YENA

We hid out in the house all morning.

Peter had been taking calls from his lawyer, his partners, and his creditors. He told them he was doing everything he could, but that he needed more time. Then they showed up at the house.

Evan went around and locked all the doors. Tina pulled the curtains closed over every window. Men were knocking on the door nonstop — banging it hard — trying to wear us down, get us to open up.

Peter told us not to be scared. They’ll go away, he said, if we ignore them. I was pretty sure he was wrong about that, though I really couldn’t guess what would happen if we just kept on hiding there in the dark.

Peter turned his phone off. He hadn’t told anyone the whole story yet. Hopefully, no one besides us and the prince knew yet that I’d rejected his proposal.

Not that anyone would believe it, anyway, if we told them. How could an ordinary girl — a commoner, and a fat girl at that — not take the prince up on such an undeserved offer?

I stared at the phone, hoping it would ring any minute now.

I was full of regret. I’d only been thinking about myself the night before — what I wanted or didn’t want. And Nolan was just so infuriating, so condescending; he made me want to fight and argue against everything he said and did, and put him in his place.

Then again, I didn’t even know about Peter’s situation last night. Now that I knew, it was clear I had to accept the proposal. Peter and Tina took me in and took care of me when my mother died and I’d been left with no one else in the world.

Now, I had to step up and take care of them.

Evan was missing practice this morning. My design project, due in an hour, was sitting upstairs on my desk unfinished.

I was starting to think it was all over with Nolan. He was actually going to ghost me, just because I’d wounded his delicate ego. I’d blown a chance of a lifetime.

But then the commotion outside roared into what sounded like a riot. There must have been a hundred people out there, maybe more. All going wild.

I recognized a few voices — our neighbors, yelling at us out their windows, demanding to know what was going on.

From the street, a car horn sounded, blasting out a series of loud honks as it rolled up to the house, parting the sea of creditors, reporters, and onlookers who were swarming around.

Sera, the family maid, came rushing out from a back room, where I realized she’d been hiding out quietly, trying to keep out of our way throughout the morning’s chaos.

“It’s the prince,” she said, rushing to the front window. She threw the curtain open, letting in a blinding blast of sunlight. And she was right — there was the shiny black Rolls-Royce limousine, flanked by the Gamma warrior motorcade of matte black SUVs.

Evan appeared at my side. Our eyes were glued on the scene unfolding outside.

Tina, who’d been so stubbornly fixed on her anger with Peter for hours now, stood behind us to watch as Nolan stepped, gracefully, out of the limo.

She whispered, almost inaudibly, “Oh Goddess… it really is him.”

She put her arm through mine. I looked at her and saw tears pooling in her eyes.

All the attention outside, now, was on Nolan. No one was trying to snap photos of us through the windows. They were all over the prince, clamoring to edge past the attendants and guards that kept him in a protective bubble.

Nolan’s secretary zeroed in on the creditors and found the person in charge. He opened a thin briefcase and produced an envelope that he handed over quickly. It was unbelievable, how fast it happened — the man opened the envelope, examined the check, shook hands with the secretary, and then he and every last one of his associates got in their cars and drove away — just like that.

The secretary beat Nolan to the front door. Evan let him in, and he sat down with Peter at the kitchen table. I heard them whispering from the other room.

Another fifty million dollars. The prince signed a second check — just to give to my parents.

I’d never seen Peter cry before. But as he thanked the secretary, I heard in his voice what sounded like the warble of a person in tears.

It must have been such a relief for him. A total turnaround from the state of our lives just an hour before.

Then the secretary asked to speak with me privately. We went into another room, and he told me I needed to pack my things. I was leaving with them in a few minutes and moving into the palace today.

I knew I didn’t have any choice. And anyway, it was probably better not to prolong the goodbyes.

Tina and Sera helped me pack. I said goodbye to everyone quickly and walked out to the limo, surrounded by guards who’d been waiting at the door to escort me through the crowd. The prince lingered in the house a moment longer.

The chauffeur took my bags and loaded them into the trunk.

I put my hand on the door handle but couldn’t open it. I turned around and saw Tina, who’d come out of the house and was standing on the porch watching me, still wearing her pink bathrobe over her pajamas. I ran back to her for one last hug.

We cried for a minute, and then the prince came and touched my arm, telling me it was time to leave.

NOLAN

Nolan thought about waiting in the limo for Yena, but the mob of reporters would not go away. So he went into the house for a few minutes while the girl finished packing her belongings.

She came down the stairs with her luggage, crying. He wasn’t used to seeing women in such a vulnerable state. It repulsed him, a little, and a cruel impulse deep inside of him also wanted to laugh at her weakness.

But instead, he asked his secretary to bring the girl a handkerchief.

The handkerchief was silk, rose pink, and embroidered with royal emblems stitched in gold thread. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose, then said some hasty goodbyes and fled out the door.

Her mother paced after her, stepping out onto the porch and pausing there.

Nolan took a step toward the door. The girl’s cheeks had been flushed, making her round face look like a red apple. Somehow even that attracted him to her.

He wanted to reach out and stroke her soft cheeks. Kiss her. Take a bite out of her.

Nolan felt eyes on him and looked to his left. Evan, Yena’s adoptive brother, was standing a few feet away with his fists clenched and a murderous look in his steely blue eyes.

The prince looked at Evan with cold, calm disdain. He knew there was something going on with this young wolf. With him and Yena.

“You better treat her well,” Evan said. “You have no idea how special that girl is. You have no idea how amazing and beautiful she is, and if you ever hurt her, I don’t care if you’re the fucking king by then, I swear I’ll come after you with everything I’ve got.”

Nolan smiled at the boy. His threat was irritating, but not frightening.

“You like her, don’t you?” Nolan asked quietly. “Your little sister. You want her.”