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PRINCESS GENEVIEVE

Age: 22

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I stepped out of the room slowly, trying my best not to fall on my face as I made my way down the corridor. Ashton was already there, leaning against the wall and staring at a painting in front of him.

He modelled his perfectly tailored black suit well. The sight of him literally took my breath away. His dark hair shone brilliantly and was combed to perfection. Why did he have to be so darn perfect?

I wanted to admire him longer, but the moment I stepped into the corridor his eyes snapped to me. His mouth formed an ‘O’. He raised his eyebrows as he came over to me.

“Hello, princess.”

“Hey, your highness,” I blushed. He looked even better up close and he smelled divine.

“You look… beautiful,” he breathed, taking my hand in his.

My senses went haywire at the brush of his fingers and I tried to remind myself to get back down to Earth. He gave me a light peck on the cheek. When he pulled back, his eyes glittered with mischief.

“I wish I didn’t have to share you with everyone else tonight,” he whispered, pulling me closer to his body.

I shivered as his warm breath caressed my face. “Maybe we should ditch this thing.”

He grinned at that. “Since when does Miss Innocent ditch?”

“Since I got these,” I muttered, sticking my foot out so he could see the shoes. “They should come with a warning sign. Something that says, ‘Stay six feet away from me if you don’t want to get stepped on.’”

“That would be funny.”

“Hey!” I slapped his arm, my mouth tilting into a pout. “I don’t want to come crashing down with all the royals around to see. Did you know I almost fell up the stairs a day ago? And I was wearing sneakers!”

“How do you fall ‘up’ stairs?”

“Have you met me?” I groaned and he laughed.

“I’ll make sure you stay upright tonight, then.”

“So does that mean we have to go?”

“Unfortunately, it does.”

I sighed and his lips twitched as he tried to hold back his laughter.

“I’m happy to see that you’re in such high spirits,” the king said, stepping out into the corridor. “You look lovely, Elizabeth. Just like a true princess of Crysauralia.”

Ashton was tense beside me as his dad came closer to inspect us.

“Truly perfect,” he smiled, circling around us. “This is a big moment for both of you. Ashton will be revealed as the crown prince and you as his soulmate and betrothed. Make sure you don’t forget everything that is at stake here.”

We nodded stiffly and he patted Ashton’s shoulder with a satisfied smile. After he’d gone back to where he'd come from, Ashton sighed, and glanced at me. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

He extended the crook of his elbow to me. “Then shall we?”

I linked my arm with his and tried to steady my pounding heart as I prepared to face the royals.

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The blinding lights of the hall greeted us as we stepped inside the enormous room. Everything was tastefully decorated in gold. The room looked amazing, but I could hardly admire its beauty because my stomach quaked with nervousness.

I took a step back, but before I could leave, Ashton gently placed his hand on the small of my back and rubbed circles around it.

“You’ll be fine,” he leaned down to whisper as nearly two hundred pairs of eyes snapped in our direction.

I exhaled slowly and nodded, as we made our way into the room.

After they introduced Ashton, they introduced me as his soulmate and betrothed. I could feel everyone’s eyes following my every movement and it took all my focus to keep my smile up and not look down at my shoes which suddenly felt like million pound weights bound to my ankles.

One slip up was all it would take to turn the night into a failed debut. They would already be prejudiced seeing I was a human commoner, and not even a Crysauralian by birth. Just one mistake... One misstep... One wrong word would be enough for them to reject me.

The queen, looking stunning as always approached us first. The king was by her side. Brooke was talking animatedly to CaVaughn whose expression was perfectly neutral.

“Welcome, my dear,” the queen greeted, giving me a soft kiss on the cheek. “I am so pleased to see you."

Her eyes flitted to Ashton with a smile. “You complement each other quite well. I am happy.”

CaVaughn and Brook came over just then. It felt weird being in the huddle of the royal family in front of everyone and I was reminded that if Ashton and I accepted each other, I’d have to get used to it pretty quickly.

The brothers seemed to talk through telepathy, while Brooke bubbled to me about how excited she was for me to marry Ashton and move into the palace.

After that, more people drifted closer to us.

“Ashton.” A middle aged lady smiled widely as she approached us. “It has been too long.”

“It has,” he agreed, leaning towards her as she planted a kiss on his cheek. “Please allow me introduce my soulmate and betrothed, Elizabeth.”

She turned to me, her brown curls bobbing with every jerk of her head. “Elizabeth, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Oh, how time flies, Ashton is already so big and even found himself such a pretty soulmate.”

I allowed her to pull me in for a kiss. Madame Lucille had run through everyone who would be here tonight. This woman was Princess Carina of Hussey. She worked as a humanitarian and often set up funds for the less fortunate. Her husband had died a few years back, but she had two daughters Lacey and Fiona. They were Ashton’s distant cousins. They came up to introduce themselves to me too.

Ashton squeezed my hand reassuringly as they left. They’d been nice. Unfortunately, not everyone in the family shared their open-mindedness.

“Ashton, darling,” another lady smiled, sidling up to us as Princess Carina left.

“Hello, Princess Lydia.”

“It’s so nice to finally see you again!” She gave me a swift once-over. “And this is... Annabeth, right?”

“Elizabeth,” I corrected her with a small smile. “It’s a pleasure to mee-”

“Yes,” she cut me off, turning back to Ashton. “It was unexpected news hearing that you were betrothed. I didn’t know that. Somehow I’ve always pictured you with Princess Gwenivere” she chuckled.

I bit back my frown. Although he wasn't royalty, Princess Gwenivere was related to Beau. They were cousins.

“You’re very close in age with her too,” she added.

“I believe she’s already betrothed,” Ashton said with a forced smile.

“Yes, well, mistakes do happen, I guess,” she murmured, glancing at me. “I just thought someone of royal blood would be a more suitable match for you.”

She gave me an icy smile. “Annabeth, I’ve never heard of you.”

“My name is Elizabeth. And no, you wouldn’t have.”

“Elizabeth is such a bland name,” she sighed. “No wonder I keep forgetting. It is a fitting name for a commoner.”

Ashton’s eyes glittered darkly, but I tightened my hold on his hand so he wouldn’t do anything.

She tilted her head and studied Ashton and me. Her eyes travelled to my belly. “This arrangement wouldn’t have anything to do with…” She trailed off, making a rounded gesture on her belly with her hand.

So she thought Ashton was just marrying me because I’d gotten pregnant? I stared at her and she raised an eyebrow as if to say, ‘Why else would you be here?’

“How is your husband?” Ashton asked her, his voice clipped.

She cleared her throat awkwardly, knowing that news of her husband’s embezzlement scandal had been publicized a few days ago.

“He is well. Please excuse me,” she said, slipping away into the crowd.

Ashton rolled his eyes at her retreating figure. “Sorry about that.”

I shook my head. “It’s fine. I expected people to be curious.”

“There’s a line between curious and rude,” he growled. "And they'd better not cross it."

There was more small chat and then everyone made their way to the dining hall. The food was delicious, but I could hardly enjoy it with all the subtle stares that were shot my way. Some people were just waiting for me to mess up and make a wrong move. But I’d been over this a million times. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of spotting a mistake. After making it through all the courses uneventfully, I received a few impressed smiles.

The royal family made up less that 0.001 percent of the kingdom’s population. But tonight in the spacious hall, they seemed like a vast multitude. And this wasn’t even everyone. I had yet to meet the queen’s side of the family.

“Hi, Elizabeth,” a young lady greeted as she walked over to us.

She was tall and strikingly beautiful. Her golden hair flowed down her shoulders in curled ringlets. She introduced herself as Genevieve, twenty-two years old. And like most of Ashton’s cousins, she was also a princess.

She elbowed Ashton with a playful grin. “You finally came back, huh.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “You’re as annoying as ten years ago.”

“You’re still a smart-ass, I see.”

She turned to me, her green eyes analyzing. “You’re so cute!”

“Uh… thank you,” I said taken aback at her sudden compliment. “You’re very beautiful. I love your hair.”

“I want to cut it, but my mom would throw a fit if I did,” she sighed. “It gets in the way of my riding.”

“Genevieve’s an Olympic equestrian,” Ashton informed.

“I adore horses,” she grinned. “We should go riding together sometime.”

I frowned. I definitely did not want to get back on Midnight anytime soon.

We spent the rest of the night meeting more people. Some nice, some not so nice, some plain rude. Ashton was speaking with some men about something that hardly seemed important, because three of them kept stifling yawns every five seconds and he looked downright bored.

CaVaughn had disappeared somewhere and Brooke was chatting with Princess Arianna and some other girls in a corner of the room. Suddenly a loud crash echoed through the hall.

“Oh! I’m sorry!”

I looked over at the noise to see a waiter staring at Princess Malorie in petrified shock. Her silvery dress was wet and dripping at the front. On the ground was a silver tray and shards of glass and spilt champagne.

Her eyes were wide with rage as she stared at him.

“I’m very sorry!” he apologized again, his face getting paler by the minute.

He looked young. Maybe still in his late teens. Another waitress ran up to help heap the shattered glass on the tray.

“Look what you did!” Princess Malorie screamed, her pretty face contorting in rage. “This dress was a very special gift and now it’s ruined!”

“Please forgive me,” he mumbled, bowing. “You suddenly stepped out and I didn’t see you.”

“What?” she growled. She glanced around the room incredulously. “Is everyone hearing this? This Omega is blaming me for his own carelessness.”

There were scattered murmurs around the room.

“I’m not blaming you!” he said quickly. “We just didn’t see each other.”

Malorie stormed closer to him, her heels crunching the glass beneath it. She raised her hand and the guy stumbled backwards, fear evident in his eyes. He fell on ground and his palm sliced across the glass fragments. He was bleeding so much, but hardly seemed to notice.

“Please! It’s our fault!” The girl hurriedly threw herself in front of the guy. “He’s stupid to say that. It was his mistake. We’re sorry, your highness. Please forgive us!”

“Stupid Omegas,” Malorie scoffed, lowering her hand and storming away.

The guy’s hand curled into a fist as he picked himself off the ground. The girl hastily swept up the glass, shooting him worried glances as he tried not to panic over the blood running down his fingers.

Doctors were stationed near the hall in case there were any emergencies. I waited for one to help, but none came. All because he was an Omega.

My feet moved on their own and before I knew what I was doing, I was by his side. He was bleeding and I wanted to help.

“You should get that taken care of,” I murmured, reaching for his hand.

He was frozen as he stared at me. The entire room went deathly quiet.

“Don’t,” the girl said, snatching his hand from mine. “Omegas are forbidden to touch royalty and their soulmates. I’ll take care of it.”

“Do you know what to do?”

“I’ll figure it out.”

I pursed my lips and nodded. I stepped aside so they could pass. All eyes were on me and a few persons whispered to each other. I couldn’t hear them, but their expressions were horrified.

I guess I just ruined my debut.

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