Page 21 of Their Promise

“You blocked our numbers.”

Oh, right. I had.

“So, tell me, Princess, are you going to follow through on your promise?”

Follow through on taking them as mates? Without even courting? Yes, I was attracted to them, but we’d been apart four years. People changed a lot over four years.

“You want to follow through on our promise to be mates?” I asked. “How do I know you three aren’t just doing this to laugh at me if I did say I would follow through on it?”

He opened his mouth, but my phone rang, interrupting him.

I pulled it out and frowned at the name. Luca, a dragon from college who had tried to date me, but I had continually turned down. “Hello?” I answered.

“Lily!” he replied loudly, making me pull the phone away from my ear. “How’s the most beautiful woman in the world doing?”

Kayden’s eyes darkened as he glared at my phone.

“What’s up, Luca?” Turning my back on Kayden, I walked over to my closet to get some space from him. The distraction was nice, giving me time to breathe and think about what Kayden had said and how my darkness reacted to him.

“I just wanted to let you know that I will be at your party tomorrow and I’ve got an awesome gift for you. So, prepare to be impressed.”

“Oh, uh, you didn’t have to get me anything, Luca. And I thought you’d said you were going to be with your family so you couldn’t attend the party?”

“What kind of man would I be if I didn’t come to your party? I let my family know I would be gone for a few days and when I explained why, they were totally fine with it.”

“Oh, well, great. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Have a great day, beautiful!”

I hung up the phone and turned around, but Kayden was gone.

“What the heck? Kay?” Sticking my head out my window, I saw him running in the direction of his dad’s house. “Huh? Maybe his dad or mom needed him.” I shrugged and decided it wasn’t my problem.

My problem was realizing that it seemed like they were serious about the promise and needing to figure out what I was going to do about it. I also needed to get the feeling of Kayden’s lips on mine out of my head.

“Lily!” Mom yelled from downstairs making me yelp and jump in surprise because I hadn’t heard them come home. “Time to go pick up your dress.”

I grabbed the jewelry and my shoes from my closet and called back, “Coming!”

As we drove to the store, Mom asked, “Do I need to cross them off the guest list?”

“No,” I said and shook my head.

“Good,” she said with a nod. “Next time, tell Kayden to use the front door. He always leaves dirty footprints on the windowsill when he goes in through your window.”

Laughing, I asked, “You knew about that?”

She scoffed. “Of course I did. Every time hesnuck in,we were aware of it. You two weren’t nearly as quiet as you thought you were. We didn’t bust you because you weren’t doing anything nefarious.”

I laughed again.

After trying the dress on with the shoes and my new jewelry, I spun in a circle with a giddy laugh and smile. It was perfect!

“I think you’re going to get at least three courting proposals tomorrow in that dress,” Mom said with a nod.

“Have you received proposals for me?” It wasn’t uncommon for parents to send in proposals to royals to try to convince them to set up blind dates for an eligible royal.

“Yes, a few over the years, but we turned them all down.”

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