HelenaI could see that the young woman was very uncomfortable, and it broke my heart to see my son looking so confused about it all. It was infuriating that life had to be so difficult sometimes. My poor boy was born in the belly of the castle as war started. Why couldn’t he just have this one thing?“Son, we need to talk.” I sighed as he ran after Arora, who was clearly on her way to her mother. They had just come from the gardens where I gave them privacy, but I kept a close eye on them just in case. The last thing we needed was a scandal where there was none. People so loved to talk about the royal family and I knew they would be talking about Bernard and Arora.“Mom, I’m just …” He looked a little agitated.“Now son.” I gripped his arm a little tighter, and he looked into my eyes. He sighed and nodded, and we made our way inside the castle. I wasn’t sure if I should tell him everything, but I had to warn him somehow.“Mother, what is so important that you had to stop me?” He only
AroraIt was inevitable. I was sure about that much. I couldn’t imagine the prince accepting me. Even if he wanted to, I couldn’t imagine his family accepting me. Didn’t he have to ask the king for permission or something? I wasn’t entirely sure how it worked. I never paid much attention to the royal protocol class since I never thought I would need any of it.I couldn’t imagine the moon goddess mating me to anyone important. Little did I know she even had it in for me. The worst part of all of this was that I hardly knew my father before he was … I shook my head as tears started to fill my eyes. Closing them tightly, I fought the sobs threatening to rip through me and forced my brain to sleep.It felt as though I had just fallen asleep when my mother burst through the door to wake me. As she ripped open the curtains, I pulled the covers over my head, trying to avoid the sunlight. I didn’t want to see the sunlight. I hated sunlight … I didn’t, but today I did. I wanted the darkness.“
BernardIt took a little time to find their home since it seemed not a lot of people knew where they lived. Under the circumstances, I guess it wasn’t surprising. My family tried to protect the two women from the shame. There were things about the human condition I couldn’t understand.What people said, and that included my damn family, sometimes didn’t agree with what they did and it was infuriating! They had good intentions. That was always clear. They just didn’t always follow all the way through.I found Arora’s home and knocked on the door. Trying to listen for movement, I heard footsteps coming.“I am not interested…” Arora swung the door open. Her eyes widened. “What are you doing here? How did you find me?” She frowned.“I came to talk to you. You are my mate. My family told me what happened. Could we go inside? I’m sure you don’t want me emptying your dirty laundry right here in the street.” I didn’t mean to be rude. I was still furious with my family and everything just came
AroraI didn’t want to go to the castle. I didn’t want to discuss whatever it was that the royals felt needed discussing. I had work to do around the house. Our roof was starting to leak and since mom and I couldn’t afford to pay for someone to fix it, I was planning on climbing up there myself.“Lady Irina, welcome to our home.” The new queen greeted my mother with a huge smile, and it almost looked as though the girl was just about to hug my mom when I noted the king taking her hand.“Thank you, your majesty. It is an honour to be here.” Mom gushed and I rolled my eyes.“And you must be Arora. It is a pleasure to meet you.” King Noah smiled, but it looked a little strained and I nearly laughed out loud. Fake! The lot of them! Not a single one would know what sincerity really was, even if it smacked them in the damn face.“I am pleased to meet you both.” I curtsied and purposefully didn’t refer to their titles, waiting for them to throw me out of the castle, but nobody would do me th
Arora“We don’t need your charity now! We needed it when you all turned your backs on us.” I spat at them, but my voice almost became a whisper as I ran out of steam. I had been fighting a fight I didn’t understand for most of my life.A fight that wasn’t even mine. A fight against an invisible enemy that wasn’t allowed to show his face because the people in front of me deemed it so. It was simply astounding that they even thought I would consider making peace with them, never mind accepting one of them as my mate!“Arora.” Bernard took a step forward, and I took a step back, making him stop in his tracks. “I’m not asking you to accept me right away. My family is not going to hold this above your head. This is not some kind of bribe to convince you of anything. It is the only way we can think of to start fixing what was done to you and your mother.”“Arora, please.” Mother looked at me with tears in her eyes. Before my father was caught out, they had a wonderful life. My parents lived
Arora“How long has it been like this?” Bernard looked furious and I shrugged.“Like this?” I pointed at the roof, pretending to think. “This probably happened some time this morning. It wasn’t that bad before.” I shrugged again, trying my best not to make a big deal out of it. I knew that the longer they hung around, the less chance there was of me getting up there today. I didn’t want them there, but I knew I had to grit and bear it. For now. For my mother’s sake.“Wait a minute! Is this what you wanted to fix? Were you supposed to be up there when all of this caved in?” Bernard frowned, but I could see concern and anger burning in his eyes. The man was smarter than I thought. I had hoped I had been vague enough.“Yes, she was, your highness. Ever since her father…” My mom spoke up when I didn’t say a word, but her voice trailed off for a moment before she regained her composure. “Arora has been trying her best to fix whatever she could with the limited resources we have.” All eyes
BernardI was so angry that I really wanted to tell my family where to get off, but I held it all back. I can’t ruin this for Arora and her mother now. One wrong word, not that I thought Noah was like that, but one wrong word could mess this all up.I just couldn’t believe that none of us so much as checked on them once. None of us, me included, ever asked if they were okay. They were just the Dutchess and her daughter that nobody talked about until the day I figured out Arora was my mate.I rolled my eyes when I heard someone saying that they just slipped through the cracks. Nothing in our kingdom just slipped through the cracks! Ever! Except for Arora and her mother. They really did slip through the cracks. My family worked so hard to hide the secret that everyone forgot about the innocent victims.We had to change! I would make sure we changed.AroraI looked at myself in the mirror and noted how old my dress looked as I caught sight of the omega’s uniform. My dress was completely
HelenaThe poor girl was probably suffering from a major case of whiplash, and it was all my fault. Okay, maybe not all of it, but it was mostly my fault. If I hadn’t brought it up, my family would probably only have realized it later on and not made such a huge fuss.We would have moved Arora and her mother into the castle the same way we did with all the royals and that would have been the end of it. Instead, I made a fuss and now the entire family was making a fuss, and it had become clear that Arora didn’t like it.She tried her best to hide her feelings, but she was failing miserably. She was a strong female. Like all the women in my family. She was the perfect mate for my son and I couldn’t have done a better job even if I had picked his mate myself.I just wished I could go back and do things differently, but what was done was done, and now I have to try and do better. Back when Arora’s father was sentenced, all we could think about was the threat to our kingdom and our people.