Prologue — Introduction
“Marry me, Alexa.”
He said it without hesitation, as if the words had been prepared long ago, just waiting for the right moment to be said.
She didn't answer right away. Her expression stayed calm, but there was some tension beneath the surface. Tilting her head slightly, she looked at him not with surprise, but with a touch of curiosity.
“For what?”
The Crown Prince approached her and whispered softly but firmly in her ear. “For making you be my queen consort.”
A moment of silence fell over both of them, short but intense. Alexa raised her eyebrows, a smirk appearing at the corners of her lips. Not a smirk of happiness, but one of distrust.
“And if I said no?”
A simple question, but once she said it, the atmosphere immediately turned tense.
The crown prince smirked back, as if he knew what Alexa was thinking.
“You can’t say no, Alexa. There’s no options.”
The answer came too quickly, too confidently. She looked him straight in the eye; her smile had disappeared. There was a challenging look in her eyes, calm and determined.
“Why should I? What makes you think I would say yes to you, Your Royal Highness?”
That formal greeting created a distance. A line deliberately pulled between them.
But the prince simply smiled, as if the princess's question had never really mattered.
“You can’t say no, sweety.”
At this moment, his tone sounded softer, yet for some reason it felt even more seductive.
"Excuse me?" Alexa wrinkled her brow, looking uncomfortable.
Rather than responding to her reaction, he moved closer again, closing the gap between them. Their breaths collided.
“Just marry me,” he whispered, as if trying to convince her. “And you’ll become Queen of Addocra. The perfect consort in every way.”
And then the prince planted a quick kiss on Alexa’s lips.
It sounds like a great promise. Titles, power, perfection.
However, Alexa didn’t change her mind.
Addocra was known for, where politics was reputation, and power was measured by how it was controlled, not just how it was viewed.
She looked into his eyes, trying to find the meaning behind those words.
At Addocra, perfection isn’t something that comes naturally. It’s something we make sure to maintain.
Finally, in the very same calm voice, she asked—
“Perfect… or perfectly under control?”
Meet the Character
Alexa Violetta Anastasia Rosalind
Princess of Croana, Duchess of Cradena
As the Queen’s granddaughter, she was trained in etiquette, her duties, and how to be part of something more important than herself. But, she never really fit in there.
Between the palace walls, Alexa found herself outside. In an open field, among the trees, in a place where no one expected her to be perfect.
That’s where she learned to love something honestly.
Not for duty. Not as a role. But because she choose to care.
Her decision to become a Royal Environmental Advocate was not an aggressive act of rebellion. That’s how she to survive to be yourself.
Because for the first time in her life, she wasn’t just living as part of the royal family.
She was living as her true self.
His Royal Highness
Maximilian Alexander Marzeno Theodore Lucius
Crown Prince of Addocra, Duke of Brassel
He never lost his control. Because he has never allowed it to happen.
As Crown Prince, his life was based on one simple rule: everything can be managed, as long as he understands how it works. People, situations, and even the results can be predicted, placed, and eventually directed.
And all this time, no one has ever escaped his control.
He doesn’t believe in luck.
He believes in calculation.
For him, feelings aren’t something to be ignored. They’re something to be managed.
Until he was confronted with something he cannot measure, cannot control, and cannot ignore.
Someone who does not follow rules.
Someone he cannot command.
Someone who remains entirely herself, even when the world demands otherwise.
And for the first time, Maximilian was faced with a possibility he had never imagined before. That not everything in his life is meant to be controlled.
And that is when everything begins to shift.
Because for the first time, Maximilian does not want to control something.
He wants to keep it.
But there is one thing that he never learned
how to hold on to something that cannot be controlled.
And that beneath everything he has so carefully maintained,
there is one thing he is slowly beginning to lose.
Control over himself.
Playlist
Young and Beautiful — Lana Del Rey
Earned It — The Weeknd
Take Me to Church — Hozier
Dynasty — MIIA
I Wanna Be Yours — Arctic Monkeys
