The Luna Choosing Game

Nicholas held Elva safe and secure in his arms as he stood to his full height. Elva buried her face into the corner of his neck and shoulder. He gently patted her back.

He glanced down at Elva, his gaze so tender that it made my heart clench.

“There, there,” he whispered. “You are safe now.”

“Oh my God,” said one of the other girls in the room, fanning herself. “Of course he’s good with children.”

“Someone pinch me,” said another. “I think I’m dreaming.”

Nicholas’s soft expression hardened as he glared out at the rest of the room. “Whose child is this? Why is she here?”

I started forward, but the girl in the pink dress spoke before I could reach him.

“An outsider sneaked in, unless she’s a maid.”

Some of the other girls snickered at my expense.

“She can’t be a participant,” another girl fake-whispered, loud enough for half-the room to hear. “I thought we had to be virgins, and she’s got a kid.”

I wanted to disappear into a corner. Whether virgin or not, I was nothing compared to the rest of these girls.

My clothes weren’t as nice as theirs, and my figure wasn’t like what it had been at the Academy. I’d lost much of my musculature. I was skinny from too many nights of skipped dinners.

Elva’s wellbeing had always come before my own.

Her sake was the only reason I continued forward rather than hide in embarrassment. I stopped only when I reached Nicholas.

He looked at me, and I looked at him.

I’d forgotten how gorgeous his eyes were, golden brown with flakes of green. When we’d dated, I had spent hours looking at them, trying to memorize that color, but it had seemed different each time.

Before, when I’d stared long enough, I could earn a bashful smile from him. Now, his face was totally devoid of emotion. He looked at me like I was a stranger.

Did he… not recognize me?

I had changed, sure, but not enough to become unrecognizable. Unless he truly had sealed me away in his past and moved on, never once looking back.

simply pretending, to save face. I could be a great embarrassment to him, showing up here, years after leaving him, and with

Maybe he hated me.

outsider.” The girl in pink

said, and even his voice was monotone. Another moment of staring

Elva, so I followed him. He led me to an adjoining

toward him. “Your Royal Highness, please remember that per the selection rules, you aren’t

to look at the man, who

is an exception,” Nicholas

Of course, sir.” The man bowed twice

into the room. I went inside after them. A servant stepped forward and closed the door behind us, leaving Nicholas, Elva, and I alone in a small

sick. I had never imagined I’d meet

of me, to see me as I

at ease against his chest. She must have cried herself to sleep, eyes closed

his perfect

stayed gentle on Elva, his arm

dare you hide my child from me?”

blinked once, twice, but,

Eloquently, I said, “Huh?”

at Elva, softly sleeping in his arms. She was three years old. That lined up

so young then, too

haste. I couldn’t remember where he was when he’d climaxed.

to slide into bewilderment. His gaze shifted, like he was trying to remember

I said, hoping to

from him would have been a cruelty. He would likely have struggled

name.

before the anger returned

he wanted to say, he seemed to struggle to get it out. He swallowed it

glanced between me and Elva. “She looks like

would. Her birth mother was my identical twin sister. But I wouldn’t tell that to Nicholas. Elva was mine in every way that mattered. I would not have her seen as anything

unspoken question for him, and he

straightened, startled. What could cause that

and he immediately cut

he lowered Elva down onto one of the plush couches

at Mommy,” came Elva’s