Rejected Princess

Burned

Vincent looked awestruck that I was actually crying, it was almost humorous, he must have known that something had upset me in there, my heartbeat going haywire in my chest. 

I had to slump over onto my knees, taking huge gulping breaths to try and calm myself down but it wasn't helping.  He quickly ushered me into the SUV without a word and sat on the other side of me the rest of the ride, only glancing over at me a few times with confusion in his eyes, but when I looked up and caught his stare, the cold blankness returned and I was left with the same old Vincent I had come to know my entire life. 

I dried my tears the closer to the castle we got, not wanting my parents to see my heartbreak in full force, the pain etched onto my soul like a vise.  I should have felt it, shouldn't I?  Maybe it was because we had never actually met, and therefore I didn't have to feel the pain of his marking of someone else. 

Could that really be it?  I didn't know, but I hoped that it wouldn't start now that we'd met, and he'd touched me when we shook hands for the briefest of seconds.  His face hadn't showed any emotion when I touched him but I could hear the slightest quickening of his pulse when we had touched.  

At least now he knew, he'd given up his true mate for someone else.  How selfish can someone be?  I prepared myself for the grilling my parents would give me once I got back to the castle. I squared my shoulders, took a deep breath, and thought I was ready to see them, but the aching in my chest and the sadness in my eyes would never dissipate.  I just couldn't make myself look happy. 

Vincent opened the door for me once he got out and I followed him up the huge steps to greet the family, but to my surprise, they weren't waiting like they should have been. 

"I mind linked with the royal family and told them that I would get the daily updates from you and relate them back to them since you had so many of your studies to work on as well as your normal workload.  Now, feed me some bs that I can give them," Vincent said to me and I looked at him in confusion, wondering why he would do something like that for me. 

"I, um, I don't understand...why?" I asked him, stammering through my response to him and having to crane my neck to look up at him considering the fact that he was so tall. 

His light blue eyes crinkled with what could have seemed like a smirk to anyone passing by, but I knew him all too well.  He was just being sardonic, mocking me, like he always had and always would. 

"Because its the truth.  Now why can't you say thank you and we can get on with it?" he asked me, and my eyes widened by his abruptness. 

"T-thank you, and my day was fine.  I found no suitors viable for me on this day, but there is one that I can definitely cross off my list for good.  Andrei Miroslav," I said, the venom laced in my tone held equal parts sadness, and I could see the cogs in his head turning. 

"Oh, so you couldn't have the prince charming of the school so you cry like a little girl because he's already marked someone else? Get over yourself," he said, and my eyes widened and narrowed at the same time. 

I crossed my arms over myself and raised my eyebrows in an 'are you kidding me' kind of look. 

"Please, if that was the reason he was crossed off of my list, do you honestly think I would degrade myself to this amount of pain over a regular run of the mill Lycan?" I asked him, honestly hoping his answer would be no, but he didn't know me nearly well enough to make those sorts of character assumptions about me in any way whatsoever. 

"Isn't it?" he asked me mockingly, the smirk on his face turning into a sneer. 

"Don't pretend like you know anything at all about me, Petrovaa, and I won't do the same for you, alright? He's just off the list, and if it weren't already completely obvious, as are you considering everyone who goes to that school is considered 'fair game' according to my parents," I said to him, not wanting him to guess that I would ever want him that way.  Never.