Chapter 25

"Alistair needs a wife," King James said to the other Royals present at the unofficial Summit. Since they were already all in Angeles for the Gala, they decided to get together and talk about their countries and issues at hand. King James told them about his illness.

"I'm sure we can find an excellent Nano-Tech Doctor in Illéa," Theodore had said, but the English King told him it was a very rare illness that not even technology could fix. He had a few more months ahead of him.

"Why would Alistair need a wife?" King Vìtor from Brazil said. "He can become King without a wife, right?"

"No," Queen Sophia said. "In England, a Crown Prince can only become King if he has a wife. It's tradition, and it's been this way for decades, even centuries."

"Have him hold a Selection," King Louis of France said sarcastically. "Very safe for everyone."

Beatrix sent him a glare before turning her attention to the English monarchs. "So, what do you propose? Can he take a commoner or does she have to be of royal blood?"

James looked at his wife. "I took a commoner from Illéa. But not everyone was happy about it." He chuckled. "It would be best if Alistair married a Princess or at least nobility."

"Addison, one of the girls in Alec's Selection, is related to nobility," King Louis said.

All heads snapped toward him.

"What are you talking about?" Beatrix said.

"Oh? You didn't know?" he chuckled. "She's related to the French Duchess, Marie-Ange's cousin."

Beatrix quickly recovered from the shock. "I'm sure you would love to have an Illéan girl related to the French monarchy on the English throne, Louis. But unfortunately, it's not for you to choose."

"Calm down," James said. "Alistair will choose a Princess among our friends and allies who is not going to be Queen or Empress in her own country. That leaves Princess Elise of France – but she's only 15 years old – Princess Caterina from Italy, Princess LÌvia from Brazil, and Avonlea, from Illéa."

"Not Lìvia," King Vìtor said. "She's too young, and I don't want her on the other side of the world."

Beatrix cleared her throat. "Let me remind you all that our daughters are not animals to be auctioned off. It's Alistair's choice. We're not in the 21st century."

-x-

Meanwhile, Avonlea was giving her morning lesson to the girls, the first real one since the Gala and the dramatic event, with the seventeen remaining girls. They were going into diplomacy and other more political subjects, now that they were getting closer to the end of the Selection, so to speak.

Alec, Austin, Chris, and the other English Princes were playing a VR RPG. They managed to slip away to the third level without the others knowing. They didn't want to mix with the other Royal offspring. And besides, it wasn't a seventeen-player game, or they would always run into each other in the physical world.

Lunch was served in the grand Ball room to accommodate all the royals. Some would be leaving in the afternoon to their own kingdoms and empires, but the English would be staying for a few more days. James and Sophia wanted to spend time with Theodore and Beatrix before they wouldn't be able to do it anymore.

There were three long parallel tables in the room. The Selected girls were all seated at the first table, the royal offspring at the second, and the monarchs – the Parents – at the third. It was noisy and loud, but soon, half of the people would be gone. Everyone was present on the 9thfloor terrace to say goodbye and watch all the high-tech transports fly away.

When everyone was gone, the remaining people walked back in groups of two or three or more back inside. Alec joined Blair standing on the side. "Would you like to get out for a bit?" he asked her, and she nodded with a smile. Both stayed outside, while Alec ordered a transport.

Leith and Petra walked back inside together. Dorian, the 13-year-old English Prince, was the darling of the Selected girls and a large group of the ladies walked back inside with the young boy. Graham and Alistair stayed behind with Avonlea and a few other girls – Jessica, Yana, and Thalia. Alistair had his eye on the Princess, but she completely ignored him, talking with Yana. Graham didn't know where to look. All those girls looked pretty and his fingers itched to touch them. But he knew he couldn't. At least not yet.

When the Two-Seater Hovo transport came a few minutes later, Alec and Blair went in, joined by Jasper Baldwin, Alec's security detail.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"Just an afternoon in town. And maybe more tonight, if you want?"

"More?" she said, half shocked, half chuckling. "Alec, I-"

"No, no, no! I didn't mean that," he said, chuckling nervously. "I just thought that if we're enjoying ourselves, we can skip dinner at the Palace and find something to do tonight. The city is full of things to do and see, so…" he trailed off, and Blair laughed.

"Sorry," she said, stifling another laugh. "I didn't want to embarrass you or anything… it's just after what happened with Xandra and all, I just-"

Alec winced. "I was drunk. We both were. There's nothing going on between us. For now, at least."

Blair smirked and watched out the window. Jasper tried not to laugh, listening in to the whole conversation, and Alec shot him a glare, which sent Jasper in a laughing fit. "I'm sorry, Your Highness," he said, focusing on staying calm. "It's just so fun to see you interact with so many girlfriends." He chuckled some more and then cleared his throat to stop laughing. But there was always a smile coming back on his face, which he quickly wiped away.

"You're not used to interacting with girlfriends?" Blair asked, taking over, enjoying seeing Alec and Jasper trying not to laugh.

"Let's just say my last girlfriend was very deceiving," he said. "But I don't want to talk about it. How about you? You had a boyfriend before?"

Just then, the transport stopped and all three of them walked out onto the main street. It was lined with restaurants, gaming centers, VR places where people could go and do whatever they wanted, old-fashioned little theatres, and stores for the lower Castes who didn't order everything from their Contacts and touchscreens back home.

Being from Kent, Blair was speechless by so many entertainments and lights. Everywhere she looked, there was something new. In Kent, there was the old City of Chicago. It was the last one to have a 'Dome, and most of the buildings were from the 2000's and still standing. Next to New York in Waverly, Chicago was the oldest City in Illéa. So seeing Angeles from the inside was a complete shock to Blair.

Alec didn't know how it felt, since he had always been in Angeles. "So? You had a boyfriend, before?"

"Sorry," she said, returning her attention to the Prince. "This place is so amazing." She chuckled. "Uhm, but, yeah. I had a boyfriend. Once. Awful, but my dad was able to help me get away from him."

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said. "My girlfriend was kind of abusive, too…" he trailed off. No one knew it was Calliope. She hadn't said anything, and neither had he. "Hey, there's a really good Gelateria a few blocks away," he said. "The ice creams are like heaven."

"Oh, yeah! Definitely," she said, her eyes lightening up.

"But it's not any kind of ice cream," he said mysteriously. "They're made with liquid nitrogen, frozen to absolute zero. It's amazing, you'll see."

"Can't wait," she said with a smirk as they walked down the street.

"Hey! It's the Prince!"

"It's Alec!"

A group of girls ran towards them, but Jasper quickly stood in between the groupies and Alec. "Sorry, Ladies, the Prince is busy," he said.

"Nah, Jasper, it's okay," Alec said. He looped his arm around Blair's shoulders, as the groupies tout pictures with their Contacts or Tablets. Alec refused to sign autographs other than pen on paper. Signing on a screen was too dangerous for his safety: his fingerprints could be stolen and used against him.

Once the groupies were happy with their pictures with and of Alec and Blair, they posted them on the Feeds, letting everyone know that the Prince was in town, which of course, brought more people.

"Okay, maybe that wasn't the best idea," he said, walking faster to the Gelateria. "Come on." He took Blair's hand and led her to the small restaurant. He ordered a Lime ice cream and Blair chose a chocolate chip cookie dough one. it's was smoking with freezing nitrogen meeting the room temperature air. It was a whole spectacle to see the young man put the ice cream scoops in the cones. They sat at the far end of the restaurant, away from everyone. They chatted on, talking about her life back in Chicago. Alec peppered her with questions, since he had only been there once or twice on Royal Business with his father and didn't have time to play tourist.

When she was done with her ice cream, she excused herself to go to the bathroom. When she came out to wash her hands, someone very familiar was waiting for her, blocking all access to the door.

"Well, hello Blair," Dean said, his arms crossed over his chest and a smirk on his face. "It's been a long time."

Blair quickly looked around, but there was no one in the other stalls. "What are you doing here?" she asked. Her ex-boyfriend, Dean, was the last person she expected to see here.

He shrugged. "I was in Angeles for a trip, and then I saw the pictures on the Feeds an hour ago. I found you, and followed you, and now I'm here." He came closer to her, and she backed away against the washstand. "There's nowhere for you to go, Blair," he said. "And your daddy isn't here to protect you, this time." He made another step towards her. "You're mine, and always will be."

"Never," she hissed. "You were the worst mistake I ever made."

Dean's face changed from creepy to downright scary. "I'm never a mistake," he said, coming even closer and pinning her against the washstand which was digging into her back.

"Leave me alone!" she said pushing him away, but of course he didn't budge. He was much taller than she was, and she was so tiny next to him. He grabbed her wrists in his strong hands.

"Like I said, you're not going anywhere…"

Just then, the door burst open, and Jasper and Alec rushed in. Jasper jumped on Dean and tackled him to the ground, while Alec quickly helped Blair get out of the bathroom.

"Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

"I'm fine," she said angrily, hiding her trembling hands.

"When you didn't come back, I thought I'd just check on you, and Jasper wouldn't let me go alone," he rolled his eyes. "But I'm glad we came."

"Me too. But I'm fine, now."

Alec sighed. "You wanna go home?"

Blair nodded. "Yeah." And so they did. Jasper called the Local HSN and they took care of Dean. Jasper also called the Hovo transport to the Gelateria so they didn't have to walk down the busiest street in Angeles and got back to the Palace. Blair excused herself and quickly went back to her room. Her encounter with Dean had shaken her up quite a bit, but she didn't want to fall apart in front of Alec.

-x-

Even though he had just found his twin sister, Chris had to let her go. It was harder than he expected to see her with Leith. Alec, he could handle. But Leith? It was harder than expected. But he knew Leith was a good guy, and that Petra was able to handle herself. But still. And what was hard, too, was seeing Graham with the girls. He had come to like them all, and had taken upon himself to take care of them when Alec was not there, or on a date with another one of the Selected…

"So, you're a lip designer," Graham asked Jessica. "What exactly do you do?"

She rolled her eyes. "I design lips," she replied sarcastically. "You should have yours plumped a bit, by the way," she said.

"Oh really?" the Prince replied with a smirk. "My lips are very capable of doing things on their own without being altered, trust me." He scooted closer to her on the bench outside on the terrace. "You want to try?"

Jessica burst out laughing. "Don't you even think trying that on me," she said, continuing to laugh, and pushing him away. "And by the way, Your Highness, you're like a child to me. How old are you again? Nineteen?"

"Twenty," he replied a bit flustered.

"See? I'm four years older than you, I'm the oldest girl in this Selection, and you are no match for me," she said, standing and walking away swaying her hips like she always did.

Chris, who was standing a bit on the side and watching the exchange laughed and came over. "You clearly chose the wrong girl to flirt with, Graham." He chuckled some more. "Jessica is the kindest person on this planet, but you managed to press her bitch buttons. I have no idea how you did that."

"Do I really look like nineteen years old?" Graham asked, concerned, and Chris laughed even harder.

"Yeah, kind of," he said.

"Not in England, I don't," he retorted.

"You know," Katia said, joining them after hearing their conversation from the side. "Maybe in England, girls and woman see you as a price to achieve. But here, in the Selection, we have Alec. And the chance to be Empress by his side."

Graham rolled his eyes. "Which is much better than just being Princess by mine," he said, following her thoughts. "But there are seventeen of you, and only one of him. Don't you want to try your chance somewhere else, too?"

Chris rolled his eyes, and Katia laughed. "Why not?" she said, chuckling. "But you keep your hands away from me. For now."

"What's the fun in that?" he said, and they continued chatting. Chris walked away, leaving them be for the moment.

What about me?he thought. Everyone seems to start finding someone. Maybe I'm not meant for this… or my true love is still out there,he mused, looking around.

"A penny for your thoughts?" a voice said, pulling him back to the real world. He turned around and saw one of the redhead girls. He grinned.

"Naah," he said. "They're not very interesting." He paused. "Would you like to go get a drink or something?"

Callisto nodded, and they headed to a terrace, where Chris ordered some drinks. They talked the whole afternoon and were surprised to see it was already time for dinner.

Hiiiii!

thanks for taking the time reading this chapter! not the best, but at least we get to some of the girls interact with other guys, too^^ Thanks for your reviews on the previous chapter! And if you have suggestions for you characters or the story in general, I'm happy to read them^^

thanks for your collaboration! :) See you soon!