THE MATE THEY CALL MY BROTHER

CHAPTER 13

I stared at him. First in surprise then In confusion.

“What suddenly promoted it?” I asked as I shifted on a foot.

“You said something about him being in the forest and how he possessed excellent swordsman skills. If you think about it. He got lost when he was small, he doesn't exactly know his way around the palace grounds, knowing you, you take your runs deep into the forest, a place where someone who isn't familiar with the pack grounds can easily get lost, yet he was there. You were assigned to helping him get familiar with the pack but you refused to, there's no way he could have figured everything out on his own in such a short while. Then about his swordman's skills; he claimed to have always been living in hiding when he was kidnapped, where did he get the chance to practice how to use a sword?”

I was speechless. I couldn't believe Garrett had thought of all these within the short period of time I had told him about what happened.

“So what are you planning on doing exactly, whatever you wanna do, it's too late, they're literally going to make him the alpha tomorrow, we could have done this way before invitations were sent to other packs…”

“That's it, we're going to expose him tomorrow, right in front of everyone.” Garrett patted my shoulder his face brightening.

“How?” I asked. We heard rustle in the bushes and our head whipped to the side immediately but a squirrel jumped out and scurried away the other way. I let out a deep breath and glanced back at him.

“Does he have any allergies or something, like anything he's more likely to react to?” Garrett asked

I tried to think. Kaleb didn't like quite some things as a kid. I couldn't remember what he was allergic to and what he didn't like. Then i remembered.

“He's allergic to blackberries… he had a very wild reaction as a kid one time we went to the forest to pluck some fruits.”

“Good, tomorrow, I'm going to sneak in blackberry juice into whatever he's going to consume…”

“I'm going to be doing that,” I said as i stared at nothing in particular. I wanted to be there and watch as we expose him Infront of everyone.

“I had zero intentions of showing up tomorrow but tomorrow I'll be coming as a supportive sister,” I said with a mischievous smile.

As if on cue, I looked up and saw Kaleb, his hands hooked around Diane's as she smiled proudly walking around to oversee the preparations for tomorrow.

His gaze met mine and the smile he had on for his mother disappeared instantly when he spotted me. His gaze flickering between me and Garrett whose cloth was thorn with his hands still on my shoulder.

We didn't tear our gazes from each other and I could feel the tension between us. Instead of my usual unwelcoming glare, I flashed him a smile.

If he was shocked by the sudden smile, he surely didn't show it as his face still remained expressionless. Diane looked up at him with smiles as she whispered something to him. He tore his gaze away from us and immediately a smile was on his face as he said something to Diane who laughed cheerily.

“Why don't we go to the kitchen and make sure they're no blackberries around?” I sarcastically said as i smiled at Garrett who equally smiled back in understanding.

Taking my hand In his, he pulled me after him as we walked to the pack's royal kitchen where it was alive with activities. Every single pack maid, both the junior and senior maids were busy with one thing or the other.

The bowed in respect to Garrett as they passed, each of them totally ignoring me. I couldn't blame them, they were following orders. I didn't matter in my father's pack.

The matron rushed up to us and smiled akwardly, gripping her sparkling apron as she bent her head. I genuinely wondered how they managed to keep their aprons so clean despite all the activities they carried out here.

“We weren't expecting you to show up, we would have prepared a snack for you,” she said politely, ignoring me as she fidgeted with her fingers. I almost felt pity for her.

“There's no need for that, I just came here to check and make sure things are in order,” he said with a smile and Immediately made to pass by her as he dragged me after him.

“young master…” she started, wincing as she realized she addressed him by the wrong honorifics.

Garrett turned to look at her.

“There's a strict order to not allow her anywhere near the preparations of the alpha's coronation…” she said, refusing to meet my gaze. She looked so scared saying that.

“Well she's with me, if you don't want her anywhere around here it means you're telling me I'm not also welcomed here.”

“No…no..not at all, I didn't quite mean that. My sincerest apologies,” she said and scurried away before Garrett could say anything else.

“I wonder who gives out such ridiculous orders to the staff,” Garrett said with a sigh as he rubbed his temple.

“Obviously Diane,” I gritted out. His grip on my hand tightened as if trying to comfort me.

“C'mon,” he said with a smile as we glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention to us as we scurried around, searching everywhere.

“I believed we should have checked the storehouse first…” I whispered.

“They're less likely to keep berries in the storehouse, it might be at the dining,” he whispered back.

We checked around carefully as we headed to the dinning. We arrived at the long fancy wooden table that's big enough to accommodate 15 people but yet I was never allowed to eat at that table since I was born.

As Garrett had predicted, there was a huge supply of fruits on the table. Bananas, pomegranate, apples, name it all everything was properly displayed and tabled as though they were being prepared for an exquisite banquet. My eyes caught sight of the berries.

“Right there….” I pointed out before Diane's distant voice interrupted us.

“Make sure you get rid of berries…my son is allergic to them I don't want his ceremony to be ruined tomorrow. Garrett was fast. He dropped my hand and rushed to the table, scooped a handful of berries and put them in his pocket before grabbing my hand and pulling me after him as we disappeared behind the door right as a junior maid was heading to the table with a wooden tray.

*****

The night was eerily quiet and the figure stood at the top of the mountain, the moon right behind his back, giving his shilloutte that dark dangerous aura that make a mere person think twice before approaching it.

Kaleb walked up to the figure and stopped a few feet away from him before he bowed his head.

“You killed my men…” the figure started to speak, his voice laced with power and authority.

“They were trying to harm my sister…”

“That girl was trying to ruin our mission, she keeps getting in your way and I was trying to make sure you carry out your mission without any disturbance but you decided to kill my men, members of your guild?” The voice's tempo rose with every word, anger laced in his tone.

“I deeply apologize for that but I'd come to you personally to tell you I had everything under control, sending other members of the guild to kill her is simply going to put me at risk, people would immediately start suspecting me. I'm doing everything within my power to put her under control… you need not worry about Ashley, she's not going to be a problem anymore, just…” Kaleb paused as he tried to force his voice to be steady.

“... just don't harm her, please,” he said and went on his knees before the figure. The mysterious man sighed and sheathed his sword.

“I'll take your word for it, if she plays anymore tricks I'm going to send more men to take care of her since I'll assume you're incapable of doing that.” Without another word, the man turned away from the edge of the mountain and walked past Kaleb who was still on his knees, his garment flowing around him as the cool night breeze blew.