by Eve, Jaymin
“Well, New Girl. If that’s how you forget your problems, I, for one, would like to be involved.”
He was joking. Wasn’t he?
“Me too,” Jordan added, and he definitely wasn’t joking.
What. The. Fuck?
Rafe just snorted and shook his head. “I’m finishing my shower, since I got interrupted. Figure this out yourself, Cinderella.”
The bathroom door slammed behind him, leaving me naked, bruised, bleeding, and squirming under two sets of all-too-interested eyes.
Oh shit. I was so fucked.
Chapter 3
I managed to avoid seeing anyone for the rest of the weekend. Mattie blew up my palm reader, requesting me for movies, parties, and just general chick time. But I couldn’t. I literally couldn’t deal with what had happened.
I’d imagined killing Alex, that lying piece of shit, more times than was probably healthy. In fact, nothing I’d done since finding out had been healthy, including fucking someone who could barely stand me at the best of times. It didn’t matter though, I couldn’t get Rafe out of my head. My body, still bruised and battered from more than the fight, ached to be touched like that again, but I was not giving in. Rafe was a weakness I would exorcise from my being.
“Violet Rose Spencer, open this fucking door before I smash it down!”
Mattie followed her words with some loud banging on said door, and I wondered if she was really going to attempt to break it down. The solid timber doors here were designed to protect each room’s rich, famous, and royal inhabitants, and there was no way my slender best friend had a hope in hell.
But she’d give it a try because that’s who she was.
“Vi, seriously,” she huffed, and I leaned my head against the door for a moment before I yanked it open. Mattie almost toppled in, just catching herself on the ridiculous six inch heels she sported.
“You’re dressed to kill,” I said, stepping back to see her better. She had on a royal blue minidress with lace cutout panels in the front and, from what I could see, the back as well. Her boobs were pushed to their limits, her legs long in those heels, and her hair straight and shimmery in the two low lights illuminating my room.
“You’re dressed like death,” she shot back, eyes wide as she ran her green-eyed gaze over me. “My god, Violet, what in the heck are you wearing?”
I looked down. Holey shirt, tracksuit pants, chocolate stain near my right thigh, wine stain on the center of the shirt.
“And you smell like death too,” she added, pushing inside. “To finish off”—she waved her hand at my slovenly appearance—“this package.”
Laughter burst from me before I could stop it. I hadn’t expected that.
“Please come in, insult me some more while you’re at it,” I said, sweeping my hand to the side.
Mattie ignored me, striding through my mess and kicking clothes to the side like she gave no fucks. When she reached my bed, she spun around and glared. “Why are you ignoring me? And why in the hell are you all bruised up again? Did someone hurt you? So help me, I will fucking bring this school down on them.”
My heart ached, and this weird sensation started to fill my throat and eyes. Like… there was so much love in my body that it was overflowing and the only place it could exit was from my eyes. “I’m sorry,” I said huskily. “I’m really fucking sorry for being a shit friend. I tend to shut down when my life screws up. It’s easy to forget that I have someone in my corner now.”
Mattie took two steps forward, and I was hauled into a fierce hug. “You’ve got me in every fucking corner and at your back and front. You don’t have to face them alone, girl.”
Jesus. Make her stop; I really didn’t have time to be a bawling mess.
Not that I’d change Mattie for anything in the world.
When she let me go, our eyes met, and she shook her head. “You’re scaring me,” she whispered.
“It’s Alex,” I said softly, forcing myself to feel the sting of his betrayal again—feel every facet that would burn my body but fill my resilience. I needed that to go the extra mile and take him down.
Most of the time, the twins, Mattie and Nolan, wore these relaxed, easygoing expressions that said they’d go along with whatever and were cool as cucumbers doing it.
But every now and then, their expressions reminded me of my sensei. Scary. Resolved. Ready to take down the biggest baddest mother in the room and not blink twice about it.
Mattie had that look now as she marched to the door, and I could have sworn her chest rumbled. “Be right back,” she growled. “Got a prince to kill.”
Lurching forward, I wrapped a hand around her arm. “Whoa, wait. Don’t you even want to know what happened?”
Her smile was not nice. “I don’t need to know. I’ve never seen you falter, no matter what was thrown at you—including an asshole half beating you to death, but right now… you look broken. No one breaks my friend and gets away with it.”
I’d marry this chick if I swung that way. She was that perfect.
“He doesn’t even know what he did,” I told her, stopping her from trying to get to the door. “I overheard something, and now I don’t know what to do about it. There’s more at work here than some fucked-up playboy who was using me for whatever.”
I’d had time to think over the weekend, time to truly understand what I’d heard from Alex. Or at least what I thought I heard. I was piecing bits together, but I had a pretty clear idea.
Mattie’s face was pale. “It’s bad, isn’t it? The world of monarchs is cutthroat, but I can already tell this is bad.”
I sucked in a shallow breath. “I think the princess ballot is rigged.”
She blinked at me, and the astonishment on her face spoke clearly of her confusion. “I did not expect you to say that,” she finally admitted.
She’d stopped trying to storm out, so I moved to sit at my desk. She perched on the bed. “The other night, I was heading to the underground fight ring when I overheard Alex and Claudette.”
Mattie’s expression went from confused to pissed in two-point-three seconds. “The fight ring? Why in the fuck… Do you realize how dangerous that is? Noles almost got his heart sliced out.”
“I know,” I said, “but you don’t have to worry about me. I’ve been training for years with one of the best weapons fighters in the world. It’s a long story, and I don’t want to go into it now, but I need you to understand that you don’t have to worry about that part of my life. That part I have handled. It’s the Alex thing I don’t.”
Mattie looked like she wanted to argue, but instead, she examined my face. She must have seen some truth there, because she sighed and nodded. “So what did the asshole of Australasia do to you?”
“He was fighting with Claudette. He basically said that he had me right where he wanted me, falling in love with him, and that I was the one who would give him a genetically superior heir. He implied that the entire thing was a setup and I was his last chance since Jasmine was dead.”
Just as I had when I’d spoken of this to the boys, I watched Mattie closely. If she’d known about this for the past few months and hadn’t said anything, my heart might possibly disintegrate in my chest.
Her shock and fury were real as she launched to her feet. “No,” she said, arms trembling. “That can’t be true. It’s random. A random selection. There’s no way it’s rigged so that Alex’s one chance at a perfect baby comes to the school. All of our marriages are arranged by our parents between royal families. They don’t need the ballot…”
“It makes sense though,” I said softly. “Do you have to go through testing first to make sure you’re genetically compatible?”
I’d done a lot of thinking about this, and I saw the bigger picture.
Mattie nodded slowly, horror dawning across her face. “Yes,” she whispered. “Fuck, yes. We have to be tested, and we have personality tests and genetic tests. We make sure there are no problems that might cause our heirs to be we
ak. It’s standard practice to strengthen the future of the monarchy.”
“So that information, teamed with the alliances you want to form between kingdoms, is probably how your matches are chosen.”
“It’s definitely how,” she agreed. “But I’ve never heard of a commoner being brought in like that.”
“What if there was no suitable genetic match for a royal among the monarchies?” I said slowly. “Or what if your match was murdered and you had no choice but to branch out into commoners. Wouldn’t an orphan, with no ties to anyone, be the easiest to manipulate? We literally have no rights at the best of times, let alone when it comes to royals.”
She just shook her head over and over, like she couldn’t fathom this being real.
“The winners are almost always female,” I reminded her. “And every single one of them has married into a royal family.”
“Not a crown prince though,” she argued back. “Only ever minor members royal houses.”
That was true. “Shit, I just don’t know,” I said running my hands through my hair. “I’ve been trying to research it on my palm reader, but I’m scared I’ll trigger some sort of security breach and get myself imprisoned.”
I waited for her to laugh and call me paranoid, but when she didn’t, I knew my instinct on that had been right too.
“What are you going to do?” she said, moving closer to me and perching her ass on the desk beside my chair. “Have you spoken to Alex at all?”
I shook my head, tangled blond curls going everywhere. “He’s messaged and called, but I haven’t replied to any of them.”
He’d knocked on my door too but unlike Mattie, hadn’t attempted to break it down. Not yet anyway.
“I should confront him,” I said, playing with the idea again. I’d been contemplating it for the past few sleepless nights.
“No,” Mattie said with force. “What if he is part of some monarchy conspiracy? They have killed people for knowing less. You might end up like Jasmine.”
Jasmine. It was so hard to know if Alex could be the one responsible for her death. I’d truly believed he wasn’t, but I’d also believed a lot of other things about him.
“From the first day we met, he’s called me his future wife,” I said, bitterness creeping into my words. “I’d dismissed it as some flirty, playboy prince thing, but I’m starting to wonder if he wasn’t actually serious. Maybe Alex has known all along I was brought here to be his wife… his fucking womb for rent while he tried for royal heirs. That’s why I need to confront him. I need to know.”
Like I’d summoned the fucker, a knock sounded on my door, and a familiar voice called out. “Violet, are you okay? I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for two days. I’ve been worried about you.”
Mattie’s eyes were huge as they met mine. “Now?” I mouthed, and she shook her head.
“I can take him,” I muttered.
“Violet,” he called suddenly. “I can hear you. Open the door.”
I shrugged at Mattie. “Guess I better open the door.”
She almost fell off the table trying to get to me, but I was faster than she expected, racing across to yank the door open.
Alex stood tall on the other side, dressed casually for him. He had on black suit pants and a button down shirt, the maroon color a nice contrast to his blond hair and tanned skin. His eyes were blue and twinkling as he smiled down at me, and I fought the urge to wrap my hands around his throat.
He blinked as he took in my ragged appearance. “Are you sick?” he asked in a rush. “You should have told me; I would have arranged for the nurse to visit.”
My blood boiled. The nurse. I’d known she was evil from the first moment I saw her, and now… now I wanted to destroy her, too. Messing with birth control… That was sexual assault in my books. She might as well drug me and let Alex rape me until he produced a child. In some ways, the violation would feel very similar.
A child.
My heart slammed against my chest, the beats hard and erratic. What if she hadn’t given me an IUD at all? Or it was faulty? I’d had sex with Alex. We’d used a condom, but what if he’d tampered with it? I’d also had sex with Rafe, and it would be next to impossible to know whose baby it was if I was pregnant.
Fuck. Shit. Fucking fuck.
The only thing that stopped a full blown panic attack was the memory of his words, the way he’d said that she wouldn’t mess with my birth control yet. I’d found out in time.
Hopefully.
Chapter 4
“Violet,” he said, still staring at me, as his concern faded into confusion. I tried not to notice his perfect face, instead holding onto the hatred that burned inside of me. Alex was gorgeous, there was no denying it, but that perfect exterior hid something broken and depraved.
“I’m not sick,” I said, my words flat. “Not in the way you’re asking anyway.”
I saw it then, probably because I was watching him closely. Studying him with a new perspective. Deep in those perfect blue eyes was a core of darkness.
“Why did you miss our date then?” he asked, sounding a little annoyed.
“She was helping me,” Mattie blurted out, and I was woman enough to admit that I’d forgotten she was in the room. Alex fucking eclipsed all else at the moment. Or at least my hatred for him did.
His brow furrowed with irritation. "You blew me off all weekend to hang out with Mattie? What the hell, Violet?"
I opened my mouth to take the easy out Mattie had just provided, but... nope. I was done. I couldn't keep up the pretense even if I’d wanted to, and I didn’t. I was fucking done with Alex and his fake bullshit, and it was time he knew.
Shaking my head, I sucked in a deep breath, then released it in a resigned sigh.
"Mattie, can I speak to Alex alone a moment?"
My friend made a small sound of protest. "Are you sure that's a good idea, Vi?"
Alex's blue eyes flared with anger at this comment, and again I saw the real Alex. Clearly this side of him had been lurking just under the surface the whole time, and I'd been too busy thinking with my vagina to notice it.
"I've got this handled," I assured her with a small, reassuring smile. As badly as I wanted to publicly tear Alex a new one, my own sense of decency told me not to break up with him in front of Mattie. This conversation was going to be ugly enough without my feisty, red-haired bestie yelling input from the sidelines.
She reluctantly left my room, giving Alex a death glare the whole time.
"Come in," I said when Mattie was in the corridor, stepping aside to let my duplicitous ex-boyfriend into my room. She shot me a meaningful look as I closed the door, and I nodded.
Our unspoken understanding was clear. If I needed her, she'd be here in a second ready to castrate this prick.
"Violet, what the fuck is going on?" Alex demanded when my door clicked shut, not waiting for me to speak. One of his many charms.
"We're done, Alex," I replied, too emotionally drained to deal with niceties.
His brows shot up and his body tensed. "Excuse me?"
I blinked at him, his innocent act fanning the fire of anger within me. "Did I stutter? I said we're done. Over. Finished. Find another stupid girl to fall for your act because I'm done."
Alex didn't move. Didn't blink. But something shifted... something about him suddenly became dangerous. Threatening. "My hearing must be compromised," he said in a soft voice underscored with raw fury. "I could have sworn you just tried to break up with me."
My brows shot up. "I didn't try shit, Alex. I did. We're fucking history, so you can throw your diabolical, disgusting plot with Claudette out the fucking window. You know what? Why don't you just knock that slut up instead? You've clearly been fucking her any chance you can get. Save us all a headache and make a new marriage arrangement."
His lips pursed, his jaw clenched, and a spike of fear ran through me. I'd hedged my bets on being a better fighter than him—if it came down to it. But what if his weak h
its and sloppy form in those scuffles with Rafe had been part of his act? He'd had me fooled in every other aspect, so why not this too?
Shit.
Alex took a step toward me, and I instinctively backed away, my shoulders hitting my closed bedroom door. I wouldn’t give up my secret to him yet, not unless he attacked, so it was better to act a little scared.
"Violet," he said, still using that soft voice that I'd never heard from him before. "Are you scared of me?"
Fuck. Did I even know the answer to that question?
I shook my head. "Not even close, Alex." You fuckhead. "You made a mistake choosing me for this... whatever this is. I'm not remotely the girl you must think I am. Cut your losses and move on."
His brows quirked, and my broken heart squeezed painfully. He'd had me so completely under his spell, and just being around him was physically painful now.
"I don't know what you think you know—" he started to say, but I held up my hand.
"Stop. Just fucking stop. Every word out of your mouth is a lie, Alex." I was shaking. Fuck me, I was shaking, and he could see it in my hand suspended in the air. "Leave now, and I don't care what you tell people. Tell them you ended it 'cause I'm too much of a dirty peasant. Tell them I was shitty in bed. Tell them I cheated on you. I don't fucking care. Just stop faking it with me. I can't—" My voice hitched as tears threatened "—I can't do this, Alex. I can't look at you and not see that everything between us was one giant lie."
His eyes narrowed, but he didn't move any closer to me. "Violet, baby, you need to explain to me what you think you know. I thought we were good... I thought..." He trailed off, looking pained. Upset. It was like a fucking knife through my chest.
"Fuck you," I whispered, horrified and sickened. "You thought I was falling in love with you, didn't you?" I was accusing, but he still gave a small, confused nod. "So what was next, huh? What 'binding contracts' were you hoping to make me sign? Or were you going to just hit a home run and tamper with my birth control? Get me 'accidentally' pregnant and hope I had too much decency not to abort a royal baby?"