Chapter 0039
Nicholas
What I said hadn’t been a lie. I did have other wrist guards, made by artisans and leatherworkers from all across the country.
Yet none of them had been quite as meaningful as the one handmade for me by Piper. Hers was more comfortable too.
I wasn’t sure how she could remember the size of my wrist without having examined me, but she had crafted the guard to fit snuggly but not too tightly. Just how I preferred it.
Did she perhaps remember when I had complained about other wrist guards in the past?
It seemed unlikely.
When I had first found the wrist guard, I had disregarded the thought that Piper had been the one to give
me this gift.
Yes, only one here who had prior knowledge of my condition. But when she had broken up
She was the
with me three years ago, she had done so without warning. And seemingly without remorse.
She left me, dropped out of the Academy, and disappeared straight off the planet. None of our mutual friends had been able to get a hold of her. My own calls never went through, but I had simply thought
she’d blocked me.
Now she was here. And she had given me this gift.
I only wished I knew what it meant.
In the moments where I thought that perhaps she gifted it with honest intentions, a sense of pleasure
spread within me.
But then I remembered when I’d gone to her room to ask her about it, I had found her with Julian. They had been talking in hushed whispers, their heads bowed toward each other as if they were sharing an
Intimate moment
A darkness had quickly replaced any pleasure, and I had carried it with me like a shadow until now, when I could finally return the gift to its creator.
Piper accepted the returned wrist guard, but her face fell. I steeled myself against the sight of her upset. yet even after three years, it still tugged at my heartstrings.
I wanted to hate Piper, and there were certainly moments in which I did. The hurt of her disappearance
still burned. And now her reemergence with Elva brought its own questions.
Had she cheated on me and gotten pregnant? Was that why she had left me?
And why was she suddenly so close with the brother she knew I despised?
There were too many questions between us. Too much raw heartache lingering from the past.
I kept my face carefully measured. I didn’t want her to know how much she still affected me. How, ever
since we had parted, I had never been able to love anyone the same way I had loved her.
Piper’s gaze lowered. She held the wrist guard gently in both of her hands. What would she do with it
now? Clearly it had been crafted only for me.
Regret filled my heart. I wanted it back.
But I couldn’t re–accept it. Not without looking like a fool once again.
And the way she had talked with Julian….
Anger twisted in my heart. She knew I disliked him, maybe better than anyone. Why would she choose to
spend time with him?
What I was feeling wasn’t jealousy. It couldn’t be. I’d buried all romantic entanglements to her deep
within myself long ago.
It still felt a lot like jealousy.
“If you will excuse me,” I said and motioned for Mark to return with Elva.
When they came close, I began walking away before Elva could request more of my time. I’d feel obliged
to give it.
If Elva had been mine, I would have been the most indulgent father. She was everything I wanted in a
daughter – curious and sweet, with a big smile. She looked so much like her mother.
But Elva wasn’t mine.
Piper had moved on so quickly.
With these old hurts resurfacing, I hurried to get away as fast as I could without making it look like the retreat that it was.
Chapter 0040
Pipe couldn’t think I was running away from her, despite that being exactly what I was doing.
never let her know she had any power over me still.
If she knew she’d likely use it against me. I continued to suspect that she was only here for nefarious
He presence couldn’t have been a coincidence, despite what she said.
Mark caught up with me in the driveway near one of the royal family’s cars. He’d been my Beta a long time. There weren’t many things I didn’t tell him about.
Piper included.
She’s not like how I pictured her,” Mark said now. “When you mentioned her before, I thought she might actually have cloven hoofs and a tail. A devil, for sure. But meeting her, she seems… nice.”
“Don’t be deceived.” Like I had been.
couldn’t let Piper get her hooks into me again. Yet even as I thought it, I could feel my dormant attachment to her pushing against the outer edges of my heart, trying to make its way back in.
Mark seemed pensive, like he wanted to say more but held himself back.
I didn’t like that. He was my Beta, but he was also my friend and confidant. He was the only person around me anymore with whom I could talk to without having to wear the mask of the perfect prince.
“You can speak your mind,” I told him.
He nodded. “You’ve been different since she’s arrived. Almost more… open, I suppose.”
I disagreed. I still hid my true thoughts away from the world.
Mark was adamant though. “No, seriously. Around her, your emotions come out more easily. You’re more present in the moment, instead of just standing there going through the motions.”
1 leveled him with a flat look.
His expression became sheepish. “You told me to speak my mind.”
You can, I said. That doesn’t mean that I have to agree.”
See for yourself. Next time you are around her, watch how fast your emotions trigger, especially when compared to when you are with literally anyone else.”
