Blind Dating the Alpha Prince

3 - A Rocky Start

~~Carter's PoV~~

It's only been a week and I'm ready to call this whole experiment off. When my mother first suggested putting me on Mate-Match wearing a mask over my face, I actually thought it was pretty clever, and I was quickly proved right. Everyone was talking about it. Beautiful women were posting clips of themselves applying for a date with me, and I couldn't wait to meet some of them in person.

But what I didn't realize was that my mother was going to be the one screening the applications. I found her the day after the profile went up with a stack of papers at our private dining table.

“What are those?” I asked as I sat down next to her, waiting for one of the servants to bring me breakfast.

“Your potential dates,” she explained and I quickly grabbed some of the papers from the pile, over her protests.

“Wait, there's no pictures on these.” I frowned as I flipped through them. Each one had a blank box where the picture should be.

“Because I'm interested in finding the woman who's right for you on the inside,” she told me, snatching the papers back from my hand. “Just like your mate would be.”

There's the usual little sting at the thought of my mate, whoever she was meant to be. “And you're going to be able to tell that from a few questions?” I asked.

“I have a good feeling about it,” she told me with a smile.

Her confidence made me feel a little better, until I started going on the dates. First of all, my mother insisted that I keep the mask on for the whole date. “It won't work if word gets out who you are,” she pointed out to me. “If you like someone enough to have five dates, then you can take it off.”

Five dates with the same woman? That seemed an impossible feat.

Then there were the women themselves. They didn't seem as bothered by the mask as I expected them to be. The first two even said they liked it, going off on a tangent about how society puts too much value on appearances. From the looks of them, I could see why they'd think so. I put an end to those dates as quickly as possible.

The woman the third night was better. She was really quite pretty, and I recognized her too. She was a doctor at the royal hospital, the youngest doctor we'd had in the empire. I remembered my father being particularly impressed with her when she qualified.

So I actually made an honest effort with her, being my usual charming self, but she seemed far less charmed by me than women usually were. She wanted to talk about goals and life plans, things that I had never particularly worried about before. I knew what my life plan was, it was to become king once my father retired, but I couldn't tell her that without giving away my identity.

In the end, I offered a second date and she turned me down.

No one had ever turned down a date with me before, and I had to admit it was a blow to my confidence.

In frustration, I blew off my date the next night, not even turning up for it, to my mother's annoyance.

“You promised me you'd give this an honest try,” she reminds me at breakfast this morning.

“I have,” I argue. “It's not working.”

She gives me an unimpressed look. “Try harder, Carter.”

She tells me I'm having dinner with another woman tonight and I try my best to get out of it, but she refuses to budge.

“This one could be really good for you.”

“You've said that about all of them,” I point out, but I know it's useless. She's made up her mind. “Fine, I'll go out tonight, but then the weekend is mine.”

She agrees to that compromise and I manage to forget about my upcoming date until it's almost time for me to go. I'm not expecting much, so I don't make much of an effort either. I run a comb through my hair and slip the mask on my face once I arrive at the restaurant. My mother's arranged for a private table, of course, so I'm taken straight in and seated. My date isn't there yet.

As I keep an eye on my watch, I begin to hope that maybe she won't turn up. Then my mother can't blame me for not trying but I can still have the rest of the night free. There must be a party somewhere that I could go. Maybe I'll even take the mask. If people recognize it from the dating app, it might work in my favor.

Just as I think I've waited long enough and start to get to my feet, my date walks in and I stop halfway.

She is absolutely stunning. Long, chocolatey-brown hair falls in waves over her shoulders. Her dress is a little loose so I can't get a full sense of her shape, but she's got great legs beneath it. But the thing I notice most of all is her eyes, they're a vibrant blue beneath thick eyelashes.

I can definitely picture her in my bed later on, so I sit back down.

Maybe tonight won't be so bad after all.