Their Hidden Princess (Zora and Maximus) novel Chapter 270

Chapter 270

Zora’s POV

Stepping away from behind me to my side, Neo looked at me and then up at the building again, like he was seeing it with fresh eyes. “This was… your home?”

“Yes,” I said. “For most of my life.”

I didn’t know how I had come to be here. I didn’t think that I had thought about this place at all, but maybe that wasn’t true. This orphanage had been my home, so it was always with me, in the back of my mind. The good and the bad.

“I spent so many years here, believing that I was unwanted. I’m still trying to figure it all out. My mother says she had to leave me behind, for my own safety but… that doesn’t seem fair.”

Neo looked at me again. “Your mother? She came back to get you?”

“Yes, right when I turned eighteen,” I said. “I was so mad.” I laughed a little, but it felt hollow. “I guess I still am. How do you get over being abandoned for eighteen years? Even if it was for my own good, it still hurts.”

“I don’t know your mother,” Neo said. “But I already dislike her.”

Now that I had complained about her, now that Neo had actually taken my side, I started to feel bad. Mother, being Queen, certainly had her reasons, and even when she tried to explain them, they had never made sense to me. She had seen things that I couldn’t understand, and those things made her cautious. Even enough to give up her only child.

To miss out on my most formable moments. To not get to raise me at all.

“She was protecting me,” I said weakly.

“That’s not good enough,” Neo said. “You deserved to be loved and cherished, like any other child. No, more so, because you are my mate. She abandoned you and does not deserve to be a part of your life. Not now. Not ever.”

I’d never heard words like that before, not even from Max or my other mates. Max, Kairos, and Thorne had grown up revering the Queen, and Valentin knew her well for many years. He’d always be on my side, but he’d ask me to be understanding of the choices she made and why she made them.

None of them jumped straight to my side of things, wanting to defend me from an absent mother. Although, to be fair, Neo didn’t know she was the queen. He probably wouldn’t know who the queen was if I told him.

I realized I need to, though. It wasn’t fair of me to allow him to tie himself to me when he didn’t even know the full details of my situation.

I didn’t want to tell him. I liked the dynamics currently between us and worried if he knew the truth that this would change for him. But, I couldn’t be unfair. Neo deserved to know the truth about me.

“Would it change things if I told you my mother was the werewolf Queen?”

He looked at me. “Then you are… a princess?”

“Yes,” I said, bracing myself.

He huffed. “All the more reason to dislike her. All the power in the world, but can’t show love to her own child.”

My heart warmed, and our bond glowed gently, solidifying even further. He didn’t care that I was a princess or that the woman who had abandoned me was Queen. To him, his outrage remained, as did his desire for me.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You don’t have to thank me for this, Zora.” He leaned in and kissed me.

12

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The kiss lasted only a moment before we both tensed. I swore I heard something, it sounded like a clatter. Like –

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