Their Hidden Princess Novel

---- Chapter 57 "What do you want?" | snapped as | pushed myself off the floor. Despite standing on my feet, Maximus was still a half a foot taller than me. | tried to tip my chin to glare at him but failed. Maximus's gold eyes bore into me. "To be able to sleep without hearing you scream," he spat. "Do you even know what time it is?" "No," I threw back, petulantly. Maximus stepped into my room. The door slammed shut behind him and Loren jumped. He yanked the matching fuzzy pink clock off her desk and shoved it into my face. The cord swirled out from her desk and clattered across the floor.

"It's eleven-fucking-thirty," Maximus snapped as he pushed the clock into my chest. | fumbled it slightly before looking back at him to glare "Oh I'm so, so sorry for disturbing your beauty sleep, your highness," | mocked. | even added a fake bow at the end. As | stood back up, Maximus was still glaring at me. Loren's eyes were darting back and forth between the two of us. Maximus sucked in a deep breath, nostrils flaring. For a second, | thought he was going to tackle me. Then, he took a step back. ---- His hand went to our door and he wrenched it open.

"Just, keep it down," he spat before he left. The door slammed shut again and then Loren and | were alone once more. "That was some serious sexual tension," Loren whispered. | threw the fuzzy pink clock at her, and she caught it effortlessly. | threw myself on my bed. "Now that you know my secret, are you going to over analyze every interaction | have?" | said. "Yep," Loren jumped up on her own bed. "But don't worry, | won't comment unless | feel the need to." | rolled my neck on my pillow to look at her. She looked like a tiny pixie on her massive pink bed.

She cocked her head to the side in thought. "But, no promises," she said. | groaned and threw my pillow over my head so | could scream into it. Loren laughed. | threw my pillow to the side to look at her again. "Seriously, though," she said. "Thank you for telling me. | know you probably have a thousand more secrets but I'm grateful you told me what you did. | won't say anything to anyone unless you want me to." ---- | smiled at her. "Please don't," She mimicked zipping her lips up and throwing the key away. Then she shimmied off her bed and started towards our bathroom.

| followed suit and began to get ready for bed. It took me a while to fall asleep that night. | was second guessing telling Loren. | supposed the potential mate bonds between the school's assholes was the least of my secrets. Being the Princess was number one and | still kept that one to myself. But, if Loren could handle my weird feelings and my secret meetings with Valentin, maybe she would be able to handle the big one. We woke up the next morning and quickly got ready for class.

| didn't have anything until ten in the morning and Loren had nothing until eleven so we made our way to the cafeteria for breakfast. I'd become used to people staring at me when | walked in a room but that morning it was especially prominent. | nudged Loren. "Does it seem like people are especially look-y today?" | mumbled under my breath. Loren did a quick sweep of the cafeteria before looking back at me. She wrinkled her forehead in confusion. "Do | have something on my face?" she asked "| think they're looking at me," I whispered. ---- Everyone seemed to be glaring or scoffing at me.

| reached into the back of my mind and let some of the people's voices I'd been staving off in. "Did you hear? Apparently the reject is sleeping with Professor Lunerly as well?" "Really? Gods, she's such a whore. You think she'd take a second to chill after breaking her fated bond. Guess she's really desperate."