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?

sure, but not enough to become unrecognizable. Unless he truly had sealed me away in his past and moved on, never

maybe he was simply pretending, to save face. I could be a great embarrassment to him, showing up here, years after leaving him, and with

Maybe he hated me.

outsider.” The girl in pink motioned

Another moment of staring at me blankly, then he turned and

He led me to an

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

look at the man, who nervously

is an

sir.” The man bowed twice

into the room. I went inside after them. A servant stepped forward and closed the door behind us, leaving Nicholas, Elva,

thought I might be sick. I had never imagined I’d meet Nicholas again, and especially not

think of me, to see me as I

must have cried herself to sleep, eyes

at once, his perfect façade cracked. He frowned. His golden

gentle on Elva,

dare you hide my child from me?” he

to a stop. I blinked once, twice,

Eloquently, I said, “Huh?”

was three years old. That lined up with our

We’d been so young then, too

was when he’d climaxed. But, hadn’t he been

to slide into bewilderment. His gaze shifted,

I said, hoping to give him some

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

That’s her name. But she’s not

widened a moment, before the anger returned tenfold.

struggle to get it out.

me and

sister. But I wouldn’t tell that to Nicholas. Elva was mine in every way that

some unspoken question for him, and he started

What could cause that

stirred his arms, and he immediately cut off

down onto one

at Mommy,”