The Luna Choosing Game

By the next morning, the drug had worked its way through my system and I felt like my old self again. I

went down to breakfast, where I was reunited with Elva, who had stayed with Susie the night before by

order of Nicholas.

I was grateful for his foresight. Mortified as I was by my actions and sounds, I was at least spared the

embarrassment of explaining any of this to Mark or the nanny myself. Or worse still, to Elva..

A thought so stomach–churning, I dared not even think of it.

So when I did finally greet her, it was with a tight hug and big smile, the same as always.

Susie and I didn’t always sit together, but we chose to that morning. There were still many empty chairs with the previous elimination, and I was feeling vulnerable from what had happened the night before. I needed my friends.

Around us the girls were chattering about the curiousness of the evening’s events. Terry was to be one of the main judges of the night, but he never came to ballroom.

Also as curious, both Nicholas and Julian disappeared sometime in the night, only to reappear this morning, one with a black eye and the other with an injured hand.

“You don’t suppose the princes got into a fight with each other?” one of the girls asked.

“No,” Lilliana said flatly. “He is too mature to take part in such childish antics.”

“Julian does love to tease,” said someone else.

“Not enough to tempt a prince away from his decorum,” Olivia added. “Prince Nicholas been around Prince Julian for years. He’s surely built up a tolerance.”

“Well, then what happened with Sir Terry?“”

“Maybe he started the fight,” someone said, and another laughed. A third shushed them.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Olivia said, rolling her eyes.

her seat to face me. I had Elva

you okay, Piper? I heard some truly terrible

cloudy head and tired eyes, but otherwise okay Except for my continued embarrassment over my

and left my half of the breakfast uneaten on the plate for

to pick

the grounds?” I asked. It took great strength

nodded. “Word is, Terry left at some point

me with a sense of relief and for the first time that

For now, at least, I was safe.

my mind, even as we broke from eating

for the day. I couldn’t help but feel Terry’s cold hands

breath.

my wolf. Who was she? Where had she come from?

now, somehow, because I would never be able to find the answers. Not

but it frustrated me that he could not see the importance of discovering the truth.

would protect people like me from ever being manipulated into giving away their wolves and their abilities.

cowed by Terry, or by Nicholas. I had my own heart and my own

or any of those innumerous other souls out there who just wanted to do the right thing, and lost their wolves

safely into the care of her nanny and Mark, I set off on my own to

check the empty ballroom. I found him sitting alone

wasn’t like him to be so isolated

on the tile steps, he turned back to look

had questions and demands, but he seemed

vulnerability faded. In its place was the same sort of cocky expression

don’t mind company if it’s

at his flirtatious charms and took a seat on the same step he was

there last night. He had bome witness to the

me it wasn’t my

Nicholas moved away.

Nicholas would have taken advantage. He wouldn’t have. But Julian’s being

of my desire much

I was still

so angry about it. I did have desire for Nicholas. I had wanted him to kiss me on the balcony. In time, I might have wanted