Tyra sat in her office chair, her feet propped up on her desk as she read through applications. It was tedious and tiresome work, but someone had to do it. She had two of her ministers in the room with her assisting her. Their jobs were to point out any applications of interest, and well, there were far too many to go through on her own as she would have preferred. She sighed as she set down yet another application.
"Honestly, do they not know that their picture is going to be taken?" She questioned as she rubbed her temples. Even if they didn't, how in their right mind would want to be seen like that?
"We don't exactly broadcast it, Your Majesty," Adam, her chief advisor, spoke up. "Perhaps we should have."
"No, if they don't have the common sense to dress up to drop off their application, that's on them." Tyra said snidely. She reached for the next application, belonging to one Athena Highcourt of Angeles. She raised an eyebrow, though wasn't entirely surprised that Colonel Highcourt's daughter would have applied. His service in the marine corps had been impeccable, well, except for when he tried to involve her son in planning military operations that he had no business being involved in the planning of. Tyra had her husband put a stop to that quickly, Beckett's service was by no means to be a reward, but rather a punishment and to get that little headache of her son out of her way. Tyra didn't bother to read the application, and instead focused on the picture in the upper right corner. She smiled finally, someone worth looking at, the Queen Regent thought. Athena had light black skin, dark brown eyes and her curly black hair was neatly styled. "What do we know of Colonel Highcourt's daughter? Athena?" She asked the advisers in the room.
"Very little, Your Majesty, though I believe she and the Prince have met a handful of times during his service in the marines," Adam spoke up.
"And did he take to her?" Tyra questioned as she pursed her lips.
"They seemed on friendly terms, nothing more."
"Hmm, I'll allow her in, I owe her father that much," Tyra decided. "Put this in the accepted pile." She held out the application, and her secondary adviser, Liam, took it from his Queen with a bow, and placed it in the rather small accepted pile as Tyra continued to sort through applications.
Tyra moved onto the province of Waverly, she knew exactly who she wanted from Waverly in her son's Selection. It was only a matter of finding the girl's application. After ten minutes of tossing aside applications, she finally found the one she was looking for: Inès Silveira. She was Prince Felipe's cousin, and like Miss Highcourt had the displeasure of meeting Beckett. However, Miss Inès had made the mistake of trying to kiss him, only to get rejected. She smirked, if her son wasn't interested in Inès in the past why would that change now? Sure, she was an impulsive little thing, and nothing like her cousin, Prince Felipe, but Tyra knew she could use that to her advantage. Inès looked rather pretty in her picture, with her wavy blonde hair and light blue eyes with a little smirk. Besides, if her son actually went through with marrying Inès, they'd just doubly secure their alliance to Spain, Tyra knew she couldn't go wrong with putting the girl in the Selection and held out the application. Liam sprung to his feet and took it from her, bowing his head slightly.
"Accepted," Tyra decreed. As she stood. "Go through the rest of these pitiful applications, pull the top ten from each province, I have better things to do."
"Yes, Your Majesty," the men echoed in unison. They both bowed as Tyra made her way out of her office. Once outside of her office, Tyra glanced at one of the guards on either side of the door to her office.
"Where's my son?" She demanded.
The guard sprung into action, speaking into their ear pieces requesting the location of the prince. That was the only good thing about Beckett being back in the palace, Tyra could locate him within seconds.
"He's in the weight room, Your Majesty," the guard on the left answered.
Without so much as a thank you, Tyra took off, clearly on a mission. She had no qualms about interrupting her son's workout. That was the only con about sending him away, the once lanky teen had grown fit, and capable of defending himself. He was a far cry from the scared teenager that she had sent off, and she would be lying if she said she didn't miss the power she had over him. She walked swiftly throughout the palace, and everyone gave the Queen a wide berth as she stalked towards the weight room. The guard outside of the room opened the door for her and she waltzed into the room. She found her son on the treadmill. He glanced over at her and pressed a button on the machine, turning it off. He stepped off and wiped his sweat soaked face with a towel.
"What is it, mother?" Beckett questioned.
"I thought you'd like to know that you're going to see some familiar faces in your Selection," Tyra mused as she stepped closer towards her son, her own guard lingering a few feet away from her.
"Who?" Beckett demanded.
"Well, not Eliana, that's for certain," Tyra taunted. "In fact, I don't think she even applied."
Beckett pursed his lips, he knew his mother wouldn't let her in, but it stung that she didn't even apply. But his mother lied, and he couldn't be sure that she was telling the truth now.
"I presume you're familiar with Colonel Highcourt? His daughter applied," Tyra informed her son.
Of course Beckett was familiar with one of his previous commanding officers, and he had met Athena on the odd occasion. He supposed she wasn't that bad of a candidate, but why was his mother telling him this?
"And then of course there's Inès Silveira," Tyra added, watching her son's reaction carefully. But of course, over the years Beckett had mastered keeping his expression neutral. "Don't you remember how she tried to kiss you a few years back?"
Beckett let out a sigh. "Hardly," he replied. In fact, he had remembered the kiss he rejected quite well. Of course, Inès had been drunk before she planted one on him. He had no interest in either girl, though he supposed right now the only girl he had any interest was Eliana, but for her own good he had to put that to an end. "Why are you telling me this, mother?"
"As a heads up, you are to keep your expression the same miserable one I'm sure you'll have during the entirety of the announcement of the Selected." Tyra ordered, grabbing her son by the jaw, squeezing tightly, the same way she had so many times before. "Do I make myself clear?"
Beckett grabbed her wrist, pushing it away and stepped forward, towering over his mother. "Touch me again, I dare you." He warned.
"Is that a threat?" Tyra questioned, tilting her head back with a smirk. "You dare threaten me? You know, I've let you get away with far too much since your return home, my dear." She taunted, slipping her wrist out of his grip. She snapped her fingers and her guard sprung into action, first he called for backup into his earpiece, then approached the prince.
"How many, Your Majesty?" The guard asked in a casual tone, as if he were merely discussing the weather, rather than how many lashes to inflict on the young prince.
A flicker of fear ran across Beckett's eyes, he knew exactly what would come next, as he experienced it many times during his youth.
"Fifteen," Tyra replied coldly. She then turned on her heel and exited the room as a secondary guard entered.
Beckett went rigid, as each guard grabbed hold of his arms, restraining the now twenty-three year old prince. Beckett didn't bother resisting, he knew this would happen regardless and from experience found they went easier on him if he didn't put up a fight.
1 Week Later
Beckett entered the studio, dressed in a navy blue three-piece suit. He wasn't walking as stiffly as he had, but his welts were still healing and every movement he made hurt. But of course, royal duties waited for no one, and he was the one who wanted to move things along. Giselle and his mother were already sitting on the stage, engrossed in conversation. Beckett knew what he'd have to do during the Report, simply read names off of a teleprompter. It sounded tedious, but of course the public would want to see his reaction to each name. He let out a breath as he approached the stage. He took his seat in his throne-like chair, careful not to let his back touch the chair. Tyra smirked at his rigid posture, then turned her attention back to Giselle.
"Has he written to you yet?" Tyra asked.
Giselle nodded. "And we've had a few phone calls, he seems nice." She admitted as she looked down. She hated discussing Prince Felipe with her mother, but knew her mother needed to know everything.
"Did you really think I'd let you marry a monster?" Tyra questioned. "I know what's best for you and for our nation, you need to trust that."
Beckett scoffed from his seat and Tyra turned to face him. "Quiet, you," She nearly snapped. She had it up to here with her son's mistreatment of her, and was surprised the whipping he had endured hadn't put him in his place as it had in the past.
Holly approached the stage, and zeroed in on Prince Beckett, whom she had already prepped on how the night's announcements would go. "Do you have any final questions, Your Highness?" She asked.
Beckett shook his head. "Let's just get this over with."
"Very well, then," Tyra agreed. "I'm sure you'll be pleased with your Selected," She added snidely.
Beckett glanced over at her. What does that mean? He thought.
The Report started as it normally did. With Queen Tyra addressing the nation and giving various updates. Beckett paid close attention so he knew exactly what was occurring in his nation, as naturally no one other than Eliana gave him regular updates, and well, he hadn't spoken to Eliana in a while. The announcements were rushed, however, as everyone was too eager to hear who would be in their prince's Selection.
Beckett let out a slight sigh when the attention turned to himself. He began to read off names, in alphabetical order, starting with Allens. Angeles was next and he read of Athena Highcourt's name, he had a great respect for her father, and had met her a handful of times. He was slightly relieved that someone he was on friendly terms with was entering his Selection.
"From Atlin, Abigail Byers," Beckett announced. A picture of a twenty-three year old's face was displayed. She had strawberry blonde hair and green eyes with smooth white skin and an assortment of freckles. She seemed to have taken a great deal of effort in getting put together for her picture.
"Lucina Crowe, Carolina," Beckett said, already getting tired of this. It was tedious and boring. The seven's picture was displayed. She had fiery red hair and dark brown eyes. Her frame looked muscular than feminine, which Beckett supposed made sense as she would have had to perform manual labour.
The next name was Brelinda Tutor, from Clermont. She had shoulder length brown hair with green eyes and a gentle smile, Beckett caught a sense of sadness from her and wondered vaguely if she had been forced into this just as much as he had been.
The Selected from Midston was a woman of Korean descent, named Kamila Turner. She had dark brown hair with matching brown eyes. She looked pretty enough, but still there was only so much you could go off based on someone's pictures.
Growing tired and impatient to get this over with, Beckett rushed through the rest of the names as much as he could. He hated having the attention of the nation on him, and was relieved when he finally read the name from Zuni.
"What beautiful young women," Holly commented. "I'm sure you're excited to meet them all, Your Highness."
Beckett nodded and forced out a smile. "It should be interesting," he said, unsure of what to say. He was just excited to get the Selection over with, to find his bride and take his rightful place as king.
"And we have an announcement from the Queen, before we wrap up this week's Report." Holly said as she bowed her head to Tyra.
"Yes, my daughter and I are very excited to announce her engagement to Prince Felipe of Spain, to solidify our alliance." Tyra said, taking her daughter's hand in her's.
Giselle smiled charmingly at the prospect, though Beckett knew it was just an act, he knew his sister wasn't keen on the idea of being sold off for a foreign alliance. Though Beckett kind of wished his marriage was arranged, it would save him a lot of time.