The Alpha Princess Selection

Chapter 7

Charlotte’s POV

“What’s going on here?” I asked again after not getting an answer the first time.

I watched as the girl who had my face turned to Lady Addison. She looked unsure as if she wanted Lady Addison to be the one to answer my question. I looked straight at Lady Addison, and I saw her eyes set in determination.

“This is Cynthia.”

“Cynthia, who?”

“She doesn’t have a last name.” Lady Addison said making me tilt my head at her curiously. “Most of the servants in the palace don’t have last names.”

“She’s a servant?” I asked Lady Addison before I turned to face Cynthia.

Cynthia shot me a quick glance before she shifted her eyes to the ground. It’s either she was also freaked out by our resemblance, or she just couldn’t hold my eyes. Since she was a servant, I could only assume that the latter was true, not many Omega’s could meet the eyes of an Alpha like myself.

“No, not anymore.” Lady Addison replied before she quickly added. “But she also doesn’t have a rank.”

I folded my arms in front of me. I hadn’t asked about Cynthia’s rank, but Lady Addison seemed to want me to have this information. It was as if she wanted to lead me to ask something. This was beyond frustrating. Why couldn’t she just say what she meant?

I pinched the bridge of my nose in annoyance. I didn’t like running in circles, but that was what seemed to be happening as this conversation with Lady Addison continued.

“What does her rank have to do with this?” I asked.

Lady Addison’s lips quirked into a smirk before she said, “It has everything to do with this, but if you want to know, we should probably sit down first.”

I pretended to think over what my choice would be, but I knew myself too well; I would definitely choose to stay and hear her out as I was too curious. Lady Addison seemed to know what my choice would be, too as I watched her smirk grow into a confident smile.

“Fine,” I said before moving in her direction.

She turned around and moved towards a small circular table that had small plates with finger foods on them as well as a small teapot. Lady Addison sat down on one of the three chairs first before Cynthia, and I sat on the remaining chairs.

Up close, I was even more shocked at how much Cynthia and I resembled each other. She even had the same beauty marks on her face that I did. I looked more closely at her to see if she had the beauty mark that I did at the base of my neck, but I couldn’t find it. I guess that was another difference between us.

“Thank you for agreeing to stay.” Lady Addison said.

“My curiosity would have killed me if I didn’t,” I replied to her before I reached for a sandwich.

I heard a slight cough come from Cynthia’s direction just before I could get a sandwich into my hands which caused me to look up at her. I saw that her eyes had widened as if to ask me, ‘What are you doing?’ and that’s when I realised that I was supposed to wait for the higher-ranking wolf to get their share of the food first.

I was used to being one of the highest-ranking wolves, so I always got to take my share of the food without waiting for anyone. I knew it would take a lot of getting used to for me to drop that habit.

“Oh, sorry,” I said before I turned to Lady Addison.

“It’s quite alright.” She replied before gesturing to the tray so that I could take what I needed. “I’ll get started on explaining my plan to you while you get started on your meal.”

I nodded my head and reached over one of the trays with the food on it.

“I don’t want to take too much of your time since I have a feeling that once the tray of food is empty, you most likely won’t have the patience to listen to me any longer, so I’ll just cut to the chase.” Lady Addison said. She was right about that. My actions have always been was very food motivated so I knew a big part of the reason why I was sitting here was to get to enjoy the delicious looking spread.

“Cynthia is Prince Royce’s fate mate.”

I nodded my head distractedly before her words sank in. My eyes widened immediately.

“Prince Royce as in the Alpha Prince Royce?” I asked her.

“Yes.” Lady Addison said. I turned away from my half-eaten sandwich and looked at Cynthia who just shied away from my eyes. She had picked up the same sandwich I had but had opened the centre. She seemed to be looking for something inside it and when she didn’t find it she put the sandwich back together and took a bite. That was weird.

“But because she is doesn’t have a rank, she can’t participate in the Alpha Princess selection.” Lady Addison added, which made me look away from Cynthia and back to her.

“That’s too bad,” I replied to her. I didn’t mean in a sarcastic way because I truly felt bad for her. She would have to watch her fate mate have someone else on his arm. I looked back to Cynthia and saw that she was doing the same thing with a second sandwich which she had done with the first. “What are you looking for?” I asked Cynthia.

Cynthia looked up at me, and her eyes slightly widened before she answered. “I’m checking to see if there are peaches in the sandwich.”

“Peaches?” I asked. “Are you also allergic to them?” I asked.

“Yes.” She answered. The weird feeling I had grew. It was incredibly rare for werewolves to be allergic to anything, so the fact that she had the same allergy as mine was unsettling. “Most of the servants know it, and they sometimes purposefully put peaches in the food to prevent me from being able to eat it.”

“That’s horrible,” I said before dropping the sandwich I was about to eat onto my plate. I was also allergic to peaches and I couldn’t risk ingesting the peaches in the sandwich that the mean servants had put in there to mess with Cynthia.

“They don’t want to have to serve a servant like them.” She replied. The tone she used made my heart pang and an unnatural amount of worry rushed through me. I was never one to care for others and I would admit that I was naturally very selfish, so this feeling of worry for Cynthia left me feeling very weird.

I guess Addison noticed how worried I was for Cynthia as she said, “You can see why I want to help Cynthia out. I wanted to come up with a plan for them to be together so that she doesn’t have to worry about being killed by bitter palace servants.”

I looked back at her and she had this sort of sparkle in her eyes. “I saw your face during the welcoming reception and I almost thought you were Cynthia. If you could fool me, then anyone else would be none the wiser.” Lady Addison said before she paused. “I want Cynthia to take your place in the selection so that she can be chosen as Royce’s mate.”

I paused as my eyebrows rose incredulously. It was a good idea but far too risky. “No.”

“What?” Lady Addison asked.

“No,” I repeated to her.

“Why not?”

“I came here for my pack, not myself,” I said to her. “As much as I would like to help, I can’t take part in your plans if it puts my pack at risk.”

“But don’t you think it would be better to not stand in the way of a fated pairing.”

“I do, but I also don’t want to cause trouble for my pack,” I replied to her. “If your plans are found out, my whole pack could be punished for treason.”

As I finished explaining my reasoning behind my decision, I turned to look at Cynthia and saw that she had a sad look on her face. I’ve never been one to take anyone else’s feelings into consideration but seeing her so crestfallen struck a chord within me, maybe it was because she had my face.

“I’m sorry,” I said to both Lady Addison and Cynthia, even though the reasoning behind the apology was different for both. I pushed out my chair so that I could get up. “I’m sure you’ll find a way that doesn’t include me.”

I quickly turned around and made my way to the door, doing so this time without Lady Addison stopping me and surprisingly without my wolf stopping me as well.