Ours To Love

5.

It's been a week since their first encounter with Jasmine since then she never held their gaze nor spoke to them whenever they were near. Emmaline being oblivious to it all brushed it off as her being cautious around new people. The little princess has yet to know that they all knew each other. Racon and Maxwell rallied the help of Jasmine's sentinels to get the three together. Stubborn as their mate was, she was very hard to convince to go places. 

Damien and Dominic decided to leave her be but their wolves thought differently. They wanted their humans to go to her, tell her that they are mates. 'She would distance her self more' Damien commented to them both. All through their conversation Dominic said nothing. He was focus on the dark-haired beauty sitting opposite him at the lunch table in the school's cafeteria. He was on duty with Emmaline for her classes and decided to tag along with her for lunch. What he didn't expect was Jasmine and Chris already seated at the table. 

Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed how tense she got and was on her way to sprout a lame excuse to leave the table. It sent a sharp pain through his heart that she didn't want to be near him, it caused him to go deeper into the confines of his mind. Not allowing anyone in.

"Excuse me? Is anyone sitting here?" a voice interrupted his musings. He distractedly said no and continued to eat in silence. 

"I haven't seen you around much. You are new here aren't you?" the voice spoke again. It was borderline annoying to his ears and the pitch was too high. He nodded his answer again this time yes.

"Not much of a talker are you?" she continued this time she placed a hand on his bicep, caressing the skin beneath her hand with her thumb. He turned to see who was bold enough to make this subtle move. To him she was pretty average with light brown eyes and blonde hair, everything about her screamed perfect. "I'm Catherine and you are?" she introduced herself with an outstretched hand.

"Dominic," he said softly shaking her hand briefly.

"So Dominic what's your major?" she asked flicking her hair over her shoulder. He didn't catch on that she was being flirtatious but the other members of the table caught on immediately. Dominic ate with his head low zoning out the chatter in the hall and listening to the heart beats of the present wolves and hybrids. It was a trick he learned during training to calm himself and also to find those in distress or fear. At the moment he was using it to calm himself. 

"Umm excuse me but who are you?" Emmaline spoke up finally finding a break in the new girl's interrogation. 

"The question is who are you? I'm busy little girl wait till you are spoken to" Catherine spat. "Lay off it Cathy. No one invited you here and this is Jasmine's cousin. Don't be playing boss b***h interrupting our lunch." Chris hissed at the blonde.

"I didn't come here for any of you and who cares if she's Jasmine's cousin. She can be the queen of England for all I care, you three are just here because of your parents. If it was up to me you all wouldn't be here. Now be good kids and leave the grown-ups alone." she sneered at Chris glancing in disdain at Emmaline. Catherine placed her arm around Dominic's shoulders but he was oblivious to it all. 

"Catherine with all due respect you are really not welcome here. I am kindly asking you to leave. If it wasn't for us you wouldn't get the latest Chanel bag in your closet," Jasmine said coldly. It was her voice that brought him out of his daze, looking at her he noticed how tense she was and eyes were blazing. The tapping of fingers on his shoulder made him aware of a lady's arm around him. He removed her hand and stood from his seat, 'Apologies princess but I would take my leave now.' he said to Emmaline over their link.

"Don't touch me ever again. Don't come to this table also ever again." His voice was void of any emotion, his words were perfectly enunciated to make it clear to Catherine. She looked at him in shock but quickly hid it by a sickly sweet smile. "I understand what you are trying to say," she said sending a wink his way before leaving. Without a glance towards the girls, he too took his leave. Jasmine released a deep sigh as she watched him leave their table. It had been a torturous week for her, guilt and regret was the only feeling she got whenever she saw the twins. Damien attempted to send smiles her way but the look in his eyes showed it wasn't genuine. He was still hurt. They both were.

"Jasmine?" Emmaline called out to her. She simply looked at her cousin who gave her a sympathetic smile. "Yeah?" she answered softly while playing with the leftover food on her plate.

"Just talk to them." 

Jasmine looked at her in disbelief, did she know that all three of them knew each other? But how? "What?"

"There's a reason why my family fears for me out here" Emmaline whispered while tapping her temple. Jasmine glanced towards Chris who was now in deep concentration in her music, singing along with whatever song was playing. "What gift made you know that something was going on?" she asked.

"It's hard to explain. I've inherited nearly all of the past king and queens gifts. It's a blessing also a curse. The gift of telepathy is the worst one for me. Being able to access anyone's mind, to feel every emotion, hearing their thoughts. It's unbearable but grandfather Niko helped me a lot." Emmaline gave her cousin a weak smile before looking around the noisy hall filled with boys and girls chatting about their day, laughing, just simply having fun.

"When the Carmonas returned to my side that night I sensed their conflict, their pain. They were at loss for something. Then I met up with you the next day you too were in conflict and filled with regret. Having you three in close quarters was too much. I don't know what is going on between you all but it isn't worth destroying a friendship right?" she continued bumping her shoulder with Jasmine playfully.

"No. It isn't." For the first time in that week, Jasmine's smile wasn't fake at all.

"What are we going to do now?" 

Needing some alone time from everyone the twins walked aimlessly around the campus lost in their thoughts. Thoughts filled with one girl with dark hair and bright eyes. Dominic shrugged at his brother's question, it pissed him off that the people they call friends and fellow pack members treated the girl they loved badly. It made him angry that she brushed it off, that she didn't find the need to tell them.

'Can't be mad at her. She couldn't reach out to you. From the looks of things, she trusted you two with everything.' Xander told his human. Dominic released a tired sigh rubbing the back of his neck to relieve the tension. 

"I know. It's just...." he began to say out loud.

"Hard. Hard that we can't just tell her that we are mates. Kiss her with all the love we have for her." Damien offered with a sad smile. Dominic returned the same sad smile with a nod of his head. They stayed in silence as they unconsciously walked to the school's music hall. Damien found a seat on one of the sofas placed in the piano room while his brother took a seat behind the piano. 

Dominic gently ran his fingers across the ivory keys then the mahogany wood frame of it. It has been a few months since he played. Playing the piano has been his escape at the king's military boot camp, he was surprised at first with his discovery of it but took the opportunity immediately. Every time he played he thought of her but the pieces he played whenever she came to his mind were sad songs. They never made him feel better.

Closing his eyes, he began the first note of a song his heart wanted to sing. ( Video above is the piece Dominic is playing. Listen while you read.) 

The day they first met was a day he would never forget, she confused him from the start. When she smiled his way his little heart fluttered, it was weird. His brother was simply blind to the connection at first but knew he was happier with Jasmine around. Even as kids she lit up their lives. 

It was their twelfth birthday that they understood the word 'mate'. They finally understood what their older brother explained to them, what he felt with his own mate.

Protective.

Completed.

Cared for.

Loved.

Though her love for them was on the friend level, their love was beyond that. They handled everything well, her friendship with Jaden. Boys finding her attractive when she turned ten. Even the urge to hold her longer than friends normally do. Every night they wonder if she would love them the same. For the past few days, their confidence for that faded as she was distant with them and seemed indifferent.

He felt Damien's presence beside him on the bench, his back facing the piano. No words were meant to be shared between the twins, they simply needed to be beside each other. Dominic felt a teardrop on his hand as he got into the more intense part of the piece. 

Why did it all have to be this way? The plan was to tell her when she came back from Italy. Ask her to be theirs. They were confident that she would say yes that they didn't plan for when she said no. They never wanted to leave their own princess. She won't reject us. Right? he asked himself.

"She wouldn't right? She wouldn't reject us," he asked this time out loud.

Damien didn't answer as he held his head in his hands. He hated this feeling. He wished they can simply turn back the hands of time.

"No," he said firmly standing up abruptly before leaving his twin's side going to only other person he cared about in that place.