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“Ellie!” Brooke shouted as I stepped through the doors. She was using a coloring book with another child, probably her friend.

I gave her a hug and waved at the girl behind her.

“Her name is Elizabeth,” Ashton scolded her.

“I want to call her Ellie!” Brooke insisted.

“I don’t mind,” I said, smiling at Brooke.

“This is my best friend, Her Highness, Princess Arianna of Landcaster,” she gestured to the girl behind her.

“It’s a pleasure, Princess Arianna,” I smiled at her and curtseyed. She gave me an elegant wave. I remembered seeing her on TV before.

“She’s going to marry Ashton,” Brooke told her proudly.

“Wow!” Arianna said excitedly. “I want to marry Prince Ashton too!”

Ashton and I laughed at this. They were so adorable.

“I want to marry Prince Zach,” Brooke said with a toothy grin.

Ashton’s laugh died in his throat.

“Who’s he?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

“He’s the nicest, kindest, coolest boy in the entire kingdom… no, in the whole world!” Brooke gushed.

“Why don’t you come show me this Prince Zach. I want to have a little talk with him,” Ashton said, cracking his knuckles.

“Ashton he’s a kid,” I laughed.

“You should eliminate threats early,” he grumbled and I slapped his arm.

“Please come and color with us!” Brooke invited, pushing a crayon in my hand.

“Maybe later,” I smiled at her. “There’s something else I’ve really got to do first.”

“We’re finishing this conversation about that boy later,” Ashton informed her as I dragged him out of the room.

I already felt sorry for Brooke’s future soulmate because Ashton turned out to be quite the overprotective brother.

I followed him to the second floor. We walked past his parents’ personal office to another room. Ashton pushed the doors open. Inside, Raúl was watching an action movie in Spanish and Jackson was sorting through some papers. Jun was sitting at the far end of the room, tossing a ball back and forth at the wall. He was usually bursting with energy, but now he seemed subdued.

“Ashton,” Jackson called. “Come take a look at these.”

“I’ll talk to him,” I told Ashton and he nodded and went to work on the pile of papers with Jackson.

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I walked over to Jun and sat on the floor beside him. He continued to toss the ball at the wall.

“Hey, Jun. Is it okay if I sit with you?” I asked.

He sighed and nodded.

I sat there for a moment, listening to the rhythmic thumping of the ball. Jun stared off into space, but still effortlessly managed to catch the ball as it bounced back each time.

“Don’t you think the game would be more fun if you played it with someone?” I asked.

Jun sighed again. “I always played it with Kris,” he murmured quietly.

“I can play with you,” I offered.

He looked at me. His eyes were almost emotionless. He tossed the ball at me suddenly. He didn’t even seem to throw it with much force, but the ball whizzed past my head.

“Hey, no fair! You’ve got to give me a heads up first,” I complained with a laugh.

Jun shrugged. I retrieved the ball and tossed it to him carefully. He caught it and sent it back to me with a weak flick of his wrist. The ball whizzed past me again. How was he even doing that?

Jun scratched his head. “You suck at catching,” he commented.

“I was just letting you win,” I laughed.

“Sure you were,” he chuckled.

“Should I get Kristof to come and play with us?” I asked.

“Kris…” Jun said in a sorrowful voice. Then his eyes suddenly became angry. “Kris won’t come. He’s talking to his soulmate on the phone,” he said, spitting the word ‘soulmate’ out as if it was hot poison.

“Hmm,” I said. “He found his soulmate yesterday. That’s a pretty big deal for you guys,” I said, reaching for the ball. I tossed it to him.

“But he doesn’t talk to me anymore and he probably won’t talk to me again because of her,” he grumbled. “I hate her.”

He full out threw the ball at me and forget about catching that, I dodged. The soft rubber ball collided with a vase and it flew off the table and shattered to pieces against the wall. Ashton shot a wary look our way.

I laughed nervously. That would have been my head if my dodging game wasn’t on point. Jun didn’t even seem to realise what had happened.

“I’m sure Kristof won’t stop talking to you because he found his soulmate. Ashton’s my soulmate and I still talk to all of my friends.”

Jun sighed and turned away from me. I saw a droplet hit the carpet. This thing was affecting him a lot.

“Hey,” I said softly, wrapping him in a hug. He shook his head against me.

“The king said that crying is for Omegas and that I should never cry,” he sniffed. “And I’m thirteen now. I’m big enough to handle this,” he said, trying to convince himself.

“Jun, you are still a child. And there are going to be a lot of changes in your life, whether it’s with you or those around you. It’s good to be brave and not cry, but you shouldn’t keep all the emotions pent up inside of you. If crying will make you feel better, then cry. Whether you’re a Beta or an Omega... It doesn’t matter. There’s no status with tears.”

“None of the other kids talk to me, even though we’re the same age. All because they think I’m too strong,” Jun explained. “But I don’t really care, they’re weak. These guys are my friends, but there are lots of things that they do without me.”

“Like throwing parties?”

He nodded and sniffed. “I can never go with them.”

“Did you like the party last night?”

He shook his head. “The music was too loud and the juice tasted weird.”

My eyes nearly popped out of my head. I doubt whatever Jun drank last night was juice. Thank goodness he couldn’t get drunk easily, but it was still bad enough that he was even able to access alcohol. Did no-one notice a kid wandering around? I was gonna have to talk to Ashton about that, I decided.

“If you didn’t like the party, then why are you upset about it?”

“Because I want to do what they do and they say I’m a kid. And if I ask them to play, they tell me to grow up,” he growled. “That’s why I prank them,” he said as if it was the most logical thing to do.

I knew about his pranks all too well. I see Beau’s scolding had no effect on him.

“Kris is just three years older than me too, so he understands me the best. He’s the closest person here I have to a brother,” he sighed. “I don’t even remember my parents’ faces anymore.”

I could empathize with him on that.

He definitely did not have the best childhood. He was constantly stuck between being too young or too old, never being balanced.

“Jun, do you think Kristof cares about you?” I asked.

He furrowed his brows. “I don’t know anymore.”

“Well, I’m telling you that he does. He’s just really excited right now about meeting his future wife.” I almost stuttered as I said those words, thinking about my own situation.

“But just because he’s going to love someone else, doesn’t mean that there’s less love for you.” I explained to him.

Jun’s eyes glowed. “Are you sure?” he asked with a hopeful expression.

“I am.”

Just then the door opened and Kristof came in, still glued to his phone. “Diana is coming over next week,” he mentioned with a twinkle in his eye.

“I’ll make the preparations for her visit,” Jackson said and Ashton nodded, too busy with paperwork to talk.

He looked so diligent as he signed documents and read through contracts.

Jun frowned at Kristof, who spotted him and came to join us.

“Jun did that, yeah?” Kristof asked as he saw the mess of broken glass behind me.

“So what if I did,” Jun remarked indignantly.

Kristof chuckled. “I told you that this kid is trouble.” He ruffled Jun’s hair as he sat beside him.

“You are happy that I found my soulmate, right?” Kristof asked softly.

I excused myself from the conversation to give them space to talk. I decided to clean up the mess of broken glass.

“Sorry to interrupt,” I said, going over to Ashton. “Where can I find a broom?”

“A broom?” he asked. “For what?”

I pointed at the pieces of broken glass on the floor.

“Don’t worry about it, the cleaners will do it later.”

“Hey, it’s because of us why it broke,” I said. “I don’t want to give anyone extra work because of that.”

“Aren’t you an angel,” he commented drily. “I don’t know where you’ll find one of those.”

“But- but this is your house,” I pointed out.

“Which also happens to be the palace, so I don’t know.” He said, frowning in thought. “There should be at least one around here somewhere,” he shrugged.

I sighed exasperatedly and plopped down on the couch beside Raúl. Ashton glared at him, but then continued his work.

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I was halfway through one of my online books when Jun’s laugh echoed around the room.

“I dare you to say that again,” Kristof threatened as he caught Jun in a headlock.

“Let’s fight, Kris!” he chuckled happily.

I smiled at them. Looks like things were back to normal.

“Hey, take it outside!” Jackson shouted suddenly.

Ashton growled at them. “Don’t you dare shift and fight in here,” he warned darkly.

Kristof held him in another chokehold and Jun grinned as he tried to wrestle out of it. Jun was the only person I knew who was this excited about fighting.

He broke free of Kristof and came over to me grinning.

“Thanks for cheering me up Elizabeth. Now I’m all fired up.”

“You don’t have to thank me.” Then I remembered something. “If you want someone to play with, and I’m talking about normal, safe games, I know someone who could use a friend.”

Jun stared at me curiously. “Who’s that?”

“Micah. You’re around the same age. It would be nice if you could get along.”

“The Omega? I always play with him. He’s my toy.”

“No Jun, he’s not a toy. He’s a person with feelings too.”

“You want me to be friends with an Omega?” he asked in disdain.

I nodded. “It shouldn’t matter if he’s an Omega or not. You’re both Origens.”

Jun shrugged. “Even if I did want to be friends with him, I wouldn’t be allowed to. The king keeps track of everything I do.”

Honestly, Ashton’s dad’s behavior was starting to get on my nerves. I glanced over at Ashton. I wanted him to become a ruler who could break these prejudices and unite the members of the kingdom over time.

By this time, Kristof had gone back to staring at his phone with a giddy smile, but Jun just grinned and went in search of Beau. He was going to make trouble, no doubt about it. I shook my head with a smile; he was still a kid after all.

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