It was only when Jennifer was lying in bed that she realized she had forgotten to write Prince 58.
"I don't suppose my webnovel could just write itself?" she muttered.
That would be nice. Imagine if her novels could draft and post themselves the way the landlady's office processed and filed leases.
On a typical Friday night, she would still be hunched over her laptop. But after Prince Angus appeared in her building, she was beyond exhausted.
She had left Prince Angus's signed lease and cheque in the fancy inbox tray and personally shown him to his mother's apartment. It was a lovely unit facing the backyard on the second floor. From the doorway, Jennifer could see that it was fully furnished—antique furniture, pink wallpaper, lace curtains, even fresh flowers in a porcelain vase.
Prince Angus had stood quietly in the doorway.
"I had never known my mother," he said softly, "but I feel like this would be exactly where she would have stayed."
Jennifer had nodded, suddenly uncomfortable.
Now that she was meeting the male leads of her webnovels in person, she was also noticing a troubling pattern.
Motherless sons.
Okay, for Damien it was part of the Darkfall curse. That contributed to the plot. But Angus…
Jennifer hadn't even thought that deeply about it.
She felt somewhat responsible for their loss.
After saying goodnight to Adrian (why was he still here?), she returned to her room and belatedly texted the landlady to inform her that her godson had arrived.
The landlady left her on read.
But it was late.
Jennifer decided to deal with everything in the morning. She even set her alarm an hour earlier. There were groceries to buy. She still had to update Prince 58. And she had CEO 93 scheduled for Saturday morning.
Oh yes.
And the horse poop.
Oh shit.
No—horse shit.
From now on, it was horse shit.
And then she fell asleep.
---
Saturday morning did not wait politely for her alarm.
Jennifer stepped into the lobby and stopped.
It was a Cinderella moment, but for houses.
The two generous servings of horse shit were gone. In their place stood two matching sets of coffee tables and cream settees. Tall standing lamps flanked the walls. Side consoles displayed crystal vases bursting with red roses.
There was even a proper lobby counter fitted near the entrance.
The wolf warrior who rushed to hold the lift door for her now wore a doorman's hat.
He tipped it with a grin. "Looks like a busy day, Ms. Jen."
Busy was an understatement.
Servants in black and white uniforms bustled in every direction. Some dusted chandeliers—chandeliers? Had there always been chandeliers? How had she not noticed them in the twenty years she'd lived here? Others polished banisters, adjusted curtains, wheeled in potted plants.
Had the lobby always been this large?
Jennifer walked forward cautiously, as if the floor might shift beneath her.
She didn't get far.
A girl came spinning down the center of the lobby.
"Don't follow me, Prince!"
"But Mia, my love!" Prince Angus rushed after her.
They stopped dramatically in the middle of the open space.
The servants froze.
Jennifer noticed a tall man behind the prince make a subtle gesture. The servants dispersed instantly.
Should she leave too?
"I can't take this anymore, Your Highness!" Mia cried, visibly distressed.
"Tell me what I must change!" Angus pleaded.
"Everything!" she shot back. "You'll never understand—"
"But my mother was a commoner—"
"There is nothing here a commoner would ever have!" Mia cut him off. "Not an apartment in a building like this. Not an army of servants. Angus, I'm tired. I'm staying at the campus dorms."
And she left.
Just like that.
"What should I do?" Prince Angus murmured.
"Yeah. Tough luck."
Jennifer blinked.
That hadn't been her.
It was Damien.
When did he get here?
Prince Angus bristled immediately.
Damien shrugged a leather-clad shoulder. "At least the boy band isn't around to livestream this."
Oh right. Adrian and his ALIVE boys had an early morning shoot.
Angus sighed again, defeated.
"Perhaps it would be wise to return to the castle, my lord," Sebastian suggested gently.
His voice was like autumn leaves—soft, measured, devastatingly composed.
At that exact moment, the clouds shifted outside and sunlight poured through the window, casting a perfect godray over the butler.
Wow.
Sebastian was everything she had written him to be.
And more.
Was she the only one seeing this?
"Perhaps you're right," Angus said, his eyes still fixated on the door where Mia had walked out of.
"Wait!" Jennifer blurted.
She grabbed Damien's arm as well. Just as he turned to leave.
"Ms. Jen. I'm running late," Damien growled, pulling free.
"When does term start?" she demanded. With wolves, it was better to sound like you knew what you were doing.
"It's orientation week," Damien replied cautiously.
Which technically made today the last day of orientation right?
"Perfect!" Jennifer said, memories of her own university days flashing through her mind. "You two can go together."
"But I was going with Mia," Angus protested.
"I wasn't planning to go," Damien added flatly.
"Perfect," Jennifer repeated, seizing the logic as if it made sense. "Then you'll both go together."
Silence.
The golden prince and the dark alpha.
Jennifer folded her arms decisively. "The two of you would be perfect together."
But this wasn't because Jennifer was changing the genre to BL. Honest!