Royal Redemption

2. Regret

Chase had been pissed when he’d found out that his mate was a mere human from a shifter family nearby; she was not fit to be with royalty like himself and in truth he had thought that he and his twin brother who refused to go to the shifter school would share a mate as was tradition with twins.

But he couldn’t resist the mate pull with the little creature that seemed both so delicate and entirely enticing to him and he had invited her out on a date. But he would not be seen on a date in public with the likes of her; it would ruin his reputation in school. The reputation he had built up in his disguise as a regular shifter and not a royal, which was probably why his brother had preferred to be tutored at the castle while he trained to be the future king.

He decided to take her on a picnic which would seem entirely romantic and would save his reputation from being tarnished. But she had been so adorable and innocent on their date and then he had lost control and took her without her consent.

Chase had been disgusted with what he had done to her, but he couldn’t take her back to her house in the state she was in and dropping her off at the hospital was also not an option, so he had left her there, alone. Hating himself for both his weakness with her and what he had done to her.

His mother had noticed something off with him the moment he’d set foot at home and knowing the mess he had caused he confessed what he had done, but he didn’t tell her that sweet little Lula was his mate. He wasn’t ready for that information to come out until he knew what he would do about it.

His father had overheard what he had done and sent his people to sort out the mess, before he had dragged him to his office. There he told him in no uncertain terms that he was walking on thin ice regarding his chances of succeeding to the throne with his brother after what he had done.

He had stated that he had to be worth the respect that he would be offered as the future king of the cats. Chase hated to admit that he had screwed up epically even though his father didn’t know his terrible little secret.

Perhaps he should have just rejected her and chosen a mate instead of allowing his beast to lead him into what he had done to her. He couldn’t sleep that night with the flashes of what he had done to little Lula and how much blood there had been.

His father’s men returned the next morning, looking haunted and pale when he was called into his father’s office to hear the news. It seemed she had agreed to the pay-off to keep it all a secret, but he had not wanted that; a part of him had wanted her to fight for him.

But realistically he knew that she had not even known he was her mate, she had not felt the bond like he had. Despite what he had done to her a part of him had wanted her to want him even though he knew that what he had done to her was unforgivable.

When his father had commented on his men seeming sick Blakely, his lawyer and Beta had confessed that she had sat up straight and almost regally met his gaze despite his aura being in full power and the pain she had obviously been in and stared him down, telling him that she hoped his son or daughter would never have to go through what she had and had then dismissed them in such a way that they could not refuse.

Had he been wrong about his mate being a weakling? Perhaps she could not sense their powerful auras because she was a human? But he knew it took a lot for Blakely to be rattled, despite his wife and mate currently being pregnant with their second child.

His father ordered someone to watch the girl surreptitiously to which Blakely informed him that it was already done. The new information and what he had done haunted Chase and kept him from sleeping with his beast hacking away at his brain with its claws for what he had done to his mate.

Eventually he gave in and tried to phone her a week down the line, but she didn’t accept his call and when he went to school he missed her enticing scent in the hallways and the sight of her happy almost skipping walk down the hallways. He heard her friends talking in passing about her not answering any of their calls and refusing to see anyone that came to visit at her home.

It seemed she had cut everyone out of her life in an attempt to keep her word about not disclosing what had happened to her. Harper, Chase’s beast had taken that moment to rip his insides apart about what he had done and he hated himself even more. Was there any way he could fix what he had done?

The girls who had vied for his attention and given up s*x to try to tempt him to them no longer held his attention. His body and mind craved only one person and he couldn’t have her. His father had warned him to stay away from her, but he couldn’t; he wanted and needed his mate. He needed to fix what he had done and she wouldn’t take any of his calls.

Her tears and screams of agony haunted his dreams and it had become so bad that he couldn’t sleep for longer than three hours at a time, if he was lucky. He had been an i***t to throw her aside like that after what he had done – he shouldn’t have done it in the first place. He should have been a better mate to her; he had proved his father and his men right.

Chase had been pleasantly surprised when he had a hall pass two and a half weeks after that night where he had thrown everything away and he found her walking alone in the halls with a load of books and folders in her arms.

His heart jumped into his throat at the prospect of being close to his mate and he rushed forward to help her. The moment he stepped closer he was surrounded by her enticing cotton candy scent and though she was still beautiful in his eyes, she was pale and had lost some weight and her eyes seemed hollow. Had he done this to her? That thought made him hate himself even more than he already did.

“Lula?” He said softly.

She glanced questioningly to him at the sound of her name and he was heartbroken to see the terror and hate in her eyes at the moment she realized it was him. She glanced up and down the empty hallways fearfully as if she was looking for a way to escape from him or someone to save her from him, but her voice was dead and cold when she spoke.

“Only my friends get to call me that.” Her words ripped his heart out with the realization that she really didn’t consider him a friend, even though he knew he couldn’t blame her after what he had done to her.

“I’m sorry…” He sadly spoke those two words for the first time in his life. He had never needed to apologize before.

“Get away from me, you monster.” She snarled in an impressively animalistic growl for a human and then rushed into the first door in the hallway.

She’d called him a monster. Was that what she thought about him? She thought he was a monster for what he had done to her? Could he really even blame her? To her he really was a monster, because only a monster would rape her so long and hard when she had tried to get away from him while his claws had dug into her wrists and bruised her beautiful soft skin. Only a monster would allow his father’s men to force her to keep quiet about what she had been through to save the image of the royal family.

She was right; he was a monster.

But he could do better; he could heal the wounds he had caused. He was her mate; he could make her whole again and show her that he could be a man she could be proud of. But first he had to get close to her to win her over and prove that he could be better – that he could be the mate she deserved.

After school he made his way to her house and knocked on her door. Someone opened the door without checking to see who it was. Her mother’s eyes widened at the sight of him and she screamed in horror. Before he could explain why he was there and try to convince her to let him apologize to Lula a streak of beige fur flew past her shoulder and knocked him hard against his chest, throwing him back and onto the ground in their front yard.

Instinct took over and he knocked the puma off his chest before he could get to his throat, her mother was still wailing like a banshee behind him when he faced the livid animal who he guessed was her brother. “I don’t want to fight; I want to make things right with Lula.” He raised his hands in surrender.

The large puma was about to leap at him again but one of his bodyguards dove against him with such force that he was sure he heard a bone crack. His bodyguard had the young puma in a stranglehold and was slowly letting him lose consciousness.

Chase felt powerless; he knew the young man was trying to protect his family, but he also knew that he could be put to death for attacking a prince. What was he going to do?

“You don’t get to call me that.” Lula’s cold voice spoke with deathly calm behind him and he spun round to see her beautiful pale face and deep hazel eyes glare at him. “Are you really going to show everyone in this street the monster you are by killing my brother in the front yard for protecting us?”

“No!” He glanced to the guard. “Release him. He is a strong warrior and he could have a place in our guard.” He watched only long enough to be sure the guard obeyed before he turned back to her. “Please…” He wasn’t sure what he could say and he trailed off.

“I have a restraining order against you; the police are on their way. You’ve taken more than enough from me without coming here to murder my family.”

“No! Lula, I don’t want to hurt you –“

“Too late for that.” She answered as her body began shaking with the stress and her brother shifted back, grabbing the shorts from his mother who had thankfully stopped her wailing and did something useful.

Her brother reached for her when he was dressed and he saw her shrink away from his touch and saw the hurt in his eyes when she did that. Had he done that to her?

“Lula, I want to make this right…” He tried, his voice shaking with the emotions of seeing what he had done to her. He could hear the sirens in the distance and his guard stood nearby, nervously trying to draw his attention without using his title and giving his true identity away.

“You’ve done enough…” She answered weakly and he was horrified to see her faint and crumble to the grass and he attempted to catch her, but her brother hissed and snarled at him, guarding his little sister, while her mother screamed and rushed forward.

It was at that moment that his father’s voice boomed through his brain in mind link. “What the f**k are you doing there? Get your ass back here, NOW!” He winced at the pain of his father screaming in his head and he reluctantly stepped back and watched as her mother tried to wake her and her brother still faced him, guarding the women in his family.

Would he be able to fix it? The sirens of police cars grew louder and he finally stepped backwards onto the pavement before he finally turned and went to his car. He got in and started it, before pulling away with screeching tires. She was so terrified of him that she had fainted. Was there any way that he could fix things with her?

His mother, father and his twin brother was waiting for him when he stopped his car in front of the palace. The anger was rolling off of them in waves so high he was sure he could drown in it.

He hesitated a moment before he stepped tiredly out of his car. “My office; now.” His father growled before he led the family towards his office and Chase followed reluctantly, knowing that he would have to come clean for them to understand.

His father was sitting behind his desk and his mother had her hand laying on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down, while his twin stood to the side, staring at him in his own anger. Obviously he had also heard what he had done and he was none too pleased since he was the king of control while he…was not.

Quietly he closed the door behind him. It had barely slipped into the lock before his father roared out his anger. “Mind telling me why you go to the girl’s house after we paid her off to keep quiet about what happened? Can you explain to me what the hell you are thinking harassing her after she had agreed to our terms?”

His mother was trying to calm him down, though the quiet anger and disappointment flowing from her was even worse than what he got from his father screaming at him. He didn’t even have the courage to face his brother.

“Answer me!” His father screamed at him and he winced. He would have to come clean.

Chase cleared his throat and spoke in a voice barely above a whisper. “She’s my mate.”

There was complete and utter silence in the room while his family seemed to have trouble dealing with the astonishment of his confession. Then his father roared out his rage. “You should have told me that from the start before we threatened her family with death to get her to sign the non-disclosure! What the f**k do you expect me to do now? We can’t bring her into the palace as the future queen after what we put her through!”

Suddenly a wave of rage came from the most unexpected place; his brother who had stood quietly to the side had lost his own control. The fact in itself was completely unexpected and they all turned to him in complete and utter shock.

He stood there shaking in his body, threatening to shift in his rage, his eyes rapidly shifting between that of his beast and him, but neither of them seemed any less livid with what had just been said. In a low voice shaking with his attempt to keep control, he finally made himself heard. “My brother rapes and leaves his mate to die in the middle of nowhere and my father protects him from these consequences and adds insult to injury by threatening to annihilate her family if she doesn’t sign a non-disclosure form to hide the horror of what she’s been through?”

They all stared at him in wide-eyed shock; they had never seen such power flow from the quiet and reserved brother of his. This was both awe inspiring and completely terrifying since they had not known he possessed such power that rivaled even their father’s as the king of the felines.

It took him a moment to regain enough composure to not shift there and then. “I denounce this family and decry the day I was born into it. I refuse to be a part of this; I reject my bonds to this family and my place as the crown prince of felines.” He spoke in a low voice, but the shock and pain of his bond to them snapping and leaving them all breathless in its wake could not be mistaken.

His mother wailed out her agony of losing one of her children and his father pulled her onto his lap and into his arms to soothe the inconsolable pain of his mate. Both Chase and his brother were gasping at the pain of the rejection.

“Mercy to the feline kingdom with this family on the throne.” He spat out in disgust where he had opened the office door and hesitated a moment before he shifted into his beast and gracefully made his escape from the castle and it’s grounds while everyone was still trying to recover from the shock of feeling one of the crown prince’s disappearance from the kingdom; weakening them all just a little bit and laying the family itself to ruins.

With a clarity Chase had not had before, he realized that he had not only ruined his and his mate’s future with his selfish actions, but he had also weakened both his family and the kingdom. How was he ever going to fix what he had broken?

He clutched at his chest while he sank to his knees. It felt as if a sharp blade had been slammed between his ribs and lodged in his chest. What if he couldn’t fix what he had broken? Was he even worthy to be a crown prince that would one day rule the feline kingdom when he couldn’t even control himself?

Looking back at everything he had set into motion with his stupid superiority, he realized that Lula was a much better person to be in charge of a country. She had better self-control than he had ever had; she had a better understanding of what role she played in the world around her. She had given up everything she had been through in a bid to protect her family from his selfishness.

Looking back he realized that he was completely selfish; not once had he considered what she had to go through. Not once had he considered how she had to feel with what had happened to her. Everything had been about him. And once again his egocentricity had caused a rift in his family and the kingdom. The consequences he had set into motion with his self-seeking actions were irreparable.

What had he done?