The Royal Brothers' Mate

Chapter 13

Chapter 13.

*****

I groaned trying to swipe whatever was on my nose away but it immediately came back once my hand had passed, along with a little ‘boop’ making me open my eyes. I frowned at Rowan who was leaning over me tapping my nose and quickly pushed his hand away.

“What are you doing? I don’t want to train or eat or be with anyone, please go away.” I whispered. He sighed and I began to turn around in bed so my back would face him but he spoke.

“I’m not here to convince you to do any of that, I’m leaving.” I stopped turning away and looked back at him. He was fully dressed in a navy coloured suit, even wearing a matching tie and his hair was done up neatly. He smiled. “Guess who has a bunch of interviews scheduled all over the place because of the big reveal?” he leaned closer to me and lowered his voice, “Personally, I think Corin planned this to get us away from each other.”

‘I did not, but that would have been a good idea.’ Corin linked to me as the door swung open. I sat up as he stepped inside and shut the door before leaning back against it with his arms crossed over his chest. I immediately noticed how good he looked in his all-black gym wear of track pants and a short-sleeved t-shirt that fit him insanely well and his dishevelled hair that looked like he had just woken up, it was… hot… but I looked away when I realised I had taken a while to study him and felt my face heat despite being angry at myself for even caring what he looked like or staring at him so long with Rowan so close by. I just needed to get away from them. I needed to be less attached to them.

“Guess I come up with all the good ideas.” Rowan shrugged at me, “Points for me?” He smirked.

“Aren’t you… dating someone?” I mumbled.

“Apparently I am. Someone I have never met or spoken to before in my life.” He looked at Corin, seemingly annoyed.

“I could not let you argue that on live TV in front of the world, father would have killed the both of us and you would have ruined the image of the entire family.” Corin muttered. “I can’t even remember which one Cassandra was.” He added thoughtfully.

“She was the one in the really pretty blue dress.” I mumbled.

“Do you want a really pretty blue dress? Francis can make one.” Rowan told me. I gave a weak laugh shaking my head. He smiled at me, “It’s not real, Eden.” He said softly. Maybe not to him, but it was to everyone in the country and his parents. I did not return his smile and it dropped slowly as he swallowed. “So, I’ll be going to those the next couple of days, okay? Answer your phone immediately when I call.”

“Yes, your highness.” I responded making him roll his eyes and it seemed to make me smile automatically because of how unlike royalty that was.

‘And stay away from that guy to avoid another incident.’ He motioned his head across the room.

‘I can hear you even if you only link to her.’ His brother responded.

‘That’s the point.’ Rowan replied. Only Alphas and Royals had the ability to link to more than one person at a time.

I bit my lip remembering the ‘talk’ with their father yesterday, but I pushed it out of my mind immediately when Corin raised his brows at me, undoubtedly linking to me again while I was thinking. He gave a guilty half-smile before looking towards my dresser as a knock sounded from behind him.

“Rowan, we have to leave now.” Edwin spoke.

“’We’?” I asked out loud.

“Yes, Edwin’s going with Rowan as I will not be needing him and he babysits this kid best.”

“You are literally not even an hour older.” Rowan glared at Corin.

Corin just stared back at him which seemed to piss Rowan off making him clench his fist so I spoke.

“Doesn’t Rowan have lots of bodyguards?”

‘Yes, but none that you want to talk to as badly as Edwin after speaking to our father.’ I looked at Corin as he linked to me and felt my jaw drop slightly. He had been in my head again and was making Edwin leave just so I would not be able to speak to him… Corin seemed pleased by my shock and turned to open the door.

“Be careful, Rowan. You cannot run off on your own now that everyone knows who you are.” Corin said.

“I can still disguise myself, but it's not like I will have time to do anything anyway.” Rowan frowned at his brother before turning back to me. “See you later?”

“Later?” I asked.

“A few days.” He said before he leaned forward to hug me but paused when a growl sounded from across the room. It made me tense as I remembered the scene in the art studio.

“I’m gonna shower. Travel safe.” I pat Rowan’s hand as I got out of bed but he grabbed my hand to pull me back, making me crash into him and he hugged me tightly. It only lasted for a second before Corin pulled him back off my bed and shoved him towards the door.

“Travel safe.” Corin muttered as Rowan glared at him before he gave me a smile and followed Edwin downstairs. I looked down wrestling my thumbs feeling nervous and sorry at their clear hostility because of me.

“Hey, Corin, shouldn’t you be training?” Rowan’s voice came from downstairs.

“Corin?” My body went ridged hearing the king’s voice.

“I am.” Corin replied.

He did not move though, even as we heard the front door shut and the noise from everyone downstairs slightly lower as they made their ways around outside. I looked up when I did not hear Corin leave and he just stared back at me making me slightly self-conscious while I began to mumble one word in my mind over and over figuring he was trying to link to me again. He rose his brows at me.

“Don’t you have to get going?” I asked. I did not want to further upset his parents.

“That’s what you’ve been thinking the past few minutes?” He asked.

“No, you already know what I’ve been thinking because you won’t stop linking to me.”

“I was not linking right now.” He replied.

“Apples... Apples... Apples...” He chuckled and I smiled at the sound. His smiling seemed so rare, I felt weirdly proud that I had made him chuckle – or could make him smile.

‘Alright, I’ll stop linking to you while you’re thinking.’ He linked to me.

“Sure you will.” I shook my head.

“I promise.” He smiled. ‘You have to tell me what my father spoke to you about though.’ He added seriously.

“Why hasn’t anyone fetched you yet?” I ignored his request as I peered by him at the door. When Rowan was even slightly late for his training, someone let us know or would literally come to fetch him, I could not even hear anyone making their way towards us.

‘What do you mean?’ He linked back to me.

“Well, your trainers.”

‘Fetch me?’ He seemed confused, ‘That would be annoying. I can get to the gym by myself.’

“You link much more than you speak, don’t you?” I asked.

‘When you can link to everyone, speaking seems like so much effort.’ He replied.

“Effort? You’re just opening your mouth.”

‘Yes, and it is so tiring. Having a conversation is hard enough, having to say everything out loud is just annoying.’ I laughed lightly. He was much more introverted than his brother.

“That explains your dates.” I said.

‘Ah that. I was actually trying back then but someone was too much of a distraction.’ My eyes widened as I felt my face heat and Corin smirked back at me. ‘I know why now.’ He looked at his watch, ‘Guess I should get to training.’

“Wait.” He looked at me and I tried to figure out why I just told him to wait, it had been impulsive. Was I afraid of both of them leaving? It felt like it. I shoved the feeling down. “Have fun.” I said quickly. He furrowed his brows but nodded before he walked out.

I bit the inside of my cheek as he moved further away and listened to his footsteps make their way downstairs before I decided to get cleaned up. After showering, I read for a while and then I spent an hour playing with Nix in the backyard again, he helped me feel a lot better. Somehow I ended up with the same amount of guards as when I was outside with Rowan there because they would not let me out alone despite my insistence that no one even knew I existed. It turned out to be cool though because I once again got them to play with us, awkward as they looked doing it, like they were trying to keep their perfect posture and continue to look threatening while rolling around on the grass with a dog, it was funny to watch.

After some time I wanted to see the garden and they still insisted on staying close to me, even though they would be able to see me clearly if they stayed on the lawn. The garden was more beautiful once I was inside it than it had been from my room and it smelt great. I gasped as Nix ran by me towards a bed of roses and instantly ran to stop him from digging them up, as he had done with some not far from it sometime before I came to the garden. My time in the garden turned into trying to distract Nix from destroying anything else while the guards just looked amused by my requests for help, staying ridged as they occasionally looked around towards the lawn or the walls.

Corin’s strengthening pull tore my attention from the dog who seemed to notice the prince's presence once I stopped petting him and bolted for Corin. Nix came to a skidding halt and sat down obediently when Corin lifted his hand.

“Good boy.” The prince said patting the dog before he made his way over to me, Nix walking at his side like he was trained to do that. “Encouraging bad behaviour, are we?” He was looking at the dug-up flowers.

“No, he was like this before I came here, I was trying to stop him.” Corin just laughed.

“Leave us.” I looked around as the guards left without a word and bit my lip. Why were they around if he was clearly stronger than all of them and they could be made to leave so easily? Maybe in case there was an ambush of more than a couple of wolves? “Eden, two things.” Corin drew my attention back to him once we were completely alone, aside from Nix sitting obediently at his side, ‘First thing, I… wanted to apologise for what happened in the art studio. I do not know what came over me and I honestly cannot even remember what happened after my parents and I came into the house, but I’ve heard it was a dangerous mess and I’ve had to apologise to Rowan so I’m assuming we… fought. Edwin said my wolf took over. That’s never happened before and I can assure you it will not happen again.’ He linked to me. That was not a fight, Corin beat Rowan up badly.

I titled my head as I looked up at him. “Wolves don’t listen to reason when their mates’ are near, Corin.” He could not completely assure that it would not happen again.

“Mine will. I know my wolf… Second thing. What happened when you were alone with my father yesterday?” The look on his face told me clearly that he was not going to drop it. He had known when I lied to him on the phone about Rowan somehow, he would definitely know if I lied now. So instead of answering his question, I settled for:

“You know… mates don’t have to be together, mates don’t always end up with each other. Sometimes it’s best to… not be with your mate.” I suppressed my wolf as I spoke, trying to ignore the ache in my chest at the same time. Corin looked at Nix.

“Ha… weird.” He mumbled.

“What is?”

“I kind of feel like… like I need to fight… someone.” He cleared his throat as he shut his eyes tightly and I gaped at him slightly realising both him and his wolf were super pissed about what I had said, he probably just did not understand why either of them were so angry.

I hesitantly reached out to place my hand on his bare arm, it felt as cold as his hands did but still created a bubbly sensation in my stomach that urged me to touch him more.

“Calm down.” I said softly. I smiled as they instantly did.

“Whoa, what power, interesting.” I laughed.

“You really know nothing about mates. What I just did has nothing to do with power.”

“What did he say to you?” I frowned at him, “I’m not going to let it go, Eden. He obviously scared you… So what are you afraid of?”

I sighed looking away from him and instead kneeling down to focus on a flower as I began to touch it but Nix stepped forward to bite it and I ended up patting him. ‘You… You remember the Royals’ mate rumour I told you about on the phone that night? He just… confirmed it and told me to leave… Well, threatened me telling me to leave.’ I linked to him in case the other guards were around, but after I did I realised that some of them must be really old and may have been around when the King’s mate suddenly disappeared. Corin looked around, his face as unreadable as always.

“Well, you have been stuck here for weeks, we can leave. Want to go to the beach?” He asked.

“That’s not what he meant.” I said, somewhat upset that he was just brushing off everything else I had said. They kill their mates! Did he not understand how terrifying everything was?

“It is what I meant.”

“Corin.” I frowned before I sighed looking down. “I think it’s best if we –” I tried but he cut me off.

“Beach offer expires in five…"

"Corin."

"Four… three… two…”

“Yeah, I wanna go to the beach!” I yelled and he smirked seeing that his countdown had worked, but I just did not want to lose a chance at leaving the palace for a while.

“Let’s go then.”

“Let’s go? I could just leave?” Why had I been staying here all this time? I could have just left after their father spoke to me… I could have just left after the terrible breakfast with Uncle Brandon.

“No, you can only leave with me.” He corrected, “Or the guards won’t let you out.” He added as he turned and began making his way back towards the house.

“Why not? Corin, it’s not like you won’t know where I am if I leave. You can leave, you have left. Isn’t that unfair? Hey, stop walking away,” I jogged after him but he disappeared. I stopped walking so that I could feel where he was and just when I found him, my room’s balcony doors slid open making me look up at him.

“If you’ve changed your mind about the beach, I have work to do so –”

“I’m going to stop speaking to you.” I frowned up at him.

“Good, I like silence.” He replied.

“Corin.” He did not respond as he turned around. I groaned as I threw my head back to look at the sky. He might have been the introverted one but he was more annoying than Rowan was. Maybe the playful distraction he was offering would calm me down for a few hours, I really did want to get out of the palace for a while. I did not have time though, I needed to figure out how to leave… but I had not spent any time with him… I wanted to. It was selfish, but I wanted to. “We’re still going to the beach, right?” I asked almost jumping when I looked down from the balcony and I was surrounded by the guards that had left earlier. Holy crap, they were stealthy.

‘If that’s what you want.’ I smiled at the wording that he used when he linked to me before I made my way inside again.

I changed from my jeans into a pair of shorts and a short-sleeved t-shirt, it was warm but it was quite cloudy outside and looked like possible rain so I doubt we would be swimming at all. I grabbed my jacket just in case and jogged downstairs to where I felt Corin’s pull in the living room. He was seated on the couch in a black suit.

“You’re going to the beach like that?” I asked, it did not look live very comfortable beach attire. His eyes ran over me and I bit my lip trying to calm the ridiculous feeling of excitement and pride at him checking me out while my cheeks burnt.

“Yes. You’re going like that?” His eyes were lightly streaked with red as they met mine making me nod nervously. He smiled blinking his eyes back to black as he stood up and my breath caught when he put his arm around my waist suddenly. “Stay near me.” He said.

“But I don’t like you.” I pouted.

“Funny, Eden.” He did not even smile.

“Stop that, you’re being too scary.” That made him laugh.

“Your Highness, the car is outside.” Corin gave a nod as his arm slid from my waist so he could take my hand instead. I bit my lip as I looked at our hands. It felt so weird and wrong switching between these two men constantly. I felt quite disgusted at myself.

‘Don’t think of it that way, think of it as… getting to know us… so you can choose.’ Corin linked to me, I glared at him and he raised his hands, ‘You looked sad, I needed to know why. Promises can be broken when concerned.’

“Who told you that?”

“Uh… I did.” He replied.

“Well, you were wrong, they can’t ever be broken.” He just smiled back at me and I looked at our hands before cupping my other hand over his so my hands covered his hand, “Your hands are always cold, are you sure you’re not a vampire? I always thought you looked suspiciously different from your parents, it would also explain why you look so intimidating all the time and avoid contact with other werewolves.” I heard some of the guards chuckle as Corin tilted his head at me.

“Adorable, you think more about that in the car, okay?” Corin pulled me towards the door.

I opened my mouth to call him out on the tone he was using, like he was speaking to a child, but one of the guards ushered us towards the car we were taking.

We drove to the beach in pretty much silence as I focused more on finally getting out and was watching everything I could out of the window beside me as we drove, also because I did not drive near or around the palace often and it was fun looking at everything. After an hour, we reached the beach and parked surrounded by the four other cars that had escorted us. As soon as I got out of the car I furrowed my brows when I was hit by the faint smell of wolfsbane. I did not often smell it as we tended to stay far away from the plant because it was deadly to werewolves so the smell alarmed me until one of the guards lifted his hand slightly, drawing my attention to the gun in his arms.

“Some of the bullets contain wolfsbane.” He told me. I nodded slowly.

‘Don’t worry, it’s rarely used.’ Corin linked to me.

‘Rarely?’ I questioned wondering when the last time they had to fire fatal bullets was.

“Alright, where to?” Corin asked me out loud. He did not attempt to take my hand. It made me feel kind of hurt because I knew it was because there was a chance that other people would see him, people who thought he was engaged. I settled for just playing with my phone in my hands wishing I had brought a bag so that I could play with the strap and have somewhere to put my phone. Corin let out a sigh as he suddenly ran his and over mine to take my phone away to slide it into his pocket as his other hand intertwined with mine. “We have not had breakfast, how about a restaurant?” I tried to tug my hand back and he looked at me questioningly.

‘People will see. The announcement.’

‘Oh that, this is the perfect way to disrupt that, don’t you think? I was not going to hold your hand because it would create rumours about who you are, but then I remembered: I’m the second strongest werewolf on this continent. No one will be able to get to you even if they do know who to target.’

‘Wow, confident. Rowan is first?’ I linked back to him.

‘Our father is, Rowan is third.’

‘Really?’ I was surprised, older werewolves usually lost their strength.

‘I’m certain he’s the only person I cannot beat.’ Corin replied. “Over there, we’ll have some lunch.” He did not give me a chance to object as he began leading me to an expensive seaside restaurant that immediately made me miss Brandon and Liana.

After greeting a few people from behind the guards surrounding us, Corin pulled me to a table near the back of the restaurant, most of the guards kept their footing around us making me feel incredibly awkward while some made their way to stand outside the back of the restaurant, and some stood out front. We ordered food and I ate after asking the guards if they had eaten, the assured me that they had while Corin and I were in the garden after his training. Eating with a prince had its perks because we got free desert – insisted upon even after Corin told the guards not to accept the meal for free, it also had its downside of the guards literally watching the chefs make the food and then testing it for anything poisonous. Once we were finished eating, we went walking along the beach where it was beginning to get windy despite being really early. I was glad because it made the beach petty empty causing the guards to step back from us a little and the only other people I spotted was a couple far down the beach and a family of three playing around in the shallow parts of the water that was beginning to rage a little bit. They did not look like they intended on swimming.

“Oh, look!” I pulled Corin along with me as I broke into a sprint spotting the park built on tar not far from us. “Swing with me?” I asked Corin as we stopped running once we reached it. He looked around before he shook his head.

“Unsanitary.” He replied, ‘And childish.’ He added.

“So? We can wash our hands, come on.” I said. He remained stern in his decision not to swing and instead nodded towards one of the guards who held a bottle of hand sanitizer out to me.

I frowned at Corin before deciding it did not matter and went to swing by myself. I began swinging back and forth, but my excitement at being at the park quickly died down as I thought about how everyone was forced to just wait for me and watch me swing. I looked at Corin to find him staring and me and pouted as I looked at the tar beneath me. This was not fun at all… My head turned in surprise as a hand suddenly pushed my back lightly and I saw the sanitizer guard from earlier behind me.

“The Prince instructed me to push you.” He told me making me look back at Corin who gave no reply in words or facial expression.

I gave a laugh as I nodded and felt him push me again. I really wished Corin would have joined me or pushed me himself, but this was fun too. Kicking my feet up to take me higher, I enjoyed the smell of the ocean as I looked up at the grey sky and felt the wind brush against my skin. After swinging for a bit, I ran over to the slide, which was quite high, and began climbing up the ladder. I was barely off the ground when hands grabbed my waist stopping me. I looked back over my shoulder to see Corin with his arms stretch up to grab me.

“No.” He said.

“What?” I asked utterly confused.

“It's too dangerous.” I laughed.

“No, it isn’t, it’s not even that high and if I fall I’ll heal anyway, let me go.” I tried to wiggle out of his grip but it tightened.

“Your majesty, it really is not that high up.” Sanitizer guard said.

“Nick, if I need your opinion on something, I will ask for it.” Corin responded. Nick immediately bowed his head apologising.

‘That was rude.’ I frowned at Corin. He glanced at Nick for a second, earning a smile before he looked back at me. I furrowed my brows, did he link to him to apologise?

“Just… do that instead.” Corin pointed to a merry-go-round. I smirked.

“I’ll do it if you join me.” I said. He scoffed. “Fine.” I attempted to climb higher but I let out a cry when he suddenly tugged me back forcefully, making me fall from the ladder and slam into his chest, his arms immediately sliding around my waist to catch me and steady me as my feet touched the ground.

“Fine, we’ll go on the… whatever that is.” He sounded annoyed.

“Yay!” He laughed as I jumped and unravelled myself from his arms so I could grab his hand and pull him towards the swing. “Climb on.” I instructed, he did so looking quite awkward and I began to spin us. Corin stumbled back against one of the metal bars and threw his head back to look towards the sky.

“I think I’m going to be sick.” I laughed along with some of the guards as I continued to make us spin. I stopped spinning when we reached quite a high speed and Corin’s head tilted back to me. “Is this really as fast as you can go?” He asked raising one of his brows.

I gasped feeling offended for some reason. “Hey –”

“Let me try.” He cut me off.

“Your highness.” Nick said slowly.

“Nick, Derek, help me balance this out.” I looked at Corin as he moved so that he was in front of me, his hands holding either of the bars at my sides so that I could not go past him. I raised my brows as Nick and Derek, another guard, climbed onto the other sides of the merry go round. “Hold on tight.” Corin smiled at me before he began kicking against the tar.

We started out slow but soon we were spinning way faster than I had made us spin, so fast that I stumbled and fell back against Corin and I was terrified that the swing would break because everything around us was a blur. Nick was yelling at us to make it stop so I felt Corin turn as he began trying to make the swing slow down, it worked and I laughed as we eventually stopped and Corin let the bars go to hug me from behind pulling me against his chest.

“Still want me to play?” he asked leaning over my shoulder. I barely even noticed his arms around me, it just felt so natural.

“Yes! That was so much fun –”

“No. No.” Nick stumbled off the merry go round glaring at us before he seemed to realise who he was looking at and his eyes widened as he gave a bow, “Your highness.” He added. Corin chuckled.

“We’ll just… swing again.” I said giving Nick an apologetic smile and he agreed mumbling a thank you. I turned out of Corin’s arms to grab his hand and pull him towards the swings.

“It’ll rain soon, we’ll have to leave in a few minutes.” Corin said as we sat down and we began swinging slowly. The wind was a lot stronger now, the clouds a heavy grey and most of the few people that had been on the beach had disappeared. He looked at me and I smiled back at him, but he was serious.

‘About the mate thing, I will never let anything happen to you, Eden.’ He linked to me. I held my breath. He was more than capable of keeping that promise, but there was no chance I could protect myself from anyone in his family, they were much stronger than I was.

‘Your father watched them kill his mate.’ His eyes widened slightly. ‘He… he told me he had.’ I added. The king did not seem remorseful about it at all. Corin seemed shocked and confused, I swallowed as I looked down.

‘No… no, that doesn’t make sense. If he… if he felt the way I do towards you, he could – would never watch –’ Corin stopped as we heard panicked screams and we turned to the beach where the little family had been earlier, except this time the child was not with them. I ran my eyes over the beach quickly realising that the words they were screaming was the boy’s name. The ocean was raging dangerously now, his parents had moved from the water earlier, had… had he gone back in?

“Their son – where is he?” Corin looked around, “Find him.”

“Your highness –”

“Help them find him now.” Corin commanded leaving no room for disagreement. I felt Corin grab my wrist to pull me along as he began to make his way toward the beach but suddenly his grip on me disappeared and I felt a gush of wind as he ran from me.

“Corin –?!” My pull directed me to the ocean and I set off sprinting after him when I realised he had dived in.

I had not even gotten close enough to touch the water when arms caught me by my waist securely and pulled me back away from the ocean.

“I’ve got her, go after him.” I relaxed recognising the man holding me as Nick, but his grip stayed tight and I tensed again when I realised Corin was incredibly far out in the water and I could still not see the child. I was not afraid of either of them drowning to death, we could not. I was afraid about them getting swept away and having to die and revive over and over again until they washed up somewhere. I watched as some of the guards dived in to get to them, but it was incredibly hard to swim against the tide and with one large crash of waves, Corin disappeared behind a blanket of white foam.

*****