The Alpha Princess Selection

Chapter 8

Charlotte’s POV

“So, how was your flight, baby?” My mom asked on the other side of the phone.

“It was fine. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be.”

“You must have enjoyed yourself if you’re only calling me the following day.” She said, and I could tell that she was teasing me. My mom knew how hesitant I had been about coming to the palace, so I had no doubt that she knew I wouldn’t enjoy my time here.

I let out a deep sigh as I recalled the events of yesterday. I had only begun feeling fatigued when I got to my room late last night. I didn’t realize that the flight and all of the travellings I had done had worn me out that much. Still, as soon as I entered the room, I immediately crashed onto the bed and only woke up this morning, completely forgetting to check my phone.  

Although I had had some dreams that left me unsettled, I felt way better than I had been when I got to the room. Sleep is really the best cure for everything.

It was only after I had gotten up that I was getting a good chance to look around the room. Like the rest of the décor around the palace, everything about this room was subtle. You could tell that the furnishings were expensive from the feel of them, but if you looked at them from a distance, they seemed painfully plain. It was the kind of elegance that old money held, and the royal family indeed had old money since they had held power over all werewolf kind for over 400 years.

The light pastel colours that seemed to be the dominant theme of the room were pretty but definitely not my style. The room was furnished with everything I would need, a comfortable bed, a table, a chair, and a full-length mirror. Still, I had to admit that my favourite thing was the window seat. I didn’t have one back home, but I had always wanted one, so one of the upsides of this experience would be getting to use something I had always wanted to.

“Sweetie?” I heard my mom call out, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Sorry, I was daydreaming,” I said to her. “Is everything at home okay?” I asked her.

 I heard my mom chuckle. “You’ve only been gone for less than a day. Nothing has changed.”

“It’s only been a day, but I miss you already.”

“Are you having a difficult time there?” She asked.

I let out a sigh, “I haven’t been able to make friends yet.” I replied to her honestly.

“I think most of the girls knew each other from those parties you refused to attend.” She said, referring to the parties that the Alpha kids from neighbouring packs always threw. I had never been interested in attending them since they had always seemed too pompous for me, so I had always declined the invitation, which I was regretting now that I had no friends here.

“But don’t worry, at the end of the day, it’s a competition. I doubt friendships will last under that type of pressure.” My mom added. If she was trying to make me feel less bad about being antisocial, but I wasn’t sure it was working.

I nodded my head, agreeing with her. I knew that I wouldn’t be getting too involved in the competition since I wasn’t really here for that. I just needed to bide my time until I could go back home.

“Another thing is that I met a girl….” I said to my mom before I stopped myself. I had debated internally about telling her about Cynthia. Still, I had a feeling that I should hold off on that topic for a bit.

“You met a girl?” My mom asked.

“Forget about that. It’s not important.”

“If you say so.” My mom said. “Listen, I have to go. There is a meeting I need to attend.”

“It’s fine. We’ll talk more later.” I said to her. “I love you.”

I waited for my mom to say it back before hanging up the phone.

I stretched out on the bed a bit and finally got up. I walked over to where my suitcases had been dropped and searched for my toiletry bag. I needed to shower before I went down for the day's tasks.

***

I couldn’t stop fidgeting with my dress, no matter how hard I tried. I was not used to wearing dresses, and the fact that I was wearing a pair of strappy sandals on top of that was not sitting right with my spirit.

‘Stop fussing. You look pretty.’ My wolf said to me.

‘Would you ever tell me if I didn’t look pretty?’

‘I would never let you leave if you aren’t dressed your best.’ She replied.

I let out a chuckle. I didn’t believe her words; my wolf didn’t really care about clothes which was a good thing because I didn’t either, but that meant that she didn’t know the first thing about pulling together an outfit which also meant her reassurance about my outfit meant nothing.

I knew that she would more than likely cut off our conversation now that she had said what she needed to me, so I decided to switch topics to what I really wanted to find out. ‘Are you ready to talk about yesterday?’

‘What about yesterday?’ My wolf asked. I could tell she was being aloof on purpose. There was a big secret my wolf was hiding from me, and I needed to find out what it was.

‘The girl that looks like us.’ I said, referring to Cynthia. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her.

‘Not yet.’ Was my wolf’s short response.

‘What are you hiding?’

‘You’ll find out soon.’ She said, which caused me to let out a sigh.

‘I wish I could read your thoughts like you can read mine.’

‘I’m happy you can’t.’ I could picture her snickering as she said that.

I was brought out of my thoughts as I approached the same doors that led to the room we had been welcomed in by Lady Addison yesterday. I was the only one in the hall, and I assumed that the other girls had already entered.

I had left it until the last minute to leave my room. I didn’t want to be stuck mingling with people I wasn’t comfortable with for too long. I was already not in the best mood, and I didn’t need to make it worse by doing that.

I pushed open the doors and found the girls standing at the table that took up most of the room. They seemed to be standing in front of the seats we had been assigned yesterday, only that I couldn’t seem to find my chair where it had been yesterday. I looked to my left and spotted a servant standing against the wall. She was different from the ones that had helped us yesterday.

“I’m sorry, do you know where my seat is?” I asked her.

“Lady Charlotte Green?” She asked me with a slight smile on her face. I nodded my head. “Lady Addison moved you closer to the front.”

I looked at her oddly, wondering as to what reason Lady Addison would have to move me to the front. I would have assumed that she wouldn’t want anything to do with me after I refused her request yesterday, so there wasn’t any reason she would want me closer to her. I didn’t get to ponder over it for a long time as I followed the servant to the front of the room, where sure enough, there was a vacant seat with my name on the placard.

I stood behind it like the other girls were and looked around the room.

The girls were dressed in summer dresses as well, and I let out a sigh of relief as I realized that I fit in better than I did yesterday. There wouldn’t be any reason for me to be picked on.

I could tell most of them had taken the time to apply light make-up. I didn’t know how to do my own make-up since I had preferred to spend time training with Eddie, so seeing that I was the only one without make-up on my face left me feeling a bit self-conscious. Maybe I would start putting more thought into my appearance while I was here.

“Good morning, ladies.” I heard Lady Addison say. She had entered from a smaller door at the front of the room. “I trust we all had a good night’s rest.”

I looked up to face her and saw that she had a light smile on her face. She turned her face in my direction, and her smile didn’t flouter when we locked eyes. That calmed me as it meant that she held no hard feelings over my refusal of her proposal.

“Today’s exercise is a simple one. We will be place setting.” She said. “If you look down in front of you, the only cutlery under your placard is the service plate. This is but one of 27 pieces of cutlery that need to be in front of you for a formal dinner. Your task today will be to arrange everything in a proper fashion. You will find the other dishes and cutlery on the side tables.” She said.

I paused. I couldn’t wrap my head around how this would be something important that a future ruler of the kingdom would need to know. I’m sure that there were people that would be hired to do this, so I didn’t understand why this would be a task that the future Alpha Princess would need to know how to do.

She turned to me, and I knew that she could tell what I was thinking just by the look on my face.

“I know that there may be some that don’t understand why this is something that needs to be done, but some of the most important decisions are made at a dinner table, and ensuring that nothing is out of place makes it easier for business to get done correctly.” She said.

She had been looking straight at me as she said this, so I knew those words were meant for me. I looked away, slightly embarrassed as she finished talking.

Was I such an open book, or had she been practising reading Cynthia’s face, which made her good at reading mine?

I heard the girls around me start moving back and forth between the main table and the side tables and decided to start setting my place as well.

I would do my best at this task so that Lady Addison wouldn’t call me out again.