Golden Destiny

Chapter 5. - Royalty

"Be at the pack house on Friday after school. We'll do the ceremony then," he brusquely said.

"Th-the mating ceremony?" I asked with a small, yet hopeful, voice.

He laughed loudly, "Of course not! Why would I mate with you?" He sneered. "We're doing the Severance Ceremony then. And then I'll be free of this stupid connection," he brusquely added as he walked away.

The Severance Ceremony was done when one mate or both of them rejected the bond. Contrary to popular belief, shifters did not just say words to sever the mate connection. We said the words, yes, but we had to do it under the moonlight while dropping three drops of blood each on the ground.

The Mating Ceremony, meanwhile, was done by saying the words of mating, once again under the light of the moon, dropping three drops of blood each in a special crystal goblet, and drinking the joined blood after marking.

The only differences between the two ceremonies, though they lead to vastly different results, are the words said, and the way blood is spilled.

It's always blood.

Harper put her arm around my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Honestly, girl, if I were in your position, I could not wait for Friday to come around."

I gave a brittle laugh. "Yeah," I told her. I hoped she believed me.

I walked to my first class of the day and tried my best to lose myself in the lessons taught. I was getting pretty good at it until the last period before lunch which I had with Adam and Tawny. They walked in, with Tawny clinging to his Alpha-ness like a bad rash, and Adam's hand in her back pocket.

I also had the class with Harper, who looked at me and mimed gagging. I laughed at her antics, even though deep down, my heart was breaking even more.

During lunch, the whole cafeteria was in a tizzy. I gave Harper a confused look but she just smiled really wide and seemed to be waiting for something.

The doors opened and the room fell silent. Three young men stepped inside. Three gorgeous shifters. And they made a beeline for us.

Harper got down on a knee and bowed her head when they were in front of us. "Your highness," she said.

"Rise," the one in the middle murmured.

Harper rose, beamed wide and immediately threw her hands around the male on the left. He caught her and lifted her up, twirling her around and around for so long, it made me dizzy.

I looked over at the two males and saw them watching the couple with fond smiles. Then the one on the right looked at me and gave me a deep bow.

Uh, what?

The middle one, the most handsome of the three, the one who told Harper to get up, placed his hand on the other one's shoulder and he straightened. Then he spoke.

"Hello, I am Michail Turgenev. May I present His Royal Highness Alexei Volkov, Crown Prince of the Royal Family of Russia."

His Royal Highness stepped over to me and I resisted the urge to curtsy. I mean, this was the first time I was meeting royalty. I didn't exactly know the social protocol.

"Micha, as rigid as ever, I see," I heard Harper tease. To me, she said, "As Micha said, this is Prince Alexei. But he doesn't like to be called by his royal station. This one's Dimitri Novokov. But feel free to call him 'Dima,' we all do."

I gaped for a moment then I pulled her aside. "Excuse me for a moment, Your Majesty," I held a finger up to the prince.

"You know them?" I whisper-yelled at Harper. "How come you didn't tell me you were on nickname basis with royalty?"

"Pfft," she waved my words away. "Micha and Dima aren't royalty. Well, they are, but they're very far in line from the throne. And Alexei has no nickname."

"That is not the point! How come you never told me about them?" I was hurt by the fact that my best friend kept something this important from me. "Is this why you were granted emancipation and entrance to this pack?"

Harper took my hand. "Yes, this is why. I'm sorry for not telling you. I just don't like telling people that I have an in with one of the Royal shifter families. I want people to like me as who I am and not because I have friends in high places."

I was pacified by that. I got it. I wouldn't want someone to be friends with me just because of who I was friends with either.

"Do you know why they're here?"

"We're here to finish up our senior year, of course," I heard a deep voice say from behind us. "You know, even if we didn't have heightened hearing, we could still hear everything you were saying. Might as well include us in the conversation."

I turned around and faced Prince Alexei. "I'm sorry, Your Highness, I didn't mean to be rude."

"It's just Alexei. And it's fine. Now, shall we eat? We didn't eat breakfast this morning because someone woke up late," he said, casting a sideways glance towards Dima.

He held up his hands and laughed. "Hey, it wasn't my fault we were late coming in last night. Who said he needed to run until the sun was almost up?"

Alexei gave a smirk and let us lead them to the lunch line. It was almost surreal, watching a Crown Prince do something as normal as fall in line for food. I was sandwiched between him and Harper and he kept on asking me about the food selection. We chose to just get the meat dish and some veggies and went to our seats where I sat between Alexei and Micha, while Dima and Harper sat across from us.

While we were eating, I felt butterflies in my stomach and knew that Adam was getting closer to where I was. Just as I finished off my food, Adam and Tawny reached our table and introduced themselves to the three males with us.

"We can show you around if you wish, I'm sure we'll be better company than two latent wolves," Tawny said. "And Alexei, it would be really cool if we partner up on that project for English. I could help you with English history, if you need it," she added in a syrupy voice.

Alexei continued eating his meal as if Tawny and Adam weren't there. He even took the few vegetables from my plate, which I found strangely intimate. When it seemed that Tawny wasn't going to stop talking, it was Micha who stood. "First, you will not call His Royal Highness by his name unless you are given leave to do so. Second, Prince Alexei has studied in the best schools in London and as such, will not require your assistance. Lastly, what you say about our company says more about you than it does them. Leave. We have no inclination to hear more of your worthless chatter." My jaw dropped. Micha then turned to Adam.

"Future Alpha Adam, as is custom, Prince Alexei will attend to your father in one month's time. He will have to acclimate to your territory and commune with the land before the Alpha gives the Crown his due. He is not to be disturbed during this period with any invitations or requests for meetings. This has all been communicated by the Palace to your father as a Royal Order. Any violation of it will garner the appropriate punishment. This will be your first and only warning. Should you need urgent clarifications, you may address them to me or to Dimitri."

He sat back down and ignored Adam, who looked pale, and Tawny, who was beet red.

When they left, I leaned closer to Micha, smiled, and whispered, "You so rock, Michail Turgenev."