Chapter 0313

"Have fun with mom,” I say, straightening up. “She's nice to you, right?

"She's so nice to me.” He replies, eyes wide, like he cant believe how nice mom is to him. But we all know her, and so we just smile again, pleased to

see him feeling cozy and cared for.

"Ckay, we'll be back as soon as we can,” Rafe says, turning towards the door. "And then we'll try to come rescue you before mom picks out your

80(th) pair of shoes.”

“That's impossible...” Jackson murmurs with a frown, standing to follow us out the door and go find mom. “80 pairs of shoes...nc one has that many.”

"So, you haven't shown him your closet yet?” Jesse asks, grinning at me.

‘l am a lady, Jesse,” I say, waving goodbye to Jacks as he turns back towards the breakfast room, "Jackson has seen no part of my room, let alone

my closet. A princess must keep her secrets.

"Ch, yeah right.” Jesse laughs, striding forward with me and Rafe towards the front of the palace, where the car they've arranged is waiting. “You

have simply lacked the opportunity.”

“Yeah well,” I murmur, pitching my voice low so Rafe doesn’t hear me as well. “If I did get him in my room, I wouldn't be showing him my shoes.”

Jesse bursts into laugher but then turns it into a gag, pretending to be horrified and disgusted at the idea, which just makes me laugh more. Rafe

gives us a little glare as we reach the car, wondering what's going on, but we just wave him off and he shrugs, deciding that he’s better off not

knowing.

When we all climb into the car, though, things turn a little bit more serious as we all mutually turn our minds back to the problem at hand. I'm a little bit

grateful, if I'm being honest, for the distraction that a bit of laughter brought me — it's been kind of an intense morning. But now that we're driving the

short distance to Luca's house, I set my mind on what's really important: getting to the bottom of who released this information, and what the

consequences should be.

Because if it really was Luca — I mean, I'm going to be devastated.

But how, honestly, should I react?

Should I...break up with him? Refuse to go to the fight? But no, even if I'll be horribly hurt, both of those options seem just... way too extreme

My wolf turns anxiously inside me at the idea of breaking up with Luca, about what that would do to our heart. But what, really, would my option be?

Because...even if he's my mate, I couldn't let him walk all over me like that.

But did he even do it? And if he didn't, who did?

I'm still puzzling over it — and by

their quiet, Jgsse and Rafe are too —

when we alt up to Luca's house. -_

Rafe curges under his breath when

he sees-that there are a couple of

press\ans spread out along t the

street, clearly covering Lucas

aetivities before his big match

tonight. Content be ongs to

And, perhaps, locking out for a royal sighting.

Which were absolutely about to give them

"All right,” Jesse says on a sigh, looking between Rafe and me. “Nothing we haven't done before. Just — into the house as fast as possible, right?”

"What, are we just going to barge in without knocking?” Rafe asks, his face clearly letting us know that this isn't a great idea.

But I see Luca's mom at the door peering out at it, looking closely at the black town car with tinted windows that’s stopped outside her front door, and

then I see her turn to call to someone inside.

“It's not going to be a problem,” I say, reaching over Rafe to open his door and giving him a hearty push, urging him to get out. "Go — now. Let's get

inside.”

Rafe follows my lead, getting out of the car and putting out a hand to help me, which I take. Then, together — Jesse a few steps behind — we stride

towards the house.

By the time we get to the front steps, shouts from the press vans let us know that we've been spotted. They shout our names, trying to get us to turn

so they can get a shot. We quicken our pace.

But before we can get to the door and slip inside, Luca’s already pushing through it, his face desperate.

"Ariel" he shouts, already shaking

his head d;reaching for me. Before

can stop him, he crosses the porch

to metaking my face in his hands,

staritig down into my eyes. ‘Ariel — I

aneso sorry — I did not do this —*

Cdntent

“Not the time or the place, Grant,”

Rafe growls, @sing the bulk of his

body to blosk us from the sight of -_

the p esgbehind us, which are N

currenthy running towards the house

to see-f they can get a shot ofc our

encounter. Jesse strides forward,

clasping a hand on Luca's=shoulder

to get his attention.

Unwilling, Luca drags his eyes from my shocked face to look at Jesse.

“Inside.” Jesse growls, fierce, giving him a hard shove. “Unless you're trying to get more publicity out of my cousin?”

Luca blushes a deep, ashamed red and steps away from me.