Present time. When he meets his own.

"Mary Loughty.."

The door opened slowly, the lights in the ballrooms went dim, the spotlight at the opened door.

A red haired girl stepped in, her hair dressed high in a ponytail. Her baby skin glimmered under the light like she had bathed all her life with milk and honey. The white silk gown she was putting on glued to her body, showing her curves, her breasts were full and would get fuller during pregnancy, she had just the right amount of buttocks, her emerald eyes illuminating under the spotlight, her long lashes fluttered as she looked around until her gaze landed on Maxwell. A small smile played on her lips and disappeared just as fast as it had appeared.

Each step she took had men drooling at her, lust visible in their eyes. At that moment Everyman there wished they were prince Howard.

Howard walked to her and linked hands with her pulling her towards Mrs Dankworth.

Mary had a look of disappointment washed on her face, she kept looking back at Maxwell, hoping it was a prank and Maxwell was her betrothed but everyone smiled at their linked hands, including Mrs Dankworth and immediately the realization hit her. She sighed in disappointment and feigned a smile, covering up the cold shiver that ran down her spine.

It wasn't that Howard wasn't attractive, he was just as attractive as his five other brothers, the only problem was that all her life she had pictured herself getting married to either a calm, lovable yet mysterious man, like the prince wearing the white suit or a dangerous mysterious man that had a dark aura around him, like the prince putting on black all through. He did look familiar but she couldn't place her finger on where she had seen him before.

She felt a gentle nudge from Howard and she realized she had been nodding unconsciously to whatever Mrs Dankworth had been saying and even after she was done talking, Mary had still been nodding. She gave the woman an apologetic smile and Mrs Dankworth repeated her request. She wanted Mary to walk to all the members of the royal family and greet them as an act of respect.

Mary began moving slowly, greeting the princes one by one and having them place a light kiss at the back of her palm. She started with Godfrey the sixth prince, to George the third prince, to Gillian the fifth prince, to princess Pamela who had an air of arrogance around her, then to prince Lewis, leaving only prince Maxwell remaining.

She walked towards him with shaky legs, she felt like she had jelly for legs, her heart was at the verge of exploding, she felt her cheeks getting hot as he observed her with teasing eyes, his back rested against the wall. She stopped few inches away from him and bowed in respect and held out her hand for a kiss.

He moved away from the wall and Lord was he tall, he held her hand gently and lifted it to his lips. He placed a kiss on the hand but did not let go, his grip tightened and he leaned in close to her, his lips few inches away from her ear, the hot air from his nostrils on her neck sent electric waves to her body. With his free hand, he pulled the band holding her hair up, her hair fell gently on her back. He ran his hand through her hair and grabbed a handful of her hair that was naturally black. Mary was a natural red hair but she had a particular part of her hair that stayed black and it wasn't something she liked people seeing. She gasped and tossed her head side to side, trying to break Maxwell's grasp.

"Let her go." Howard demanded as he hurried over to their side.

Maxwell released her from his hold, his eyes had gone from it's natural brown to pitch black. Tears of frustration squeezed out from beneath his eyelids, he turned and walked out of the ballroom with Simon running after him.

Mary stood and watched their retreating figure until they were both out of sight.

****

Maxwell and Simon did not say anything to each other until they got to their destination.

Simon parked the car and turned to look at a sorry looking Maxwell.

"My brother.."

"She's the one." Maxwell said. He stepped out of the car and walked to the house, Simon quietly tagged along.

Maxwell raised his hand to knock but the door creaked open. They both walked into a gloomy looking hallway with only candle lights illuminating the place. They walked through the hallway and entered a well furnished sitting room where a man sat glued to his laptop, he raised a finger indicating that they should sit without looking away from his screen.

The man finally looked away from his screen after ten minutes, he took of his glasses and studied their expressions.

"What a pleasant surprise! it's been," he said counted his fingers. "Three hundred years?"

"Janus.."

"Ahh let me guess, your soulmate has been reincarnated."

"Why did she have to come back as my brother's bride?" Maxwell complained.

"How would I know?"

"You are Janus, the god of life and death."

"Oh yeah, that's true." Janus chuckled.

"You never said the type of life you wanted her to live," Janus said sounding uninterested in the conversation. "You came here three hundred years ago crawling and begging that you wanted her to be reincarnated."

"Aren't you being unfair?" Simon finally added to the conversation, he was disgusted by Janus nonchalant attitude to the situation.

"Perhaps you would want to discuss this with the elders yourself?" Janus threw the question at Simon. "And tell them just how unfair they are."

They remained mute and gave him no answer, he sighed and put on his glasses.

"You can excuse yourselves now." With that he paid them no attention again, his eyes glued to his laptop like they didn't exist.

Defeated, Maxwell and Simon turned and began walking away. Janus cleared his throat thereby drawing their attention.

"Her heart still belongs to you, it's up to you to do the right thing this time around.".....