The Alpha Princess Selection

Chapter 9

Charlotte’s POV

Why was this so complicated?

Why are there so many pieces that need to be put into place?

These are the questions that went through my mind as I tried to put all of the cutlery into their correct places.

Although I had eaten at many formal dinners, I had never paid much attention to the place setting. All I did was focus on putting as much food as possible into my mouth, not caring about the position of the fork I was using had come from, which was something I was now regretting. I should have paid more attention.

I had grabbed one of everything that had been put on the side tables and put it into a basket so that I would only have to make one trip to get everything I would need. The only clue I had was that there would need to be 27 pieces of cutlery since Lady Addison had said, but I had grabbed more, thinking that it would be better to have more than to not to have enough.

I took hold of the last piece of cutlery that I had put in my basket, and as much as I tried, I couldn’t seem to find a spot that made enough sense to put it. With things like plates, it made sense to have them right in front of you, but placing spoons and forks was a lot more complicated.

I tried to look over at what my neighbour had done, but I couldn’t see anything as partitions had been placed to stop us from cheating. I then turned to Lady Addison and saw that she had sat down on the chair that was like a miniature throne that was situated at the front of the room.

I hoped she could see the pleading look on my face and put me out of my misery, but instead, she let out what I thought was a smirk in my direction without even turning to face me. Even if it wasn’t a real smirk, I knew that I would not be getting any help from her.

I let out a sigh in frustration. I couldn’t believe I was letting this task stress me out this much. If there was anything I hated in this world, it was stressing over things that were of no importance.

I steeled my eyes in determination and put the fork on the right side of the plate right next to where I had placed the napkin. It made sense to have everything that needed to be picked up on the right side since that was the dominant hand.

I stepped back from my place setting and looked at it. It wasn’t perfect, but it made sense, and that’s all that matters.

My focus was taken away from work when the main door for the room opened abruptly. As the person who had interrupted our task entered, gasps erupted from most of the girls.

“Alpha Prince Royce!” I heard one of the girls around me say in an excited whisper-scream.

My mouth dropped open in shock, I was not expecting to run into him at all because I thought he would voluntarily stay away from the room where the 20 women who were trying to win his heart were.

Prince Royce had blonde hair that was combed away from his face, and his blue eyes were piercing as they landed on me after running through the faces of the girls in the room.

His eyes were locked on mine as he walked to the front of the room where I was and stood in front of me.

At this close proximity, I got a good whiff of his scent, and I found myself feeling slightly attracted to it.

I squinted my eyes in question. I was sure Prince Royce was not my mate since my wolf was so calm so his scent should not have any effect on me but here I was thinking it was the best thing I had ever smelled.

‘He’s not out mate, right?’ I asked my wolf. I needed to be sure.

‘No.’

‘Then why does he smell so good?’

My wolf didn’t reply. Was this part of the secret she was hiding from me or did she genuinely not know why Prince Royce’s scent was so appealing to me?

Prince Royce must have felt the same confusion I did as he moved closer to me. He reached his hand upwards as if he was going to cup my head but stopped abruptly as Lady Addison called his name.

“Prince Royce, what a pleasant surprise it is to have you here.” Lady Addison said as she rushed toward Prince Royce and me.

Prince Royce blinked as if he was snapping out of a spell before he moved back from me and looked towards Lady Addison’s approaching form.

“I have just arrived from Canterbury 2,” He said before looking away from her. He then scanned the room again before he let out the same pleasant smile that I had seen Lady Addison do. The smile was neither here nor there and seeing as how the only two people that I had seen do it were Prince Royce and Lady Addison, I guessed it was something that all royals had to learn how to do. “I wanted to check on how the event was going before I get on with my own tasks.”

Lady Addison squinted her eyes at Prince Royce suspiciously before she plastered the same pleasant smile on her face. “Everything is going well, but there are some things I need to run by you for the tasks in the next few days.” She said before she wrapped her arm around Prince Royce’s bicep. “Why don’t we head to your office and chat there?”

Prince Royce looked down at Lady Addison’s hand before nodding his head softly. Lady Addison let out a smile before she pulled him to follow her out of the room.

I watched as they left the room and but dropped my eyes as Prince Royce turned around and shot me a quick look.

What was that all about?

As soon as the door closed behind Lady Addison and Prince Royce, all of the heads in the room turned to face me.

“What?” I asked out loud. I made sure my voice didn’t waver and kept my head straight as I looked each of the girls in the eye.

“How do you know the royal family?” Chloe asked. She was seated on the opposite side of the room but her voice was as clear as if she had been standing right next to me.

“I don’t know them. I only met Lady Addison yesterday and Prince Royce a few minutes ago.” I replied with a shrug.

“You’re lying.” She said.

I squinted my eyes at her. She didn’t know me well enough to just blatantly accuse me of lying when i had no reason to. “I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

I let out a sigh in frustration. “Think whatever you want. I really don’t care.”

I thought that would have been the end of the conversation with Chloe but clearly, my dismissal had only made her angrier. She stomped her foot and made her way towards me.

I thought that she would stop before she got to me but apparently, she had other plans. I saw the fury in her eyes grow as she made her way to me and proceeded to push me onto the ground.

I normally wouldn’t have been pushed so easily but I hadn’t been expecting it so I easily fell to the floor.

“You better stay away from Prince Royce.” She said with venom dripping from her words.

I was about to respond but a sharp pain in my wrist stopped me. I brought my wrist into my eye line to check for any injuries and found a shard of glass lodge in it.

My neighbour had dropped one of her wine glasses earlier so I guess this was one of the pieces from it.

I let out a hiss of pain.

“You see what happens when you try to take what doesn’t belong to you?” Chloe asked which brought my eyes back to hers. She was trying to intimidate me. “You get hurt.”

I looked around the room and noticed that the girls all held the same look that Chloe did. Nobody was even making a move to help me up or to help me get treatment.

I was all by myself.