to him then,” I compromised.

“And for the last time stop touching my soulmate,” Ashton growled and sat down on one of the stools at the island kitchen.

I patted Jun’s head and he sniffed. I looked down at him in surprise. I didn’t think he would actually be crying. He hastily rubbed his eyes on his sleeves and stormed out of the room. I decided to give him some time to cool off before I talked to him.

Ashton sighed as he watched him leave, then turned to Kevin.

“Were the others here?”

Kevin nodded. “Raúl was here, but he left earlier this morning. I can’t believe the host slept out the entire party,” he laughed.

“Eh, I think my night was pretty great,” he smirked at me.

I rolled my eyes at him. Kevin looked between us and then smiled. “I’m glad you guys made up. It was killing me being caught in the middle like that,” he complained.

“Are you ready to leave?” I asked Melissa and Callie, who now looked like they were on the verge of passing out.

“I don’t think I should be driving,” Melissa mumbled as she slumped onto the couch.

“Never fear, because I am here to drive you!” I grinned.

I did have my license; I just didn’t have a car yet.

“Consider me your chauffeur,” I said, pulling her up. “Let’s go Cals!” I called as Callie nodded off to sleep.

I drove Melissa home while Kevin drove Callie home and came back to pick me up at Melissa’s house.

“You drive so slow,” he laughed at the fact that he managed to go all the way to Callie’s house and come to Melissa’s house and I had arrived just a little before him.

“You sir, are a speed monster,” I commented. “When you get pulled over, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

He chuckled. “Can you come over today?”

“To the palace?”

“Yeah, so you can get to know the place better.”

“Is this a request from Ashton?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.

“Maybe,” he admitted with a laugh.

“I don’t know. If you wanted me to, then I might have considered it.”

“I’ll get you gummies,” he mentioned nonchalantly.

“Now you’re speaking my language,” I grinned. “It’s a deal.”

“I’ll pick you up at twelve.”

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Sure enough, at twelve, a car pulled up at my gate. If I hadn’t told my parents that Kevin was coming to pick me up, I might have been imprisoned inside my house for the rest of my life. I had forgotten to call them before falling asleep last night, but thankfully they got in touch with Melissa who’d assured them that I was safe.

“Be back here at five o’clock, young lady,” my dad ordered.

My new curfew.

“Five-thirty,” I compromised.

“Five o’clock,” he repeated, then sighed. “Be safe.”

I smiled at him and dashed out of the house. Recently I’d been spending a lot more time outside of the house than I usually did. On one hand, my parents were glad that I was becoming more social, and on the other, they worried protectively over me.

Stepping out of my house, I was surprised to see a black car instead of a red one. Why was Ashton here instead of Kevin?

“Kevin’s passed out,” Ashton explained as I buckled my seat belt. “So your prince came to get you himself,” he grinned.

“The prince should have just stayed at the castle.”

He scowled at me and drove off.

“I didn’t get to talk to Jun yet,” I mused. “Is he feeling any better?”

“No,” he sighed. “But it has nothing to do with the scolding I gave him. He gets far worse than that on a daily basis. I think he’s immune to lectures now.”

“Then what happened that made him so sad?” I asked.

“I’m guessing it has to do with Kristof finding his soulmate. Jun is really attached to Kristof so he’s probably worried that they won’t be close anymore.”

“That’s cute,” I giggled. “I’m sure Kristof will still spend time with him.”

“Yeah, but Jun doesn’t know that. Jun’s a talented kid,” Ashton mentioned. “But he didn’t have the greatest childhood.”

I listened in silence.

“His parents died when he was just four years old. It was during the time when the government was plotting and there were moments of civil unrest. They were attacked by rogues and thieves. They were nobles from a foreign kingdom, so to keep the peace, their deaths were never made public. Because of that, no-one came looking for Jun,” he explained to me.

“That’s horrible,” I said, trying to imagine how sad and scared Jun must have been.

“Fortunately, they didn’t kill him. One of our scouts found him the next day sleeping between his parents’ bodies. He brought them water from a nearby stream to drink and picked berries from the shrubs for them to eat. He couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t wake up and eat or talk to him.

“My mother decided to let him live in the Noble Realm, since he was a Beta by birth. He went to the royal boarding school here. He spoke Japanese and didn’t know any English, so he had to learn it at the royal school. He was anti-social and didn’t interact with any of the other kids, so he ended up not having any friends. Usually we take proficiency exams at twelve years old, but we can also take them earlier. They test every aspect. Physical capacity, mental capacity, intellectual capacity…the list goes on.

“Jun passed it when he was only seven with almost perfect marks. Everyone was amazed by him, especially by his strength. In sparring matches he beat much older Origens without breaking a sweat. But that worked against him. The older kids didn’t want to play with him and the younger kids thought he would be at an advantage if they played with him.

“So he was alone until he was about nine. I was fourteen and CaVaughn had just turned eighteen,” Ashton remembered. “The king had given up hope that my brother would ever be cured and I was his next target,” he scoffed.

“I knew he switched heirs to you, but I didn’t think it was so young.”

Ashton shrugged. “He started watching me when I passed the exams at nine. So by fourteen, he decided to choose some friends for me. Jackson was eighteen and he was my brother’s youngest advisor, so he ended up stuck with me instead. The other’s all got picked up one by one. He wanted guys of noble backgrounds with advantageous qualities, like strength, smarts, specially enhanced senses… Jun’s strength had grown even more and he caught the king’s eye and that’s how he ended up joining the group.”

“That does not sound like a fun way to start off as friends,” I commented.

“Yeah, we hated each other. There was an eleven year age difference between Jun and Beau. I was always pissing off Jackson too. He was bossy and stuffy.” He paused. “He still is, but I guess I’ve gotten used to it.”

I laughed, remembering all the times he'd mind-blocked Jackson.

“Kevin and I fought almost everyday, but he became my first friend in the group.”

“You and Kevin fought a lot? I seriously cannot imagine that,” I laughed.

Ashton laughed too. “We really despised each other. No-one in the group wanted to co-operate with the king’s plan. Eventually the training got harder on us and he began his mind control experiments on me. Through the years, we managed to unite and form the bond that we have today.”

I smiled. It was great to know that they’d manage to put their differences aside and become such good friends.

“Kris was the first one to get through to Jun. Both of them didn’t talk much, but somehow they got to understand each other. You can thank him for the loud, obnoxious brat we have to deal with everyday,” he complained, but I could tell he was happy that Jun was like that now.

“So Jun is afraid of losing his first friend,” I sighed as Ashton drove onto the concealed palace pathway.

“Kris won’t forget about him, no matter what. So talk some sense into him, will you?” Ashton requested, smiling at me.

I nodded as we pulled up at his house. I got out of the car and walked into the palace with Ashton.

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