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"Prince Ashton, distinguished nobles. Welcome to the Cilan Kingdom," an eccentric looking guy greeted us with a thick Cilan accent. He looked about the same age as us, maybe a year or two older.

"Prince Jaxon." Ashton nodded. "It's a pleasure to be here."

The guy directed his attention to me with a dazzling smile. "You are Elizabeth, I presume?"

"Yes. It's a pleasure to meet you."

He beamed at me. "I do hope you enjoy tomorrow's festivities."

"Thank you."

"As your close friend, let me personally escort you to your temporary residence," he continued, leading the way to a large mansion. "There have been a lot more people than expected." He smiled. "Crysauralia will have their own residence, but you don't mind sharing rooms, do you?"

Ashton and I were assigned a room, Kristof and Diana, Beau and Bianca, Kevin and Jackson and Jun and Raúl.

Ashton smirked beside me and Jun flashed Diana some glares. Diana's face was beet red at the thought of sharing a room with Kristof. We went inside to stow our belongings and planned to meet up in the common area in a few minutes. The guys had meetings to attend. This trip wasn't just all about the gala.

I stared at the single bed, a million thoughts rushing through my mind. Ashton came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and rested his head on my shoulder. "Now that I have you all to myself, care to repeat those comments about me being an arrogant jerk?"

I shook my head with an innocent smile and he leaned in for a kiss.

"Hey, we have to unpack," I said, pulling away from him which took a lot of willpower.

He didn't look persuaded enough to let me go so I kissed him gently. "You need to go meet up with the guys," I reminded him.

He sighed and nodded.

We went downstairs to where Jackson was scolding both Jun and Raúl. Jun was grinning and Raúl looked plain disinterested. Looks like his lecture wasn't having a great effect on them.

"Listen to him," Kevin scowled at both of them.

"Do I even want to know?" Ashton sighed as he caught sight of them.

"I was just going to find some gir- I mean, take a look around the place," Raúl defended.

"And I want to find all the strong people here and fight them," Jun grinned, extending his arms in punches.

Ashton frowned. "Raúl, you'll have enough time for that tomorrow. For now we have work to do."

"Right," Beau said, coming over with Bianca, who was nibbling on a chocolate cupcake.

Kristof trudged over with Diana although he looked like he would rather be with only her. Jun scowled and came over to me. Ashton eyed him warily.

"Okay, so as you usually do, target the kingdoms that you're ambassadors for. Go over treaties and alliances and get them to do what we want. You know how to negotiate. Raúl you'll also be in charge of the Spanish speaking kingdoms, talk to them in their native language. Beau and Jackson have the French kingdoms, Kris, you'll do Russian this time, Diana can go with you too. Kevin will target the science and technology based kingdoms. I'll focus on solidifying the agreements among the Big Ten and a few other countries have requested meetings with me. Elizabeth will come with me."

"What's the Big Ten?" I asked.

"The ten biggest and strongest kingdoms in the world. We're sixth. We use this annual meeting to discuss how we'll go forward with the smaller countries and whether there are any changes we'd like to make to alliances and stuff. It's the time to make declarations of war and that sort of thing."

I frowned as he said the last part so casually.

"Don't worry," Kevin laughed. "Our wars are significantly different than regular human wars. They're... not as deadly. They're the reason why we train so much."

"I can meet with the science based kingdoms with Kevin," Bianca chimed in.

"You should rest," Beau pointed out to her. She was a little over six months pregnant.

"I can rest later," she protested. "I already sat through the long car ride here. How much more rest do I need?"

"But you should..."

He trailed off as Bianca shot him a tear filled glare. He raised his hands in surrender.

"Okay," he conceded reluctantly. "Guard them with your life," he instructed Kevin who nodded reassuringly.

"What about me?" Jun asked excitedly.

"You should be targeting the Japanese kingdoms," Ashton said slowly. "But I really don't trust you going around without supervision."

"Why not?" he raged.

We all stared at him.

"I think that obvious," Ashton sighed. "I can't have you getting us a lawsuit."

"As if anyone would defy a kingdom in the Big Ten," Jun muttered.

"That's not the point," Jackson growled. "You shouldn't give them a reason to even consider it."

"Whatever," he said, rolling his eyes. "I'll just stay here then."

The guys looked uncertain at this proposition. He'd probably go off on his own the second they stepped through the door.

"I'll stay here with him," Diana offered.

Jun scoffed. "So what, you're babysitting me now? Listen you b-"

"Jun," Kristof growled.

Jun huffed and stalked off into the living room. Kristof sighed but Diana gave him a reassuring smile. Her eyes glistened with determination.

"Maybe next year Jun will be able to assist, but for now it's best that he stays here," Ashton mused. "Alright, let's go."

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It was a long day and I got a good look at how the kingdoms interacted with each other. Everywhere Ashton went, he was flocked like a celebrity. Everyone wanted to be on his good side. He really was popular wherever he went. There seemed to be no escaping the spotlight for him. The first meeting was apparently the most important one– the meeting of the Big Ten.

The tension that engulfed the room was suffocating. A brittle silence hung in the air that seemed to reverberate with authority. Ashton kept his cool and calm composure as he took his seat at the round table. I sat next to him feeling an overbearing pressure. Prince Jaxon wore a small smile. His kingdom was in the ninth place.

The other royals looked intense. Some of them had their soulmates beside them. One king had his son beside him. I guess that was how Ashton was a year ago. He and Jaxon were the youngest ones there. Queen Reina wasn't there, but there were three other queens.

The talks of alliances and kingdoms dragged on. At times a single topic took up to an hour to get through.

"What do you say, Prince of Crysauralia?" the fourth place king asked Ashton.

They stared at each other intensely. The king's grey eyes were confident that Ashton would agree to his conditions.

"I'm sorry, but we have to refuse that offer. If there was at least a fifty percent increase then it would be worth considering. But twenty percent? That's insulting. I'm sure the Kingdom of Frey can do so much better."

The silence dragged on between them for a full minute. It felt crushing, but Ashton showed no sign of wavering.

"Thirty percent."

"No deal."

"Forty-five percent."

"I'm sticking to fifty percent. If you don't like it then offer your deal to someone else."

"This young prince," the king growled in disbelief. He contemplated his decision in silence for a few minutes and then gave a resigned sigh. "Very well. If that is your condition, I accept."

I saw the whisper of a smile on Ashton's lips.

"Next order of business. Declarations of war."

The seventh place queen raised her hand. "The Reedawn Kingdom will issue a declaration of war to Mandaulin."

"Any objections?"

No-one objected.

"Very well. Next order of business..."

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"Wow, that was intense," I murmured, exercising my stiff shoulders.

It was late evening now and Ashton had just wrapped up his last meeting. He had managed to get that last country to agree to everything he wanted. He could be very persuasive when he wanted to be and he knew just what to say to get them to comply. It almost reminded me of the king.

He smiled down at me. "Sorry you had to sit through all of those."

"It was pretty amazing seeing your cool, professional side."

He chuckled. "You must be hungry. Lunch was quite a while ago. Let's get back to the mansion."

I nodded and linked arms with him as we headed back. All the guys had wrapped up their meetings too. Raúl was too exhausted to even bicker with Jackson. Bianca had gone to bed because she felt sick after eating seafood and Beau was with her.

The most shocking duo was Jun and Diana who were sitting beside each other in avid concentration, playing a video game. We stared at them in shock.

"Go left!" she yelled at Jun.

"You go left! The strong guys are on the right. They're mine," he grinned.

Kristof had a large smile on his face that kept growing bigger as he watched them.

"How unproductive," Jackson sighed, but decided to let them be.

Who knew Diana was a whiz at video games? My stomach grumbled and fortunately food was provided for us by the Cilan Kingdom. I dug in and it was absolutely delicious.

We left the gamer gang downstairs and went up to our room. I glanced at the bathroom hesitantly. I wanted to take a shower, but Ashton... He sat on the bed with a secretive smile.

"If you come in, you're dead," I warned.

He gave me an innocent smile and I dashed into the bathroom. The spray of hot water felt good and it helped to relax my sore muscles, but the stiffness didn't go away completely.

I hadn't planned on sharing a room with Ashton. Maybe with one of the others girls, but not with Ashton. I examined the clothes I had grabbed in my rush to the bathroom. Booty shorts and a camisole. I buried my head in my hands and groaned.

I got dressed and then stepped out of the bathroom. I was hoping to slip under the covers quickly before Ashton saw me, but his dark eyes followed my every step. A slow smile spread across his face.

"Don't get any ideas," I blushed and rotated my shoulders to ease the stiffness.

"It's a bit too late for that." He grinned and padded across the bed to sit behind me.

"What are you doing?"

In response, his hands reached up to gently massage my shoulders. I let out a small moan at the relieving feeling. This was just what I needed.

"Relax," he whispered. "You're too tense."

I allowed myself to relax against him as he worked his magic.

His hot fingers gently caressed my skin, setting every cell on fire. The sensation of the massage soothed both my mind and body. After a few minutes I felt significantly better; the aches had disappeared.

"Thanks, your highness," I cooed and he smiled. He leaned down to trail butterfly kissed along my neck.

"Anything for you, princess."

I turned to face him with a smile that matched his own. Butterflies fluttered in my tummy as I gazed into his eyes. Everything else lost meaning when I looked at him. His eyes were tender, caring.

I traced my fingers along his cheeks and trailed them down his jaw, memorizing every centimeter of his face with adoration. His defined nose, the perfect curves of his lips... I bit down on my bottom lip and he stopped breathing for a moment. Desire coursed through my body and I knotted my fingers through his silky hair, bringing him down to me in a hot kiss.

He kissed me back with unfiltered passion. The warmth of his body so close to mine only added fuel to my fire. We grew closer yet, two binary stars. Gosh how was it possible to feel so strongly about someone? The English vocabulary wasn't extensive enough to put my feelings into words so I showed him through my actions as we explored each other.

This was more than an explosive reaction. A thousand times more dynamic than anything I'd ever imagined!

It took every ounce of our willpower to stop. It was getting harder and harder each time when we both longed for each other this much. But we would wait. Tomorrow was special. Tomorrow, I'd accept him as my soulmate and he would mark me. Maybe tomorrow...

I leaned into him and he wrapped his arms around me, resting his forehead against mine. The way our bodies fitted and molded together was absolutely perfect.

"I'm falling in love with you, Elizabeth," he murmured softly against my hair.

"I'm falling for you too."

I closed my eyes contentedly and for a moment I forgot where we were. The only thing I needed to know was that I was with him.

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