The Luna Choosing Game by Jane Above Story

Nicholas held Elva safe and secure in his arms as he stood to his full height. Elva buried her face into the corner of his neck and shoulder. He gently patted her back.

He glanced down at Elva, his gaze so tender that it made my heart clench.

“There, there,” he whispered. “You are safe now.”

“Oh my God,” said one of the other girls in the room, fanning herself. “Of course he’s good with children.”

“Someone pinch me,” said another. “I think I’m dreaming.”

Nicholas’s soft expression hardened as he glared out at the rest of the room. “Whose child is this? Why is she here?”

I started forward, but the girl in the pink dress spoke before I could reach him.

“An outsider sneaked in, unless she’s a maid.”

Some of the other girls snickered at my expense.

“She can’t be a participant,” another girl fake-whispered, loud enough for half-the room to hear. “I thought we had to be virgins, and she’s got a kid.”

I wanted to disappear into a corner. Whether virgin or not, I was nothing compared to the rest of these girls.

My clothes weren’t as nice as theirs, and my figure wasn’t like what it had been at the Academy. I’d lost much of my musculature. I was skinny from too many nights of skipped dinners.

Elva’s wellbeing had always come before my own.

Her sake was the only reason I continued forward rather than hide in embarrassment. I stopped only when I reached Nicholas.

He looked at me, and I looked at him.

I’d forgotten how gorgeous his eyes were, golden brown with flakes of green. When we’d dated, I had spent hours looking at them, trying to memorize that color, but it had seemed different each time.

Before, when I’d stared long enough, I could earn a bashful smile from him. Now, his face was totally devoid of emotion. He looked at me like I was a stranger.

Did he… not recognize me?

he truly had sealed me away in his past

great embarrassment to him, showing up here, years after leaving him,

Maybe he hated me.

is the outsider.” The girl in pink

and even his voice was monotone. Another moment of staring at me blankly,

I followed him. He led

toward him. “Your Royal Highness, please remember that per the selection rules, you

to look at the man, who nervously

is an exception,” Nicholas

course, sir.” The

servant stepped forward and closed the

might be sick. I had never imagined I’d meet Nicholas

to see me as I was? To see me here, as part of the selection? And

against his chest. She must have cried herself

stepped forward toward Nicholas, and at once, his perfect façade cracked. He frowned. His golden eyes filled

Elva, his

you hide my child from

to a stop. I blinked once, twice,

Eloquently, I said, “Huh?”

arms. She was three years old. That lined

been so

finished in clumsy haste. I couldn’t remember where he was when he’d climaxed. But, hadn’t he been wearing a condom at the

that fueled it seemed to slide into bewilderment. His gaze shifted, like he was trying to

said, hoping

secret that Nicholas wanted children. He’d even said so on television. For me to hide a child from him would have been a cruelty. He would likely have struggled forever over the guilt for the years he’d

her name. But she’s

moment, before the

he wanted to say, he seemed to struggle to get

and Elva. “She looks like

was my identical twin sister. But I wouldn’t tell that to Nicholas. Elva was mine in every

seemed to answer some unspoken question for him, and he started to

What could cause that

and he immediately

down onto one of the

Mommy,”