Page 1 of The Billionaire's Royal Secret

CHAPTER 1

ELENA

Elena tightened her fingers around the chair’s carved arm as she faced her father on the opposite side of the desk. In the private office at their sprawling country estate, once a sanctuary, what began as a father-daughter conversation had turned into a war. The heavy drapes and portraits of her ancestors staring down at them all bore witness to the battleground of wills between a king and his princess.

“But, Father–” she began in her crisp British accent honed from years with her British tutor, only to be cut off when he raised a hand.

As her words stopped, he pulled his hand back, tugging on the still-dark beard poking from his chin. “Elena, I will not hear any more of your…entreaties.”

“I amnotwhining,” she said as she settled her arms across her chest.

“You are.”

She narrowed her emerald eyes at her father, the current king of her small country of Eldoria. “Did you bring me here to celebrate my birthday, or merely to deliver this crushing news in a more calming setting?”

Her father closed his blue eyes, his nostrils flaring with a deep sigh. “Elena, this is hardly news to you.”

A storm of emotions whirled within her, sitting just below the surface. A fierce desire for freedom clashed with her ingrained duty of her royal lineage. She yearned to shout and argue that her life deserved more than a set of predetermined steps set out at birth. Yet, years of rigid decorum held her back, molding her protest into a quiet plea for independence.

She tugged her doll-like lips into a frown. She had known since she was a child she was betrothed to a prince from another country. She’d lived her life in that shadow.

In this very room, she’d been taught the importance of fulfilling her royal duties. As crown princess of Eldoria, she would ascend to the throne one day. She’d been reared by her father’s sometimes overbearing hand and her mother’s far gentler one to rule a country.

Over the years, those lessons had turned to lectures. Lectures about duty, lectures about state decisions, lectures about everything to do with her royal commitments. They all seemed like burdens to her now.

“I fail to see how this is crushing news, Elena.” Her father rose from his seat and stalked to the window, staring out over the lush rolling hills. “You have known of it since you were a child.”

“And I have hated it since then.”

It wasn’t the busy schedule, the charity work, or the lack of freedom in general so much as it was this matter.

Her engagement was set to be announced in six months with a wedding to follow quickly after. She’d marry a manshe’d met on two previous occasions, once when she was seven, and spoken a grand total of twenty words to.

She hated the idea. And she’d said as much on numerous occasions. As a seven-year-old, when she’d been introduced to her future husband, Prince Eric of Corinthia, she’d slapped him across the face and stormed off.

Her mother had followed, smoothing her hair as she curled her tiny hands into fists at the unfairness of it all.

“You have said as much on numerous occasions, Elena. It changes nothing. Must I remind you of your–”

“Royal duties? No, you mustn’t, Father. But I fail to see how this must be one of them. Do my feelings not matter? Have I no say in the direction of my life?”

“When you are a princess who will one day be Queen, no, you do not.”

Her features twisted as she pounded a hand against the chair’s arm. “But Father–”

“Stop whining, Elena. The matter is settled. It has been since you were born.” He twisted to face her, the corners of his lips curling as he clasped his hands behind his back. “Now, about your birthday present.”

“No, I will not be distracted by a birthday present. We have not finished with the other conversation.”

“We have,” her father said, his smile slipping.

“I care not for the birthday present you have. I have another in mind.”

“If you are asking to cancel your upcoming nuptials, it is out of the question.”

Elena’s lips twisted into a pout, and she flicked a lock of dark hair over her shoulder. A quiet knock sounded at the door before it popped open.

Her mother poked her head in, her voice soft and soothing, honed after years of practice at being thekindly queen. “I have not heard any explosions, so I thought I would check to ensure both of you remain alive.”

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