Already over 300 reads?! Omg, this is just amazing😄I'm so glad you readers are supporting me and thank you so very much!

This chapter is dedicated to Shadowgirl140 . You da bomb💣

[E D I T E D]

♕✿~♕✿~Chapter 13//: Beat that piece of royal sexiness!♕✿~♕✿~

My maids come into my room soon after the training room incident. They inform me that Ahren's training will be over soon and that I should start to prepare for the race. I had almost forgotten about the race that Ahren and I were to do. If I win, I would get to wear pants for my Lessons. If I lose, I would have to go on a date with Ahren.

I could not go on a date with him.

I needed to focus on staying here for a month, then I needed to leave and forget about the memories of the palace in order to go back to my simple, easy life from before.

I let my maids help me take off my dress and am ready to dress myself in my jeans and shirt when Sam stops me.

"Miss, His Highness said that you should wear this so that he doesn't have an unfair advantage." Sam holds up a training suit identical to Ahren's, with the red stripe down the side.

If I wear this, it could be misinterpreted as me accepting the fact that I might be a part of House Calore. I did not want to send that sort of message to anyone.

"No thanks. I'll just wear my jeans and shirt," I tell Sam politely, handing back the training suit. She looks confused by my response but nods anyways and puts the suit off to the side to help me dress.

10 minutes later, I am dressed in my jeans and  a clean white shirt, along with my tennis shoes that I brought with me. I have my hair tied up in a ponytail, and I am doing some stretches to prep my legs. These babies haven't ran in a long time.

I look at the clock and see that it's almost time for Ahren to be done with his training. I breathe in and out. Ok. I've got this. I just need to run faster than someone who has been trained from birth to be a strong soldier and I'll be fine.

I don't sound confident even in my head.

My maids leave me to go work on my dress for the Report this Friday. I think I already have enough dresses, but they insist on making me a dress that I'll only wear for one Report.

I walk towards the training room, where the race will be held. I'm guessing there's a track in there somewhere. I didn't get a good look when I was spying with Rose, Belle, and Addaline.

When I open the door to the training room, the side conversations stop immediately. I see all of the girls here, in their own groups and talking to each other. Some stare at me as if I'm an alien, while others glare at me before turning away.

I walk forward and immediately everyone backs away from me. Why do I feel like I'm walking to my death? As I continue walking, the girls part away, revealing a smirking Ahren on the other side of the sea of girls.

"Madison. You know it's not too late to turn back," Ahren tells me. I roll my eyes, a smile starting to form on my face.

"As if I would," I shoot back. "I'm warning you, Your Highness, I am going to be tough competition to beat." My words only make Ahren stare at me competitively.

"Fine. Don't complain when you lose," Ahren says confidently. I strut over to where he stands and put a hand sassily on my hip.

"It's cute that you're acting so confident when you shouldn't," I say with a raised brow. Ahren's eyes shine with amusement as his mouth slightly tips upward.

"And it's cute when you act like you're right all the time," he tells me. I narrow my eyes at him.

"Oh, it's on," I mumble dangerously. Ahren smiles at my response as we both go over to the starting line of the small running track. I notice some of the girls looking at me venomously, even Belle who had seemed so sweet to me only half an hour ago. But they didn't need to worry; Ahren was all theirs.

"Only rule: no using abilities on each other," a man dressed in gold and black clothing says. He must be from House Provos, who are all Telkies. I wonder why they chose him to oversee the race.

"On you mark." I fall into position, my feet spread apart and my hands on my knees. Ahren goes into a similar position.

"Get set." I breathe in, and then exhale deeply.

"Go!" I start running like my life depends on it. I imagine that some monster is chasing after me, and that makes me run faster than I've ever ran. Soon, I'm in front of Ahren and I can hear Rose cheering for me.

"Yeah! Go Madison! Beat that piece of royal sexiness!" I almost trip at what Rose says. What the hell is she doing calling Ahren a piece of royal sexiness? Does she not feel any emotion related to embarrassment?

This was why I liked Rose a lot. She wasn't afraid to say what was on her mind. It was refreshing, in a way, to meet someone like her.

Suddenly, a section of the wall swings outward and catches me on the stomach.

I hear "ooh"s and snickers as I fall to the ground in a daze. What the hell? I see the Provos man smirking. Jack-ass. He moved the wall and now Ahren is in the lead, pleasantly running ahead of me like this is an easy warm-up for him.

I quickly get up, ignoring the slight pain in my stomach as I run after Ahren. Soon, we are side-by-side, battling for first place.

"You know, it isn't fair that you didn't tell me about the Provos man putting obstacles in this race!" I yell as Ahren side-steps another wall that swings out. I barely dodge it.

"Well it didn't seem that important when we were explaining the rules," Ahren yells to me as he jumps over a piece of the floor that suddenly moves upward.

I groan in annoyance. "You are going to pay for this later, Ahren Calore!" I yell at him. The finish line is coming up, and I'm behind him slightly.

I suddenly feel something pushing me to run faster than ever. I feel tired as I push myself even harder than I already am, my legs burning in protest. I want to slow down from the exhaustion, but I can't. It's like I don't have any control over my own legs.

And that's when it hits me: I've experienced this before. I look over to where Alexis is at to see her staring at me in focus. She was forcing me to run faster and faster. She wanted me to win this race.

Emily taps Alexis on the shoulder and I regain control over my body muscles again. Alexis is distracted and she can't control me right now.

But then the floor rises up slightly and I trip on it.

I drop down and roll forward. The finish line is right there! But Ahren is heading towards it fast.

I stare after Ahren as he passes me and crosses the finish line. The girls cheer in support for their prince. I groan in frustration. I lost. I lost to him.

Ahren jogs back to me with a smirk. He leans towards me with a hand over his ears.

"I'm sorry, what was that about you winning this race?" His eyes shine with amusement, and his lips are quirked up as if he's about to laugh at any moment. Annoyance shoots through me as he taunts me with his victory.

I mock-glare at him as he laughs. I quickly get up to try to save my dignity, if any is even existing anymore after what just happened. But dizziness overtakes me and black spots appear in my vision, telling me I had gotten up too quickly. My body starts to lean over to one side and before I can stop myself, I trip over my feet and crash into Ahren, taking him down with me.

I groan as I hit something solid. Putting my hands flat on the solid thing beneath me, my cheeks flush red as I recognize the texture of the training suit beneath my hands. I look down to see that I am on top of Ahren, his cheeks flushed silver as he stares at me, his hand on my forearm.

"Next time, don't brag, prince." I try to say this in a cocky voice to pretend that our current position isn't affecting me as much as it is. But I can't. Not when I had just landed on him in such an intimate way. Ahren looks distracted as well, a strange look in his eyes as he continues to look at me. As I stare back at him, I feel myself getting pulled into the depths of his calm grey eyes. He gets up, causing me to shift to a sitting position on where I am half on his lap and half on the ground. As we continue to look at each other, it seems as if the distance between us is getting smaller and smaller, and I start to panic.

Suddenly, Alexis jumps in front of me and Ahren, making Ahren jolt away. Alexis has a smile on her face, but it's obviously fake.

"You guys did so good. Madison, you must be tired. There's some water over there; You should go drink," Alexis tells me hurriedly as she points to the other side of the room. I see some cups, and I'm guessing it has some water in it.

I look over at Ahren and he has an unreadable look on his face. "Yeah..." I mumble as I push myself up from the ground and head over to the table.

I turn around to look back at Ahren. He's being crowded by the girls, but he makes eye contact with me and holds it for a while before I break it by turning away.

Even though I turn away, his eyes still haunt my mind. I can still feel his stare on the back of my head, but I don't dare turn around.

I fear that I will get swept away in the dark storms of his eyes if I stare for too long.

♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~

Again, thank you for 300 reads! I still can't believe it! You all are just amazing people and I'm so happy that I am able to know you wonderful readers❤️

Glass_Sword