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?

become unrecognizable. Unless he truly had sealed me away in his past and moved on, never

simply pretending, to save face. I could be a great embarrassment to him, showing up here, years after

Maybe he hated me.

is the outsider.” The girl in

even his voice was monotone. Another moment of

followed him. He led me to an adjoining room, separated

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

to look at the man, who nervously backed

is an exception,”

sir. Of course, sir.” The man bowed twice as

and

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

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

have cried herself to sleep, eyes closed and drooling. She seemed

stepped forward toward Nicholas, and at once, his perfect

his hands stayed gentle on Elva, his arm looped

hide my

thoughts skidded to a stop. I blinked once,

Eloquently, I said, “Huh?”

at Elva, softly sleeping in his arms. She was three years

We’d been so young then, too

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

retained its anger, but the certainty that fueled it seemed to slide into bewilderment.

mistaken,” I said, hoping to

a child from him would have been

That’s her name. But she’s not

a moment, before the

seemed to struggle to get it out. He

glanced between me and Elva.

Her birth mother was my identical twin sister. But I wouldn’t tell that to Nicholas.

silence seemed to answer some unspoken question for him,

straightened, startled. What

his arms, and he immediately cut off

onto one of the plush couches in the

be mad at Mommy,” came Elva’s