Page 176 of Royally Cursed

That was until she gripped my arm, drawing attention away from my food.

“What?”

Her eyes flicked over to something behind me, and I turned as subtly as I could. Sure enough, there wassomethinggoing on, as a beautiful wolf shifter dressed in incredibly fine clothes walked in with a handsome looking vampire, arm linked in arm as they moved through the room. We weren’t the only ones watching, either, as it seemed most of the eyes in the room were on them.

Ooh,Darla’s voice echoed in my head.That’s Princess Amelia and her husband. Huh.

Eyes going wide, I looked at the couple again, only to see she’d turned to kiss the man on her arm. Kai hadn’t mentioned his next sibling was married.

They have a young daughter, too.

I raised my eyebrows, looking for a little girl somewhere, but I didn’t see any. “Where?”

Shh! We’re in a room full of shifters. You know better.

“Not like they can hear you, though.”

I guess. But still, a half-shifter, half-vampire kid. I got a bigoted vibe from most of the folks around here, so that’s surprising.

I half nodded. I hadn’t heard of many mixed cryptids like this, and I mused over whether she was like me, where one side was more dominant over the other, or if she’d be equally strong with both sides. Those were rare among us cryptids, and they tended not to survive infancy.

Uh-oh.

“Uh-oh?” I whispered quietly.

Umm, apparently her husband is human. Just a human.

I raised my eyebrows, confused because I was looking at a vampire.

Ayla, sometimes I forget how young you are. That’s not her husband.

What the fuck?

I knew people cheated, but I’d have thought a literal princess wouldn’t be flaunting her infidelity right in front of her subjects like this. Kai said his parents were focused on their image, and this had to be damaging to their reputation, right?

Wow. You wouldn’t believe this. It seems like everyone here is just used to this.

I gave her a dubious look. “Used to it?”

Yup. It’s gotta be a kink, like a cuckolding exhibition. This is justtooblatant, and basically what I’m hearing is it’s easier for everyone to just pretend it’s not happening.

“Wild.”

I was never going to understand these royals. Their rules about what was allowed and what wasn’t made no sense. Hopefully, soon Kai and I could break my curse, figure out whatever it was he needed to help Canid, and then we could go home.

Maybe if we were really lucky, our meeting later with the enchantress would bear fruit.

I’d cross my fingers.

It wasn’t hard to steal away to the servants’ entrance of the gates, with Darla leading me on with her mind reading skills. It sure was going to be inconvenient whenever the palace cut her off.

Sure enough, the “guard” who’d met me in the smaller library was there along with Oren, dressed in what looked like normal clothing instead of the overly expensive, designer stuff so many in the palace had if they weren’t in uniform.

“Hey there,” Kai said, offering a crooked smile. “Long time no see.”

I grinned back, wanting to kiss him yet again, but I knew it wasn’t the time, especially when Oren quietly spoke.

“This way,” he said simply, walking out into the street.

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