Page 152 of Promised to the Alpha Prince

I must have been at least somewhat clever, because I couldn’t think that they wouldn’t have published pictures of me with the princess and a gun on men if they’d had them.

Sex sold, but sex and violence sold better.

So, I supposed we’d lost them for a time, and then they’d found us again. Once they had the money shot, they probably didn’t bother to follow us anymore, I guessed. (Or maybe there were photos of us and the Banninos somewhere. Maybe that was going to end up being a problem. Fuck everything.)

I saw it and called Aurelie, who was upset, nearly in tears, because she’d been reading the comments on the social media posts. There were memes about her, not-nice memes about omegas in general and her in particular, and she was getting called all sorts of names. Whore. Slut. Stuff like that.

“We have to go back to the castle,” I said to her over the phone. “They’re best equipped to handle this kind of stuff.” I couldn’t believe I’d been so stupid and careless, really. I should have realized that they’d be relentless with her, that pictures of her away from her husband on her honeymoon would be their primary concern.

The paparazzi never tailed me when I was on my own. I’d been linked to Johannes several times in the press, pictures taken of him and me out at clubs dancing together or even making out, but no one had ever caught me on film with Dmitri, something he was adamant could never happen. When I did show up in the tabloids, no one paid me any mind. I was Johannes’s ‘guy pal’ or ‘boy toy,’ things like that.

Now, though, now that I’d put my penis in a princess, suddenly people cared.

They were digging into my past, and it was only a matter of time until something untoward came up. Most of the things that Sector Unius had used me for were well buried, at least I hoped so. But until this point, no one had known my name or that I was a commoner alpha. All of that had changed.

Corentin had been paying off paparazzi to keep the fact that he and Aurelie were in this hotel out of the papers, but now that she was caught in infidelity and that was everywhere, the price would go up, and he wouldn’t be able to pay it.

“Tomorrow, the pictures will be of you and Corentin,” I said. “It won’t take them long to find out he’s your childhood sweetheart or whatever.”

“But why do they hate me so much?” she said, her voice broken. “Why are they so mean?”

“It’s not about you,” I said. “They don’t see you as a person. They see you as a position. You’re a princess. They envy you, and you have more than them, so it’s enjoyable to take you down a peg. You’re their punching bag.”

“But I didn’t do anything—”

“I order you to stop reading those fucking comments, omega,” I said. “And I’m going to get a car sent for you. Corentin, too.”

“I can’t stop reading the comments,” she said, miserable. “It’s better to know, right?”

“No,” I said. “It’s not. Those people do not matter.”

“All people matter.”

“Sure, okay, but when are you actually going to have a conversation with those trolls? Do you need their acceptance and love? No, the only acceptance and love you need is of the people in your life, and you have it, from all of us, in spades. We adore you, Aurelie. You’re none of the things they’re saying about you.”

She sighed heavily. “When is the car coming?”

“So, you agree? Back to the castle?”

“I feel like Dmitri is going to be able to fix this,” she said. “Besides, I miss him.”

He wouldn’t be able to fix anything.

But maybe I missed him, too.

And maybe there was something about his presence, something steadying and strong. Maybe I’d spent too much time thinking of him as my rescuer.

Whatever the case, I was glad we’d see him again.

aurelie

I DIDN’T WANT to leave the penthouse where I’d been with Corentin for the past two days, because everything had been so easy there.

Corentin and I had settled into each other in the way that we always did. With someone I’d known so long, I felt safe in a way that I couldn’t quite explain. He’d seen me in so many strange, awkward, and embarrassing phases of my life, and loved me through all of them. I trusted him to keep loving me, no matter what. There was delicious power in that.

And then Nikolai came over, and I was so happy to see him, and we ended up all having sex, which I hadn’t thought would happen. I hadn’t thought that Corentin would be down for it, except he had narrated to me the sexy threesome he’d had with Dmitri and Johannes, which had me incredibly slick and begging for him to knot me in the wake of it, so he was opening up to the possibilities of all of it, I could tell.

I asked him afterward, how he’d felt about it, about me, him, and Nikolai together, if it had made him feel any of the things he was worried about, and he’d kissed me just below my earlobe and growled into my ear, “You are incredibly sharable, my love.”

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