Page 35 of Royal Rebel

I think I’m fucked.

AMELIA

Glancing around the room, I wonder where Tristan is. I’ve been covertly watching as he works the room, just like I do, but five minutes ago, I lost him in the throngs of people. If he’s in the shadows, he’s doing a very good job at hiding. Working the room, I keep my eyes open and alert as I watch for him. He’s the thing that keeps me grounded in this crazy electrical storm of a situation I’ve found myself in. I’m doing my best to give everyone my undivided attention when I see a nightmare brought to life—a boy I met when I was fifteen and rebelling against being the one chosen for Tristan.

I’m looking for a way out of this situation, desperately trying to find my center. My Tristan, but I can’t see him. I don’t even see Parker. My heart beats faster, and I do my best to try to get a conversation with someone else going. But itdoesn’t work. Right now everyone has somewhere else they need to be. Right when I need someone, everyone is gone.

Callum Wright was the man who stole my heart, my first kiss, and smashed through my virginity, even when I wasn’t sure I wanted him to. I try to avoid him, but he’s heading toward me, and as he catches up, I have no place to go.

My pulse pounds, almost so fast it makes me dizzy. Can’t anyone see I don’t want to be here? Can’t anyone see how uncomfortable he makes me?

I know they don’t, because everyone thinks Callum Wright is the nicest of men. More women than me have to know he isn’t, but I know no one will speak up.

“Amelia.” He mock bows to me. Just the sound of my name on his lips makes my skin crawl. “How is the future Queen of Haldonia.”

“Looking for her king,” I quip, glancing around, hoping I see Tristan in the crowd somewhere. I desperately want to see him, need to have his strong presence beside me. His strength will hold me up when nothing else will. Please, I beg silently, please come to me.

He leans into me, and I can smell the alcohol on his breath. When I glance up, his eyes are glassy, meaning he’s probably done more than drink some alcohol. It’s well known in the circles he runs in that he can get anyone whatever they’d like to get their hands on. “I hear he’s a bore.”

My chin raises slightly, my jaw tightens. “He’s perfect for me.”

“Which makes sense, my dear, because you were a bore too.” He laughs cruelly.

I hate him.

With every beat of my pulsing heart. I hate him.

Tears prick, and I fight valiantly to keep them at bay. Irefuse to let him see how his words have affected me. Instead I remind him of the day where he took what I didn’t want to give him, hoping it will make him ashamed of the man he was that day. “You didn’t seem to think so that day in the hayloft.”

His eyes burn, a smirk crosses his face. It’s so obvious he’s not ashamed of anything he’s ever done. It hurts me, maybe more now than it did then, because I know what it’s like to have the beautiful part of sharing your body with someone else. “At least one of us enjoyed ourselves.”

I fight to keep from flinching. “Must have been you, because I’ve had much better now.”

He doesn’t like what I said. His breathing quickens and he makes a sound in his throat. Maybe I’ve pushed too hard. Maybe I should have just kept quiet. The look on his face now is scary, and I find myself trying to retreat, but there’s really nowhere for me to go in this throng of people. Just as I’m about to fully panic, I feel a strong hand at my elbow.

“Is there a problem here?”

Tristan’s voice is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.

“Yes,” I answer. “Yes, there is.”

CHAPTER 20

TRISTAN

I can hear the fear in her voice. It enrages me, the fact someone would make her this scared. The way it trembles at the end of each word she says. Her hand is cold as I take it, her body slightly trembling when I brace behind her for the support she so obviously needs in this moment. One of my arms goes around her waist. I’m not worried about how we should feel because we’re in public, I’m more concerned with the woman who will soon wear the crown beside me. The woman who is very quickly becoming one of the most important people in my life.

Leaning down, I angle my face to her ear, not taking my eyes off the man in front of her. “What’s wrong, Lia?”

The man in front of us has the eyes of the devil. They’re hard and angry, like he’s been misrepresented in life so he’s now trying to live up to all the shit people assume he’s done.

I know what that’s like. Everyone thought I was a wild teenager. I didn’t start out that way, but as soon as I realizedthat’s what others expected of me, I lived up to it in a big way. Luckily I’m growing up and getting older now. I realize what that did to people who care about me. Now I’m wondering why this man is doing this to the woman I will call my wife.

He flinches when I call her Lia, and part of me wonders why. Did he call her this name once before? She didn’t object when I gave her the nickname.

Her hand clasps mine around her waist. She grips my fingers tightly, almost as if she’s taking strength from me. It’s what I want her to do. Take whatever she needs from me. I want to be the person to give her the confidence and strength she needs. “Someone from my past, who doesn’t matter now.”

“Then we should be going,” I say the words with a finality so there is no question. No one would dare question the future king, anyway. I make sure to let him know with the firm set of my lips, there is to be no questioning my authority. “It’s almost time to eat.”

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