Chapter 213

Andrew watched Crystal storm off down the path. His heart ached for the woman he loved, and he reached out towards her.

“Crystal, wait!” he cried out as he started to run after her.

“Andrew!” Princess Aurora called after him, but he ignored her. He had to catch up with Crystal. “Andrew, wait for m—ah!”

Andrew suddenly stopped and turned around to see that Princess Aurora had fallen to the cement path. Torn, he glanced between her and Crystal’s retreating figure. Reluctantly, he ran back to Princess Aurora.

“Are you all right?” he asked her, placing his hand on her shoulder.

She gritted her teeth and shook her head. She reached back and held her ankle, which had already begun to swell slightly.

“I think I hurt my ankle,” she said. Tears trickled from her eyes.

Andrew closed his eyes and prayed to the Moon Goddess that Crystal would forgive him for not going after her. He knew that she wouldn’t, but it was all that he could for now. He sighed and opened his eyes again.

“Let’s see how bad it is.”

He gently slipped off her stilettos. She cried in pain.

“I’m so sorry, Princess Aurora. It has to be done.”

He cringed at the sight. Yes, it had definitely begun to swell, leaving an imprint of her shoe in her skin. The skin had even begun to bruise lightly.

“Come on. We need to get you to a doctor. Do you think that you can put any weight on that ankle?”

“I’ll…I’ll try,” she said.

Andrew helped Princess Aurora up. As soon as she tried to put weight on her injured ankle, Princess Aurora cried out in pain.

“Okay, okay, you’re okay,” Andrew soothed her as she leaned against him. “We’re going to try something different, but I’m going to need you to trust me. All right?”

Princess Aurora nodded, clenching her jaw against the pain.

“I’m going to carry you. It will require me to touch you behind your back and under your legs. Is that okay?”

She nodded again.

Andrew wrapped one arm behind Princess Aurora’s back and the other beneath her legs, behind the bend of her knees.

“Okay, I’m going to lift you now, on the count of three. One…two…three!”

In one smooth, effortless movement, Andrew lifted Princess Aurora into a princess carry. She wrapped her arms around his neck to stabilize herself and placed her head on his shoulder, making herself comfortable in the stance.

“I’m going to take you to my car, and then we’re going to go see a doctor friend of mine,” Andrew explained.

“Thank you,” Princess Aurora said. “You really are my handsome prince.”

He ignored that comment, brushing it off as a harmless flirtation, though deep down, he knew that Crystal would not see it that way. He just had to focus on the task at hand and get Princess Aurora some medical help.

As Andrew walked down the path out of the park, a slight click caught his ears. He stopped to look around, but he could not see anything. He mentally shrugged the matter off and continued his way to the car, unaware of the reporter and his camera squatting behind a nearby bush.

Andrew sat in the waiting room, his phone pressed to his ear.

“Come on, Crystal,” he muttered to himself, “pick up.”

Ring after ring grated on Andrew’s nerves. He tapped his foot impatiently. In the end, he only got Crystal’s voicemail…again.

“You have reached the voicemail of Crystal Blanchard. Please leave your name, number, and reason for calling, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.”

The beep all but caused Andrew’s eye to twitch. This was the seventh time that he had been sent to Crystal’s voicemail since taking his seat in Dr. Loup’s office.

“Hello, Crystal,” he said, trying to not sound as agitated as he was. “It’s me again, Andrew. Please call me as soon as you get this.”

He hung up his phone and glanced at the front desk. The secretary eyed him with a mixture of annoyance and pity. He knew that he shouldn’t use his phone in a doctor’s office, but he couldn’t help it; he had to know that he and Crystal were going to be okay.

Andrew ran his hand through his hair.

The problem was that he didn’t know if they were going to be okay. It seemed as though their picture-perfect relationship had gone sour overnight.

Okay, maybe they never had a picture-perfect relationship. They had their problems, just like anyone else, but they were getting through them, together. That was all that mattered.

Andrew considered calling Crystal again, but he knew that it would look desperate. He would just have to worry about fixing his relationship later. It was time to worry about the here and now, and that meant focusing on Princess Aurora and her injury.

Just as Andrew thought this, Dr. Loup opened the door to the back of his office, allowing Princess Aurora to come hobbling out on a pair of crutches.

Andrew rushed over to the doctor and his patient.

“How is she, Dr. Loup?”

Dr. Loup smiled kindly at Andrew.

“She’s going to be just fine, Your Highness,” he replied. “She just sprained her ankle, is all. With her werewolf genes, it will only take a couple days for her to heal.”

Princess Aurora beamed up at Andrew.

“It’s really all thanks to you for getting me the proper healthcare, Andrew,” she said, batting her eyes.

Andrew smiled back at Princess Aurora, but he could not help thinking what Crystal would think about Princess Aurora’s graciousness.

“Will we need to do anything to help her healing process, Dr. Loup?” Andrew asked, trying to redirect the conversation.

“It should be properly elevated and iced. That will help the swelling go down,” Dr. Loup explained. “Plenty of rest, obviously, will help it as well.”

“Well, fortunately you are staying at the best hotel in the entire city with a devoted father,” Andrew told Princess Aurora.

Princess Aurora nodded, but she seemed to pout slightly.

“What’s wrong?” Andrew asked, afraid to offend or upset the visiting dignitary.

“Nothing,” Princess Aurora said, turning her head away from Andrew.

“It doesn’t seem like nothing.”

“It’s silly, really, but I was looking forward to continuing our tour over the next couple of days.”

Andrew stiffened, although it wasn’t noticeable to Princess Aurora or Dr. Loup. With Crystal so upset, he wasn’t so sure if continuing Princess Aurora’s tour was a very good idea, whether Princess Aurora’s ankle was sprained or not. Still, he had to keep the princess happy, and it wasn’t her fault that he and Crystal were having problems…not really.

“We can still see a few sights after you’ve recovered,” Andrew offered. When that did not seem to cheer up the melancholy monarch, he added, “And I can visit you at your hotel when I’m not busy with work.”

Princess Aurora’s smile lit her face.

“I would like that,” she said. “I would like that a lot.”

But Crystal won’t, Andrew’s internal voice nagged him.

Sometimes work must come before love, he told himself, but that did not settle right with his stomach.