by Rachel Angel
“Oh, excuse me,” Sabrina giggled. “I must have let out one.”
Classy. Just classy. I shook my head. Characters like Veronica and Sabrina…were they even real?
“Hey, Ronnie,” Sabrina exclaimed loudly, almost like a scream that could pop out my eardrums. “I know what I’d like to do tonight.”
“What?” Veronica asked.
“Let’s all sit at K3’s special dining table in the cafeteria. We can lord it over all the other kids at school, and if we see Tempest…we can really rub it in her face.”
“I thought you and Tempest became friends,” Kaz’s deep voice said out of nowhere.
It was the first time in days that I heard Kaz tried to defend Tempest. Maybe he had a change of heart about her?
Veronica shot Sabrina a murderous look. “You what?”
“Oh nothing,” Sabrina said. “I briefly said I wanted some Miracle Brush, and if she could get me one since she actually was the one who invented it at her parents’ company, I would become her friend. But she haven’t given me one yet.”
Kaz and I glanced at each other before looking away. Being with these two crazy bitches was worse than any punishment we could endure.
Somehow we needed to get out of their clutches.
Kaz got up and walked over to me saying, “You came to see me about something, Hunter. What is it?”
I glanced over at Sabrina who was now at Veronica’s side, whispering and giggling to each other.
“I wanted to tell you that I finally agreed with you that Tempest should leave Kingsbury Prep.”
Kaz hesitated for a while, but said, “Why?”
“She doesn’t deserve being bullied just because she’s the commoner. She has a little sister who relied on her, and frankly, Tempest is too good to be with the rest of us assholes.”
Kaz actually smiled then and said, “Spoken like a man in love.”
Chapter 14
Tempest
After visiting Kaz’s mansion and not finding him there, I decided to take my chances and go to the cafeteria for dinner.
Not all the students at Kingsbury Prep were out to get me, I reminded myself.
Veronica’s cronies would be, though, so I’d have to watch out for them.
Which meant only get closed containers to drink from so no one could drop some rape drug in my drink.
Watch who I sit next to so…again, no one could drop any form of drugs into my food or drink.
I also made sure I triple locked all my windows and doors of my dorm before heading out.
I was walking towards the cafeteria when someone bumped into me in the shadowy area of the walkway going from my dorm to the cafeteria, causing me to almost lose my balance.
A hand steadied me, and I was able to catch a familiar face.
Ricky.
He was the California-surfer-looking local resident on the island, who had water taxied me to Kingsbury Prep when I first arrived. He had also come through with an army of locals for security when Ori’s security team didn’t make it during the Kingsbury Birthday Ball celebration.
“Hey,” he said, smiling at me with his friendly boyish grin. He was cute in a blue-eyed, blonde hair surfer way. “Tempest, glad to see you’re back.”
“Glad to be back,” I said. “But what are you doing here at Kingsbury?”
“My mom…she’s the head chef for the cafeteria. One of her staff left to go back to school so she was short staffed. I said I could do the job, and so she hired me.”
“But aren’t you in school still?” I asked.
“I graduated early,” Ricky said. “I made Valedictorian and have the rest of the summer off before I start studies at Arcadia University.”
“Congratulations, Ricky,” I said, hugging him.
He hugged me back but seemed reluctant to let go.
“Ricky,” I said. “Thanks for all your help during the Ball.”
“Of course I couldn’t refuse you asking me for anything, Tempest,” he said. He looked me over. “I never told you this before, but you’re just stunning.”
“Ricky!” I said.
“No wonder why those princes were so jealous when I even dare to look at you.”
“They shouldn’t be anymore,” I said.
“Why?” Ricky asked, moving closer.
“I’m not with any one of them,” I said. “I’m not even sure we’re friends anymore.”
“Speaking of friends…you can count on me being a friend at Kingsbury,” said Ricky. He grinned as he leaned in closer. “Unless you want more.” He pulled me into his arms and for a brief moment, it looked like he was going to kiss me.
“Ricky,” I smiled but pulled back. “I’m just not ready…”
A hand clamped down on Ricky’s shoulder. We both looked over to see whose hand it was.
Ori.
He was fuming. And I could feel the angry eyes of Kaz, staring at me from the patio area leading to the entrance of the cafeteria.
I didn’t know why he was so angry at me or why he still cared whether I was with Ricky or not.
Ricky leaned over and whispered into my ear, “Don’t sit at the K3’s usual table. Don’t eat the food served there.”
I nodded before Ricky left.
“What’s Ricky doing here?” Ori asked, coming to stand next to me. “Doesn’t he live down the mountain in Arcadia?”
“Yes,” I said, “but he’s working in the cafeteria with his mother, during the summer before he starts college.
“Friendly, isn’t he?” Ori asked.
“Well, he could be,” I said. “I’m no longer with any of you guys, and…”
Ori reached for my wrist. “I’ll sit with you in the Cafeteria tonight, Tempest.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Just that I think you might need it.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be with Kaz and Hunter?”
“Tempest, just let me sit with you tonight.”
“Oh, okay,” I said, walking with Ori into the Cafeteria from the Main Entrance.
With Ori by my side, it was easy to get pushed up to the front of the line to pick up food from the side tables instead of having it delivered like at K3s’ table.
Suddenly, the room was quiet, and some of the students had lined up.
“Here comes the K3s,” I said unenthusiastically.
The gilded doors from the patio entrance flung open, and Kaz strode in, wearing a black suit with a pink flower in its lapel. The students were in awe as they gushed over Kaz and how handsome he looked.
Next walked Hunter dressed in a tailored grey silk suit that fit him like a glove. He and Kaz looked and acted like the crown princes they were.
Then my heart flipped over when I saw Veronica walked through the patio door entrance and head over to put her arm through Kaz’s arm. She was wearing a pink dress that matched the flower’s shade of pink in Kaz’s lapel.
“What’s going on?” I asked Ori, seated at my table.
Next Sabrina walked through K3’s entrance door and linked her arm through Hunter’s.
Ori reached out his hand to squeeze mine.
Kaz walked with Veronica to the center of the room, while Hunter and Sabrina joined them.
Kaz’s eyes found mine, and he looked intensely at me, still filled with anger, and still filled with regret or sadness.
Veronica stood next to him, whispering into his ears. He looked angry at first but then opened his mouth. Before he could say anything, Veronica loudly announced, “Fellow students of Kingsbury Prep. We have an amazing announcement. Your King and Trustee Prince Kaz and your Queen and New Trustee Veronica, me, are engaged! Yes, we’re engaged!” She laughed and giggled, showing us her ring finger and the large diamond ring on her finger.
My heart fell. I couldn’t breathe at first until I took a deep breath.
This wasn’t real. This was just a dream. Kingsbury Prep and the K3s were just a dream.
“This is the ‘Princess’ that Kaz said his paren
ts found for him,” I said.
“Apparently so,” Ori said next to me.
“Is that why Kaz had been acting hateful to me?” I asked. “Because now he was with Veronica, he had to support her bullying of me?”
Ori didn’t say anything but just clenched his jaw. “No one could force anyone else to become a bully, Tempest. If Kaz was hateful to you, it was because he chose to be. He made that choice. Now he has to live with it.”
Although Kaz was now engaged to Veronica, his eyes kept darting over to me with Ori.
Hunter and Sabrina joined Kaz and Veronica at the K3 table.
As though no one was watching, Veronica began making out with Kaz right in front of Hunter and the rest of us.
I looked away. My heart was numb of any feelings at first, but when I caught the way Kaz was looking at me, as though he couldn’t stop looking at me, as though he was filled with such sadness and regret, I felt my heart breaking.
“Why?” I asked. “Why were they doing this?”
Ori just said, “Sometimes being a royal just sucks.”
Kaz once said he loved me enough he would give up a kingdom to have me. Now I knew it was stupid of me to believe that.
“Your food’s getting cold,” Ori said next to me.
I didn’t feel like eating anything after learning that Kaz was truly with Veronica.
“I’m not hungry,” I said.
“You need to eat, Tempest,” Ori said. “You need to keep up your strength.”
“This was the same woman who tried to shoot me, put me through a meat grinder, and invoke the Black Envelope on all of us. How could he marry her?” I asked.
“Diplomatic reasons, Tempest,” Ori said. He took a spoonful of whatever was in front of me and put it to my mouth, feeding me.
It was good. A rich creamy soup.
“And Hunter,” I said, watching Sabrina make out with Hunter.
His expression was detached, bored and even cruel as he looked through the menu while Sabrina crawled under the table which was covered up with a long tablecloth.
Hunter once told me I was the only girl for him, and he had not been with anyone since but now here he was in front of the student body, flaunting being sucked by Sabrina.
Hunter, who told me once that I was the only girl he had ever fallen in love with and ever will.
I took one look at Kaz, who was now being sucked by Veronica under the table. He had an angry but arrogant look as he watched us.
I glared back at him. Why he was angry at me, I didn’t care.
Tonight, my heart was shattered, broken into a million pieces.
Whatever love we had was gone.
To me, witnessing Kaz with Veronica of all people, was a deep betrayal.
Watching Hunter having sex with Sabrina was like being punch in the stomach and having the wind knocked out of me.
I got up to leave but Ori pulled me down.
“Why won’t you let me get out of here?” I asked. “Just let me go.”
Ori forced me to stay, holding me in place gripping me with one arm, while feeding me soup with another.
“Maybe this was all for the best, Tempest. You need to get a dose of reality.” He reached over to cup my face in his hand before kissing me low and slow. He then pulled away while he turned my head to keep watching Hunter groan, and his face filled with pleasure while he climaxed.
“I can’t watch this, Ori,” I said. “Why are you being so cruel and making me watch?”
I tried to close my eyes, but Ori pried them open. “Think about how Veronica must be touching him where you did, sucking him when his dick was only yours to have,” Ori whispered into my ear.
“Stop this,” I said to Ori. “What the fucking fuck?”
Kaz exploded, and his face was filled with such pleasure and cruelty that he looked directly at me when he climaxed. Rubbing it in. Letting me feel the disdain he had for me. The cheap commoner whom he had played with for a brief while, but never ever intended to get serious with. Now he had his fun, he was ready to move on to his real relationship…one with a crown princess who had a country she would rule one day.
“Was this really what it had been between us?” I asked Ori.
Ori laughed a hollow laugh that reminded me of an empty ghost of a man. “Yes, Tempest. Did you really think we royals would mix with the blood of non-royals? We would play with you, have our fun for a while until you bore us, and then we’d let you go. We played a good game with you, didn’t we? We made you think we really cared about you when all the time we were laughing behind your back. Sharing you was something we wanted to try with a girl. But none of the royal girls would do it. It’ll taint them for sure for marriage. But you…you were prime…a commoner. A whore. If any one of us got into a scandal with you, we could blame it on your whore background…homeless, penniless, willing to do anything to make a dollar.”
I looked at Ori, unable to recognize the cruel man behind the handsome face I loved. “I thought you loved me…I thought we had become a family here at Kingsbury.”
Ori smiled a wicked smile. “You thought wrong, honey. As princes…especially crown princes of countries with millions and even billions of people, wouldn’t you think we could get any girl we wanted? Why settle for one girl amongst all of us Princes when we could have and will have multiple partners, harems of our own?”
A single tear slipped down my cheek.
I had been played.
Ori laughed. “All this time, you thought you were special. In the end, all you were was a slut who was willing to spread her legs wide for any dick willing to dare dip themselves into your diseased bits.”
“You were the one I trusted the most,” I said. “During the tournament,” I said, “I felt an instant attraction to you, Ori,” I said. “I thought it was real. It was before all this Kingsbury bullshit. But all you’ve proven to me was that yes, you were just a dick as I thought you’d be.”
With that, I bit down hard on his hand that was holding my face in place so I would watch Kaz and Hunter get sucked. I drew blood from Ori, and he dropped his hand before I stood up, slapped him hard on his face, and left.
Chapter 15
Tempest
They finally got what they wanted…the commoner whom they never wanted, left Kingsbury Prep. As soon as I ran back to my dorm room, I called for my private jet to take me back to San Francisco.
I wanted to leave Kingsbury Prep as soon as I could. I felt as though I had stepped into some strange funhouse and all the people I had met, especially the K3s, were distorted versions of themselves.
Ori, Kaz, and Hunter…I still couldn’t believe they had set the entire thing up…this elaborate plan to get me to leave Kingsbury Prep.
The pilot for my private jet phoned me and said they were delayed, but there was another jet that was heading from San Francisco from a nearby island. They said they could pick me up within half an hour.
Anything was better than staying at this reverse alternative bizarro land. I told him to arrange it.
Half an hour later, with all my belongings packed, I walked up the steps to a beautiful gold trimmed private jet. A pretty stewardess greeted me and seated me in a plush leather chair opposite a young gentleman seated to the right of me.
I acknowledged him and smiled. “Thank you so much for stopping here and sharing a flight with me, Sir,” I said.
He looked vaguely familiar as he stood up and shook my hand. A little older than him, around 25 years old, this young man dressed in an impeccable blue silk suit, with black hair and blue eyes, looked like a more grown up version of Kaz.
Were they related?
His eyes took me in from head to toe appreciating what he saw from the glint in his eyes. “I’m Jordan…Prince Jordan.”
“Any relations to Prince Kaz?” I asked.
Jordan smiled, “We’re half-brothers. But I’m older by a few years.”
“That explained the remarkable resemblance.”
“Hopefully
I’m the handsome one,” Prince Jordan said.
“Well, definitely the charming one,” I smiled.
“Seemed like Kaz lucked out a bit though,” Jordan said.
“Why would you say that?” I asked.
“He got to go to school with you, didn’t he?”
“Thank you for being so charming,” I said.
The stewardess came by and offered us drinks and then we were alone again.
As we sipped our drinks, I looked over at Jordan. He was tall like Kaz, and even more filled out.
“The good looks genes seem to run in your family,” I said.
“The stunning beauty genes run in yours,” Jordan said.
“Thank you,” I laughed. “I needed that especially after the kind of lashing I had tonight.”
“Oh?” Jordan raised his thick eyebrows.
“Long story,” I said.
“We’ve got time,” Jordan said. “Going to SF will take a while.”
“I know,” I said. “A long commute for sure. So, if you don’t mind…what is it that brings you to SF?”
Jordan looked straight ahead as he took another sip from his glass. “Ever heard of the Underground Fight Network?”
My eyes widen as I looked over at Jordan, relaxed and staring straight ahead. “Yes,” I said.
“I’m the owner of it,” Jordan said.
My heart began racing as it suddenly hit me. The Underground Network was my sponsor from the underground fight tournament. They also just deposited $5 million as my sponsor, which allowed me to buy back 3 Kings Technologies.
Then there was Jordan himself. Half-brother to Kaz. Didn’t Kaz mention a while back how his brother wanted to become King of their country, but Kaz was the crown prince? And there was a civil war that was about to take place, instigated by his half-brother?
I gulped. So this was Kaz’s biggest rival and nemesis. Now what did I do to become a pawn in their civil war?
*****
Tempest, Kaz, Hunter, and Ori’s story continues in