Conquering Kolton--Sample (Book 2 of The Sovereign Series)

2. Possibilities

"Eliza was rejected by her mate," Adam said quietly to Xavier as they sat in the former king's study on the ground floor of the palace. The two of them were alone, Eliza off in the gardens for the morning with Louisa, King Kane's youngest sibling.

"Wha - but your daughter is... she is very lovely." Xavier couldn't understand. Eliza was a pretty little thing with dark red hair and pale cornflower eyes. She was a vision to look at, and a pleasure to speak with. She was quiet, polite, and demure.

"The boy who rejected her is a fool," Adam growled out. "They were best friends for ages until they both turned 18 a year ago. He was seeing a human by the name of Hayley and he refuses to let her go so he can mate with my daughter."

"So he rejected his true mate to be with a human. One who would never understand our ways," Xavier said gravely. "Does the girl know? Is she aware he is a shifter or is she still blind to his inner nature?"

"He cannot tell her unless they were to wed or he was to mark her as his," Adam said. The law was firm. Though humans knew of the existence of werewolves, the shifters themselves did not give out their status as shifter unless they were very intimately involved with the person. They either needed to be marked and mated, or wed. "He has yet to claim her, and humans do not usually marry as early as our species does."

"They were friends first?" Xavier was surprised. "You would think someone so close would be happy to find their mate in someone as close as two best friends. "

"As I said, Jonathan Purcell is a fool," Adam threw out. "He refuses to let go of his human, and my daughter is distraught because of him. I brought her here so she could be away from home and... him."

Xavier understood. Though he did not find his own mate due to conventional circumstances, he understood how painful it would be to be rejected by the one meant for you.

"You are welcome to stay as long as you like, Adam," Xavier told him. "You and your daughter. Has this Jonathan rejected her formally?"

"No, not as of yet," Adam admitted. "He is concerned for her well-being as the pain of rejection is said to be severe."

"He is only making it worse by giving your daughter false hope," Xavier said. "It would be best if he broke ties with her immediately if he has no plans on claiming her as his."

"It cannot get much worse, Xavier," Adam admitted. "My poor Eliza barely eats more than a bird, and her sleep is fitful at best. I was hoping a change of scenery would help, and I thank you for your hospitality."

"My pleasure, dear friend. Eliza seems like a sweet girl and it would make me happy if she were to take some respite here and find some peace."

They turned to talk about other things, Xavier taking the time to explain his son's situation and the lack of a Coming of Age Ball that summer.

"The boy's hard-headed," Xavier griped.

"Like his father," Adam said with a smirk.

"If you weren't such an old friend of mine, I'd gut you like a fish, Adam." Xavier winked at him.

"And if you weren't such an old, incapable fool, I'd probably take that as a threat," Adam bounced back, laughing. It was almost a choked sound and his face grew serious as he thought back to Eliza. "What will my daughter do without a mate? I have no other children and Eliza's mother..."

The man trailed off. His wife, Colleen DeWitt, had passed when Eliza was only four. They'd only had Eliza when a car accident had taken her from them. Adam was very close to his only child.

Xavier thought. He had never heard of a male wolf rejecting his mate. It was unheard of except for hundreds of years ago when the Mondblume Elixir had been well-known to being used to force the bond between two wolves. As it was only used in the royal families now, a person would be crazy to reject their other half.

"What if your daughter were to wed my obstinate son, Kolton?" The words were out of Xavier's mouth as soon as he thought them. "Then not only would your problem be solved, but mine as well."

Adam blinked, thinking it over. It was better than any of the other ideas he'd had, though most of those included killing a 19-year-old male who was bent on taking a human to wife.

"I... I would have to ask Eliza what she thinks," Adam said hesitantly. "I am afraid of pushing her, you see. She is not taking any of this rejection well, and I would hate for her to revert back to months ago when Jon cut her completely off."

The day he had found his daughter fainted on their doorsteps took him back to the dark place she was in. Jon had tried to let her down easy before that, and his temper flared when Eliza tried to convince him of their pairing. His words cut deep and she fled home, collapsing on the steps. Adam had found her a few minutes later when he smelled his daughter's scent near the home.

And he was still livid at Jonathan and his damned pigheadedness.

"I understand, Adam," Xavier said. "My Kolton is a wild young cad at times, but he is good and would be good for your daughter. He is just being contrary right now. He always has been. His brother's mating to the Queen did not help, as Alexandria is as stubborn as he."

They talked for a few more moments before Xavier and Adam were called to lunch.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"How long will we be here, father?" Eliza asked after deciding to take a walk in the gardens after their meal. Almost everyone had attended, so she knew most of the family, save Kolton who wouldn't attend.

"I was actually going to talk to you about something about that, dear," Adam said, his voice growing lower and his face becoming a mask of trepidation.

"What is it?"

With Eliza's fair skin and dark red hair, she looked just like his wife, and it made Adam's heart ache. Colleen would have been so proud of her daughter, the fine little woman she had become. Always pleasant, forthcoming, and a treat to the eyes.

"Prince Kolton's 21st birthday is in less than a week," Adam began. "He is ripe for choosing his mate, as is the custom with the royals. He is... he does not want to choose, and he is being forced to mate upon his 21st birthday."

"No wonder he wasn't at lunch," Eliza said. "He must feel like everyone is choosing his future for him."

"Right, my pet," Adam said. "I was speaking with Xavier this morning and, seeing as how you are... unmated, we were wondering if you would be his chosen mate."

Eliza gasped, unsure of what to say. It would be like blasphemy to not be with her intended mate when she knew who it was, but Jonathan... Jonathan did not want her.

Her heart ached at that realization but she knew that being marked by another would negate the pull she felt towards Jonathan.

That hurt, but the hurt would lessen when she was marked by another after drinking the Mondblume Elixir.

She nodded, speaking. "If you think it best that I mate with Prince Kolton, then I will do as you wish."

Adam closed his eyes. He didn't really want this for his daughter. True, he wanted a loving and caring man who would treat his daughter like a queen - or a princess, in this case - but he would have given up anything he could to see his daughter happy with the man she was destined to be with. Her true mate.

This... this was plan B.

So. Adam DeWitt nodded his head, making sure he placed advising Xavier Reifenberg of the match as soon as he got back to the palace.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Eliza's head was all of a muddle. She had promised herself to a man she didn't know. A man she hadn't even met or knew what he looked like.

But that wouldn't matter soon. He was to be 21 next week. 21-year-old royalty always was mated at that age. It had been that way for centuries, eons maybe. Why the man was being difficult and refusing to choose, well - only Kolton knew that.

And was she refined enough to be a princess? The Queen... well, she was a commoner and well-liked. Would she be studied as well with the scrupulous eyes of the public when she mated to the prince? She was certain she would be, and thanked the heavens above that her father had been vehement on her being brought up with proper etiquette. Without a mother, it had been a trial, but he had sent her to finishing school, an idea that had been as ludicrous as going to school to become an angel. Who knew North America still had finishing schools? It sounded highly like something you might still find in sections of Europe, but not America. Americans were seen, the world over, as obese and trifling, flighty and capitalist. Lazy and entitled. Being a first world country had its detriments indeed.

Her cell phone buzzed on the nightstand where it was plugged in.

Can we talk?

She ignored it again, deleting the conversation so that it appeared to never have happened.

Buzz.

Please, I want to explain.

No thank you, Eliza thought before turning off the cell phone completely. Jonathan always tried to call her when she ignored his texts. And she didn't want to hear another reason they shouldn't be together. He had said it all before in varying ways. No use beating a dead horse. Her heart was already broken beyond repair.

She only hoped that forging a new bond would heal the wounds that had been afflicted upon it.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"I have found you a mate," Xavier told his son who was standing on the other side of his mahogany desk, looking sullen.

"I don't want a mate," Kolton growled.

"Don't sass me, boy," Xavier said, leaning forward toward his son. "You will have a mate if I have to tie you down and force Serena to make you say the words. You will drink the Mondblume Elixir and you will mark and mate with Eliza DeWitt."

"Who?"

"If you have come to lunch and dinner instead of sulking in your room, you would know Eliza and her father," Xavier said. "They are guests here and..." He trailed off, trying to think quick. Adam hadn't wanted anyone else to know of her situation. Eliza was already heartbroken and mortified enough. "You will treat them with respect. I expect you down to breakfast to meet your future bride at 9 AM promptly."

Kolton snarled, his canines elongating a bit as he tried to tamp down the need to shift and run.

"She is lovely and good. Probably too good for a fiendish devil of a son like you," Xavier said. "She is, at any rate, prettier than you deserve and probably kinder than most females I have met, including your sister in mating. Lexi is a good queen and giving, but Eliza is a female who sees the best in everyone, including an arrogant of a b***h like you."

"I don't want her," Kolton growled out, trying to calm the beast within.

"You say that now, but when you drink the elixir, you will want her with everything in you," Xavier advised, nodding sagely. "If you are wise, you will treat her with the grace and civility I know you can, and if you are even wiser, become friends with her before you mark and mate."

There was a pause, a low vibration humming throughout the room. It centered on Kolton's ribcage as he continued to fight the raging inferno of anger in his chest.

"You are dismissed for the evening, Kolton," his father told him. "Think about what I said. That girl is a treasure and if you f**k it up even before you mate, you may do irreparable damage to the future relationship you will have."

Kolton did an almost military about-face and stalked out of the room, turning to the right as soon as he was away from the smell of cognac, Macallan and the smoky cigar scent of his father's study.

It was just after 8:30 PM when he reached the doors to the garden and he walked away from the house, refusing to look back at it in his ire. He finally sat down on a gazebo bench near the east wing of the castle.

Lights flickered on and off in several rooms as he watched the activity of the palace as if he was far removed from it. The kitchen lights finally flickered off, as did most of the other rooms on the ground floor. A light lit up on the second floor, and a movement in Kolton's peripheral vision caught his attention.

Shadows played on the wall of the room and for a while, it was all he could see. An arm stretched then curling down as if exercising or stretching weary limbs.

He almost looked away before realizing that there was a shadow in the window, first small, then looming larger as the person - a female most definitely - came up to the large picture window and looked out onto the garden.

Sure he would be unseen from his vantage point, Kolton studied the female. It had to the young woman his father had spoken about. Eliza. The female had long curly hair down to her waist. It seemed a fiery tumult that cascaded over her shoulders.

Red. Her hair would have to be red.

It was a weakness of Kolton's. A few of the females he had met with on the mainland had been auburn and redheaded. Each had enchanted him with their freckle-specked noses and creamy milk-toned skin, though most had been just as peppery as their ginger hair.

His father had said this female was kind and good, demure. He hadn't met a redhead who had been, but he supposed it could happen.

The female started to comb her long hair and then plait it as she looked out into the garden by the waning gibbous moonlight. She hesitated at some point, looking in his direction as if she had seen him. Her hands faltered and came down momentarily before taking her brushing back up, and then continued to watch as the moonflowers opened wider, stretching their petals to seek out the moonlight's soft rays.

Still, Kolton watched her, half disgusted with himself for caving in to his weakness for the titian little beauty and half elated at the way his heart sped up at the myriad of possibilities the female in the window portrayed.

And it was the possibilities that frightened him the most.