The Wolf God’s Mate

Chapter Four

Forty-five minutes later, a clean Amelia skips down the stairs in a yellow dress and white shoes with her freshly washed and dried hair held back with a pretty yellow band.

As she gets to the foyer, the front doors open and in walks her eldest brother, Prince Adrian, in a ceremonial suit. His clothes consisted of a black well-fitted long sleeved suit with a bishop collar and gold buttons across the front and sleeves, and gold epaulettes on the shoulders. He wore it with black breeches and black boots. It was the Crown Prince's ceremonial attire.

Prince Adrian was a handsome twenty-five year old man with pale blonde hair and piercing blue eyes that he got from his mother. However, that was where the similarity stopped. Apart from that, he looked exactly like him father. He had a Grecian nose and full pale pink lips. He was also about 6 feet tall and lean, in a few years, he would be most probably be as tall as the King but just not as muscular. Prince Adrian was more on the lean side.

Striding into the castle with purposeful steps, he had just come back from official business and after a hot bath and afternoon tea with the Queen, would be heading back out. Such was the life of the Crown Prince; forever busy.

A sly look comes onto Amelia's face as she sets her eyes on him (completely uncaring of his looks, after all he wasn't as attractive as her noble self) and she moves towards him.

"Adrian!" she calls out, as she walks to meet him.

Snapping out of his thoughts, he finds that the little princess was actually in front of him. Lost in his thoughts, he hadn't even bothered to look around when he walked in. His stern face softens and he bends down to her height and greets, "Hello Amelia. How are you today."

"I'm doing wonderfully well Adrian", she answers with a sweet smile.

"That's good", he says with a smile and stands back up to go about his business.

"Adrian!" she calls him again, holding onto his sleeve.

"hmm?"

"I heard Alexander telling Papa that he had been stuck at a bottleneck in his training and would really like it if you helped him out, but he couldn't find you today. Also, even if he had, he wasn't sure you would have the time. He knows that you're awfully busy", she says with a sweet smile and innocent expression-firmly determined to dig a hole for her brother.

Freezing a bit, a thoughtful look comes across his face and he pats her head, "Don't worry, I have some free time after today’s noon tea with mother. Hmm... and if I wake up a bit earlier, I'll be able to help him in the mornings as well. I believe that's when he has to train anyways. Just as well... " then looking down at her, he says with a smile, "You're a very kind girl Amelia. You care so much about your brother. Good girl", and with another head pat, he's gone.

Prince Adrian was known as a devil trainer and was even worse than the Chief Warrior. He was a total combat maniac that even the warriors with more experience than him shied away from training whenever Prince Adrian was around. It also didn't help that as a Royal werewolf and next in line to the throne, he was insanely strong- second only to his father the King. Therefore, it could only be imagined just how miserable the next few days were going to be for Alexander.

Amelia let's out an evil little laugh, which just makes her look even more adorable and Butler Jude, who had been standing there the whole time, hanging Prince Adrian's coat let's out a cough, trying to stifle his laughter.

Amelia looks at him and gives mischievous grin. She then holds an index finger to her lips and goes, "Shhhh!!"

The old butler nods, eyes filled with laughter and watches Amelia skip back to the Queen's drawing room.

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At tea time, the whole family gathered on the balcony off the Royal family's private sitting room upstairs. It was tradition that as long as they were home, they were all obligated to have their meals together. The Queen termed it their family "Bonding" time. And so, seven people were seated around a moderately sized round tea table, covered with a beautiful white lace tablecloth. The King had quickly wrapped up his affairs and rushed over for tea with his family (to see his mate and darling daughter. The rest were superfluous). The Queen was sitting on his right, looking as graceful as ever and Amelia was on his left, looking deceptively sweet and well-behaved.

Beside Amelia was Prince Marcus who had cleaned up from his gardening and changed into more presentable clothes. He was now dressed in a clean white shirt and white breeches, looking quite scholarly. His still damp hair from his bath falling over his forehead and almost into his brown eyes. Prince Marcus was the King's identical twin and looked quite similar to his brother. However, in werewolf twin pregnancies, one fetus is always more dominant than the other. And the stronger the dominant fetus, the more nutrients it took from its twin, and King Damien was an extremely strong Royal. Therefore at birth, while the King was a robust baby, Prince Marcus was extremely weak. He was born with a lot of health issues and his development was inevitablely affected. Many a times, the previous King and Queen even feared that he wouldn't make it, but against all odds, he had survived. But he never grew to be as tall or as strong as his muscled twin. In fact his appearance was quite frail in comparison. Also, his Magéa never developed to be as powerful as his twin's.

Amazingly, as though in compensation, what he lacked for in strength and magical ability, he made for in intellect. Prince Marcus was an amazingly brilliant werewolf.

On his other side was seated the eldest prince, Adrian and beside him was Alexander, who had evidently just had a bath as well judging by his different clean clothes and equally damp blonde hair.

Lastly, sitting beside the Queen on her other side was the twenty-one year old second prince, Prince Adam. Unlike his two brothers who all had their mother's blonde hair and blue eyes, Adam had his father's black hair and green eyes. He was also the most gentle of all the princes, his temperament similar to his Uncle Marcus.

The refreshments were had amidst laughter and warm conversation, typical of a loving and close-knit family. The King whispered sweet nothings to the Queen to which she blushed red and answered him playful slaps, and he listened with the other ear to his daughter's ramblings. Completely ignoring his brother and sons.

Prince Marcus on the other hand was completely engrossed in what Amelia was saying to him, not forgetting to give the scones topped with cream from his plate to her and then patiently wiping her mouth.

Amelia even smiles at Alexander and answers his questions, making him believe that she had forgiven him and this lifts his spirits.

"Eat some more, you'll be needing the energy", Adrian says to Alexander sternly.

Alexander who knows that is eldest brother was a man of few words is overwhelmed by the unexpected favour, and eats with more gusto. He doesn't stop to think what Adrian meant by the second half of his statement.

Amelia looks at the i***t with disdain while Marcus looks at him with pitying eyes but says nothing. He just bends his head to add more cream to Amelia's plate. Adams looks at the four of them, from one person's face to the other with confusion. Moments later his expression clears up, realizing what was going on and chuckles under his breath. He lowers his head, focuses on his plate and doesn't say anything.

Evidently, no one was going to help Alexander.

Weeks later and something happens that keeps everyone on tenherhooks. Amelia had overheard her parents in the morning saying that Prince Marcus was going on a journey again. She had thrown a wonderful tantrum and locked herself up in her room, refusing to see anyone. Amelia was absolutely inconsolable. Her parents as well as brothers had been extremely worried and had taken turns trying to get her to come out. They could very well have opened the door with a spare key but they knew it would just make things worse. She had been in her room for hours already and her family were running out of options. Standing anxiously outside her door, they called out to her in gentle voices, trying to convince her to come out but all they got back were heart-wrenching sobs.

"Where's Marcus? Isn't he back yet?" the Queen asks her mate, wringing her hands in anxiously.

"He should be back by now", he answers, pacing up and down the hallway. "He said he had to get some supplies he would need for his journey from town."

Looking sharply towards Alexander, "Run down again to check if he's back", he orders him. Alexander had made this trip at least ten times already but he didn't care. He was equally as worried about his sister.

Amelia was greatly loved by all of them but she was especially close to her Uncle Marcus. Since she was born, it was like an invisible connection had been created between them. Marcus had taken one look at the pink baby swathed in a warm white blanket, crying her lungs out and had been in awe. And the moment she opened her honey brown eyes, the exact shame shade as his, he had fallen completely in love with her. No one had his shade of eyes, not even his twin, whose eyes were a forest green. She had looked at him and immediately stopped crying, and holding his index finger tightly in her tiny fist, had given a cute little yawn and fallen asleep. Something her parents had been trying to get to get her to do the entire night. It was at that moment he knew he would do anything for her.

As a baby, Amelia had imprinted on Marcus like a baby chick did to the first bird it saw. Except instead of the parents that she saw every day, she decided to imprint on Marcus instead. She only stayed with her mother when she was hungry and then let her hold her a little bit, as though indulging her a little. She would then burst into tears until Marcus came to hold her. And whenever she was feeling uncomfortable, she would be able to calm down once he held her. As she grew older and became a toddler, Amelia would only sleep with her Uncle Marcus. As much as this broke her parents' hearts, there was nothing they could do except give in to her.

King Damien had been intensely jealous. After he had finally gotten a daughter, after three raucous, loud and smelly, boring boys, his brother had come along and abducted her. He had once sneakily ordered his younger brother on a fool's errand someplace far away so he could establish a stronger bond with his little angel, and hopefully, by the time Marcus had found out the truth and hurried back, it would be too late and his darling would have forgotten all about this meddling man. But who would have thought that on the first night, Amelia would cry so much she almost made herself sick. He panicked and had no choice but to send for Marcus to come back in a hurry.

Queen Josephine had also been at a loss as to what to do with this daughter who was more attached to her uncle than to her biological mother. She had been excited to have a daughter to dress up, go dress and jewelry shopping and have some actual lady's conversations with. She had been tired of being the only woman in the Royal family. But who knew that she would be graced with a daughter that barely tolerated her presence.

The previous King had had no sisters, the present King, her mate, had no sisters either and her first three births had all been males. She had been afraid that there would be no daughters in her children's generation either when seven years after the birth of her third son, she had found herself pregnant. Her pregnancy had even been worse than all of her other sons, the baby completely restless and kicking every day and she had been convinced that it would be another boy. They had even prepared all male clothing and a blue colored nursery in preparation. So imagine the surprise when the midwife had held out the tiny baby to her and announced that it was a girl. She was so very pleasantly surprised. Everyone was. Amelia was the only girl born in three generations of the Royal family so she was incomparably precious to them.

The three princes were equally as delighted to have a sister to dote on. They had all secretly been jealous of the boys in town complaining about how annoying their younger sisters were. They wanted to even have a sister to complain about as the thought of a female relative connected by blood to them was strange. They had no aunts and no great-aunts either. Though they were on good terms with their uncles' mates, it just wasn't the same. And so as soon as they had learned that the Queen had given birth to a daughter, they had been over the moon and had contributed to spoiling her to the heavens.

With Marcus in the picture however, they all had a great ration of the Princess' affection taken away and so they all held a bit of grudge against him.

The King, in his endless pampering, had presented the princes to the Princess as her personal aids. In nice sounding words, they were guardians, in realistic words, they were servants. They were extremely willing however. Amelia especially liked to bully her immediate older brother Alexander when she noticed that he liked to tease her. She also noticed that he wasn't the brightest either when it came to his family members. He was quite aloof and impenetrable to outsiders but to his family, he absolutely had no guard against them whatsoever and so was tricked easily by them all the time.

And right at the same time Alexander turns around and make his way down stairs to check whether their Uncle Marcus was back, said man comes striding into from the sitting room and into the hallway they had all worriedly crammed themselves into.

"What's wrong with Amelia?" he asks immediately, worry clearly in his eyes as he sees them standing around in front of her room. "What happened?"

King Adrian looks at him with complicated eyes and answers, "she found out about your trip".

Marcus's eyes widen and he looks at the tightly shut door, hearing the faint sounds of sobbing coming from within. His face softens and he sighs. Walking slowly towards the door, he stands in front of it and gently knocks. "Amelia, sweetheart, can you hear me?" he asks in the gentlest of voices and listens to the sounds coming from within.