Chapter l447

Chapter 0447

Nicholas POV

“You should have kissed Bridget, Nicholas,” my father said to me.

We were standing in the private rooms he shared with my mother. The King was glaring at me. The Luna was sitting at the table, busying herself with needlepoint and paying us little attention. I knew my father had her full support, however. Talks like these were usually part of a two–pronged attack. 1

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this entire conversation hadn’t been mainly my mother’s

idea.

“I didn’t think the play needed it,” I said.

“To hell with what the play needed,” the King said. His blood pressure was rising. His face was turning red. “You should have kissed her to kiss her.”

“You aren’t giving Bridget enough of a chance,” the Luna said from the table.

I nearly sighed but held back. Like I had guessed, my mother was more involved than she pretended to be.

“Bridget and I are just friends,” I said to her, because I knew she was the one I was talking to, and that my father was just a mouthpiece to her wishes.

The Luna lowered her needlepoint down to the tabletop, then turned in her chair to face me. “This is a competition to find your Luna, Nicholas. You have no friends here.‘

1

Ah. There it was. My mother already chose my bride for me, now she intended to guide me into selecting the woman she’d already chosen.

The only one I really wanted, Piper, was off–limits. They had made that clear plenty of times.

Piper herself had made it clear she didn’t particularly want the job. And even I worried about bringing her and Elva into the dangerous and precarious situations such a role would require. 1

But to have the choice taken entirel

from me rankled my nerves like no other.

These competitions were such a farce. Most of these girls could go home right now and it wouldn’t make any difference. Keeping up the ruse felt dishonest.

“I thought Lilliana was the one you wanted me to pair up with,” I said.

1/2

+15 BONUS

“Don’t be smart, boy,” the King snapped.

I dipped my head a little. It wasn’t like me to speak out of turn to my parents, but this entire day had been one event after the next of people not listening to my wants and making decisions for me.

I was an Alpha. I had not just an urge, but a need to be in charge of my own life. My instinct was to protect those around me. To shield them. Not to cower behind my aging mother’s skirts and have her pick things for me.

The imagined vision made me furious. I respected my parents. Respected Bridget. I was so tired of being disrespected in turn.

The only person in the entire palace who seemed to actually respect me, other than Mark, was Piper. God, I wished I could talk to her now. She had a way of putting things in

perspective. If I only had her beside me…

But I couldn’t.

I could roar in frustration. I was just going in circles, around and around again.. 2

–

“Nicholas,” my mother said and she was my mother now, so much softer when she acted that part, instead of that of a Queen. “Even if you only see Bridget as a friend. Who better than a friend to be your wife? She is not a stranger. You trust her. Your heart could melt for her over time.”

I couldn’t believe that. Bridget had always been my friend, and though I could admit her beauty, I never truly desired her, not once I realized what desire truly looked like. When I had been young, I had thought myself in love. But then I met Piper, and I learned what love truly was.

Yet, I couldn’t fully deny the logic behind her words. If I excluded Piper from the running, most of the women here, even those I had dated, remained strangers to me. Lilliana never allowed me to see her true self. And Olivia’s true self was to meld herself into the moment. I hadn’t seen beyond her hard shell.