The Luna Choosing Game by Jane Above Story

Nicholas held Elva safe and secure in his arms as he stood to his full height. Elva buried her face into the corner of his neck and shoulder. He gently patted her back.

He glanced down at Elva, his gaze so tender that it made my heart clench.

“There, there,” he whispered. “You are safe now.”

“Oh my God,” said one of the other girls in the room, fanning herself. “Of course he’s good with children.”

“Someone pinch me,” said another. “I think I’m dreaming.”

Nicholas’s soft expression hardened as he glared out at the rest of the room. “Whose child is this? Why is she here?”

I started forward, but the girl in the pink dress spoke before I could reach him.

“An outsider sneaked in, unless she’s a maid.”

Some of the other girls snickered at my expense.

“She can’t be a participant,” another girl fake-whispered, loud enough for half-the room to hear. “I thought we had to be virgins, and she’s got a kid.”

I wanted to disappear into a corner. Whether virgin or not, I was nothing compared to the rest of these girls.

My clothes weren’t as nice as theirs, and my figure wasn’t like what it had been at the Academy. I’d lost much of my musculature. I was skinny from too many nights of skipped dinners.

Elva’s wellbeing had always come before my own.

Her sake was the only reason I continued forward rather than hide in embarrassment. I stopped only when I reached Nicholas.

He looked at me, and I looked at him.

I’d forgotten how gorgeous his eyes were, golden brown with flakes of green. When we’d dated, I had spent hours looking at them, trying to memorize that color, but it had seemed different each time.

Before, when I’d stared long enough, I could earn a bashful smile from him. Now, his face was totally devoid of emotion. He looked at me like I was a stranger.

Did he… not recognize me?

had changed, sure, but not enough to become unrecognizable. Unless he truly had sealed me away in his

great

Maybe he hated me.

girl

monotone. Another moment of staring at me blankly, then he turned

led me to an adjoining room, separated by a

in a suit hurried toward him. “Your Royal Highness, please remember that per the selection rules, you aren’t to

at the man, who nervously backed

is an exception,”

sir.” The man bowed twice as he

forward and closed the door behind us, leaving Nicholas, Elva,

I might be sick. I had

think of me, to see me as I was? To see me here, as part of the selection? And with

cried herself to sleep, eyes closed and drooling. She seemed

his perfect façade cracked.

on Elva, his arm looped more protectively

hide my

to a stop. I blinked once, twice, but,

Eloquently, I said, “Huh?”

three years old. That lined up with our breakup three

been so

remember where he was when he’d climaxed. But, hadn’t

it seemed to slide into bewilderment. His gaze shifted, like

said, hoping to give him

hide a child from him would have been a cruelty. He would likely have struggled forever over the guilt

That’s her name. But she’s

eyes widened a moment, before the anger returned

he seemed to struggle to get

and Elva. “She looks

would. Her birth mother was my identical twin sister. But I wouldn’t tell that to Nicholas. Elva was mine in every way that mattered. I would not have her seen as

answer some unspoken question

straightened, startled. What could cause

he immediately cut off the deep

down onto one of the plush couches in the

Mommy,”