Kaden | ✓

part seven ♚ period

I'd barely gotten three hours of sleep before I was being shaken awake by Eadlyn, who was not happy. "If you don't get up and get dressed right now, you're going to run late to meet your Selected."

I shot out of bed. I had let out a string of curses as I rushed to get dressed. Eadlyn just laughed as she watched me rush around my room to brush my teeth and then comb my hair and then do something to make it look like the hair of a prince, not of a nineteen-year-old boy that had barely slept the previous night and was getting a little too into a girl that loved her violin more than she would ever love anything else besides her family.

I hurried down to Great Room and stopped outside. One of the guards--Hinton, I think--gave me a small smile. "They're almost done." He said. "I'll let you know when."

"Thank you." I breathed a short sigh of relief and adjusted my suit and tie.

"You don't need to be so nervous, Highness." Said the other guard--Thompson. "The ones that mean anything will love you."

"Of course they will." Eadlyn. She set a hand on my shoulder and smiled down at me. "Remember--straight spine, welcoming smile, and confidence, Kaden. You'll do fine. They won't eat you alive. Do you know what you're going ask them?"

I nodded.

"Good. And remember that they're probably going to be much more nervous than you." She smiled. "A tip? Ask them to stay behind and after you send the others in to breakfast if you want them gone. Don't get rid of too many, but enough. Dad asked me to pass that along to you. He also said that calling them my dear usually charms the hell out of them, but if you're not up for that, sweetheart or something like it will be just fine."

"I very much doubt that Dad said charms the hell out of them."

"That's what Osten added. You know how that boy is." She shook her head. "Anyway. Calm, cool, collected, and confident. Got it?"

"Got it." I said.

"See you at breakfast, little brother." She turned and walked off to the dining room, leaving me alone facing the doors with Thompson and Hinton.

Hinton pressed a finger to the black piece in his ear and nodded. "Okay, Highness. They're ready for you."

♚

Most of the girls were surprisingly nice and easy to talk to, though I could tell immediately that a few of them wanted the crown or the bed, so I asked them to stay after. There was Shayla, Chase, Meredith, and Gwyneth that obviously want me--but not the right part of me. And there was Jennifer, Gia, Mariah, and Christina that want the crown. I eliminated all eight of them, though there were others that want either of those things too. I didn't like those eight anyway.

There were a few girls that were sweet and out for my heart, and I caught them quickly too--Sophia and Sierra, Annalise and Laurel, Nia and Miracle. Diamond and Lucia, I quickly determined, had come for me, but not romantically, and it took a lot of control for me to keep them around. But I knew that they would be favorites of the public, so I kept them.

Miss Marlee slipped a letter to me and smiled at breakfast. Josie was pouting, either because of the fact that a girl had the same name as her, or the fact that she wasn't going to be the center of attention, which she never was anyway.

The envelope was a mint green, my name scrawled on it in pencil. Inside was three pages, filled with the same neat, faded cursive that was on the cover. I read the letter excitedly, surprised that Emmaline had managed to write to me so early in the morning when she said she would be writing music all day. After pouring over the letter as I halfheartedly ate, I folded it back into the envelope and tucked it into my suit jacket to respond to later.