The butler showed me to Susie’s room, and then quickly excused himself outside of her door. When he was gone, I knocked.“Go away!” Susie called in a watery voice. She was crying.I knocked more insistently as I pushed open the door.“I said –” she started, cutting herself off she say me. “Piper?”“

Not long after, Nicholas and I excused ourselves. We left Mark there with Susie and her parents to celebrate and help solidify the engagement. Nicholas and my presence was no longer necessary.The driver was outside, leaning against the parked car. When he spotted us, he flicked away his cigarette a

The next morning, I headed down to breakfast with Elva per usual. Today, all of the girls were even more animated than usual, their voices quick and cheerful with the latest gossip, their expressions bright.“Susie and Mark are engaged!” Tiffany said, repeating what the others have said but louder a

“Have you ever heard anything like this?” I asked. “I can feel Miracle. I know she’s there. But she’s not speaking to me and she’s not coming forward to help me shift.”Nicholas’s brow crumpled as he considered my question.“I’ve never heard of anything like this specifically,” Nicholas said. “But i

Later, I left Elva to play with her Nanny and her dolls, and joined Tiffany, Veronica, and Julian for a meeting in our sitting room/investigatory office. No one seemed terribly excited today, as we didn’t have any good news to share.“There’s not much progress today, I’m afraid,” Julian said. “In fa

“Veronica’s right,” I chimed in. “We’ll still be able to see each other.”I hoped with all of my heart that would be true. Veronica could visit Tiffany and vice versa. Julian, as prince, would be able to visit whoever he wanted whenever he wanted.But me? If I returned to my life as a commoner, I do

“Julian wants me, Tiffany, and Veronica to escort him to the nearby small town to search for information about the missing princesses. He asked me to invite you too,” I said, although I thought I had been clear the first time.Yet as I said the words once more, Nicholas’s frown grew deeper and his b

Elva held tightly onto her teddy bear. She looked down at it with sad eyes.“I don’t understand, Mommy,” Elva said. “Why do we hate bears now…?”I lowered myself down to her level. Holding her shoulders, I explained, “We don’t hate bears, honey. But… they could be dangerous right now. They’re all pr

Julian, Nicholas, Tiffany, Veronica, and I piled into a pair of inconspicuous looking cars and drove to small town. It took around 45 minutes, during which, Tiffany sat amazed at the many dials and knobs that made up the center console of this older-model sedan.“No touchscreen,” she said for the fo

Things were quiet on the way back to the palace. We’d managed to escape before we saw a bear. Nicholas had seemed confident that none of the people we had run into had been a bear shifter.“I would have known,” Nicholas said. “Their smell would have given them away.”Alphas had sensitive noses, so I