3. Confessions of the Heart
2490 Words
“I’m glad my parents don’t want me to go out and find my mate,” Meredith said in a measured tone.
“Why not?” Alistair seemed bewildered. Everyone wanted to find their mate, their beloved other half.
“Because I don’t want to find him,” she said, looking away to the far-off glass windows that overlooked the vast gardens in the rear of the palace. It was also the same direction as the library, though she pushed that thought away. She really wanted to see if Kade was in there, maybe looking for a new book or rereading a tried and true one, as he oftentimes did.
“Everyone wants to find their mate,” Alistair disagreed. “Well, with the exception of Lawrence, that is. He’d be happy just being with Sasha.” A brief scowl rippled across her friend’s face. The emotion passed quickly, and Meredith bit the inside of her cheeks to stem her anger at her friend’s true other half.
“I don’t,” she told him, smiling gently. “I…I…” She looked away again, taking a deep breath before blowing it out slowly.
“You’ve fallen for someone else. Someone who’s not your mate,” Alistair guessed astutely. He hadn’t known her for all these years for nothing.
She simply nodded, still unable to look him in the eye. “I think I love him, but I know I can’t have him.”
“Is it someone above your station? Is that why?” he probed, watching her gaze flicker with uncertainty before she looked him dead in the eye and nodded.
“He’s well above my station,” she said. “Miles above. “
“Does he feel the same way about you?”
Her head tilted at the question, miring her expression as she thought. “He says he does, and that he wants to be with me—only me—but I… It’s a sticky situation.”
There was a pause as Alistair thought about it. He’d had his suspicions for a while now. He was one of the servants who had taken many of the letters Prince Kade had written and told him to give to Meredith. His best friend duties didn’t stop at love notes or urging Meri to spill the beans on her life, and he took them all quite seriously.
“It’s Kade, isn’t it?” he asked. “The notes, the way he looks at you when he thinks no one is watching…it’s him, and you’re afraid because his Coming of Age Ball is in less than two months away.”
Meredith’s eyes flickered briefly with surprise, but she tamped down the shock and nodded her head, reaffirming Alistair’s suspicions. “What do I do?” she asked, concern making her face look pinched and worried. “He can’t choose me, and his mother is insistent that he go through with the ball.”
It was a pickle, of that Alistair was sure. What a pair the two of them made. One mating that was as good as rejected, the other doomed from the beginning.
“Elope.” Alistair smiled as he teased her. The shock registered only briefly on her face, and his expression lit up in return. “He’s already offered that, hasn’t he? To take you away with him so you can be together?”
How her friend could read that from just her face, Meredith didn’t know, but Alistair had always been shrewd. Too observant for his own damn good, at times.
“He mentioned something along those lines,” she agreed slowly. “But he’s a royal. He can’t just abdicate and run away with me. Besides, I would never be able to come back and see my family. Or see you.”
While that was a bit of a problem, Alistair thought—at least for Meredith—that love conquered all. It would eventually come to a happy resolution between two that were meant to be together. Sure, it was not to be for him, but Meredith deserved her prince, even if he ended up a pauper.
“If he’s willing to go through such lengths, you are it for him, Mere,” he told her. “I’m f*****g jealous, to be honest. I wish…no, the guy’s a prick and doesn’t deserve me, but—if it were the other way around and I were in your position, I’d do anything to be with my man.”
Her gaze softened on him as she smiled sadly. “I think you’d still do pretty much anything to be with him,” she pointed out. “You’ll complain and call him a closeted asshole, but in the end, you would say yes to him because he’s yours. He’s supposed to be yours. Sasha will never make Lawrence truly happy.”
Alistair went to interrupt, but Meredith’s hand halted him as she raised it.
“Look at what happened to Princess Eliza a year or so back,” she continued. “Her true mate was convinced he wanted a human for his bride, but in the end, he went full-on wolf and tracked her down. He was made rogue when he went insane upon hearing she would wed Prince Kolton. Male wolves, as you know, are particularly jealous and possessive. I say we go into town one of these days and show your mate just what he’s missing.”
“You do realize you are female?” Alistair reminded her with a lopsided grin. “If you come on all gangbusters hanging onto me, he’s bound to see it as a way to rile him up, to anger him.”
“And you, my friend, realize that there are such things as bisexuals,” she teased. “You two have hardly said two words to each other, so he wouldn’t know that you prefer only male company in your bed. Besides, jealousy doesn’t discriminate between the sexes. You could love up on just about anyone and he’d see red.”
Alistair obviously hadn’t thought of that, and the idea of having a bit of revenge elicited a wicked smile. His best friend was truly a blessing, and he thanked his lucky stars she was there for him through thick and thin.
“You just might have something there, you evil girl,” he told her, winking as his grin spread across his face. “I think we’ll have to make plans for a trip into town on our next day off together.”
К*К*К
“What would you have done if Kane had chosen Diana and not you?” Kade asked his sweet, older sister. To his amusement, she looked perplexed.
“I…I don’t really know,” she replied, her face taking on a quizzical look. “Since I wasn’t mated to Leo in the end, it will never be known. Hypothetically speaking, once Diana had taken the elixir with Kane, who’s to tell what would have happened with the mate bond she had with Leo? Would it have simply dissipated and Leo would be without his mate? Or would it have latched onto someone else, someone that was possibly me or another female. Just like I don’t know if I had a true mate out there, I will never know what could have been if Kane had chosen another.”
She didn’t like to think about it. It stirred jealousy in her gut—a laughable thought just a few, short years ago. She had never wanted to mate to royalty. She would have been happy with her simple life on the mainland.
Maybe.
“Someone should do research on that, though how they would is hard to fathom,” Kade said. “Perhaps Serena the witch would know. She’s coming in a week or so to pick the Moonflowers for the elixir.”
That shot a jolt of fear into his belly. He didn’t want her to come unless he was allowed to choose freely—whomever he wanted, be she servant or celebrity.
“Kade, you’re trying to distract me from the question at hand,” Lexi scolded gently. “You mentioned knowing about deep feelings and how much more fulfilling s*x is with someone you love.” Her light eyes flew wide and wild, realization settling in with a shocked gasp. “Is that why you don’t want the ball to happen? Have you fallen for someone? Someone you care deeply for and wish to take as your mate?”
Ever the romantic was his older sister-in-mating. While Kade gobbled up fantasy nowadays after years of mysteries and thrillers, the current queen had gone from fantasy to romance—possibly in conjunction with the mating of his oldest brother, Kane. It wouldn’t be too farfetched of an idea.
“Yes,” he eventually admitted. “There…there is someone—someone I care deeply for—that I wish to become my mate. But she will not be attending the ball.”
“What? Why not?” Lexi asked, looking outraged. “Tell me her name. I will send her an invitation immediately!”
Smiling, Kade shook his head sadly. “It’s not because she wasn’t invited,” he told her. “It’s because she can’t attend. It is…above her station.”
“I shouldn’t have been able to come,” Lexi reminded him. “I only came as Diana’s emotional support, remember? I was a commoner, and an orphan to boot. I was looked down upon by some for my low ranking in the grand scheme of things.”
“If only it were that simple,” Kade sighed. “If it were up to me and you, rank and status wouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t. Good, loving people are abound in every caste, be they high and noble, or low and common. My… The woman I want will most likely be at the ball, but not as a guest.”
“How—” Another lightbulb practically lit up above Lexi’s dark head. “She’s a servant…a servant here in the palace.”
Kade didn’t need to confirm. The way his head bowed and he closed his eyes was all the affirmation Lexi needed to know she was correct. Kade was right—the former queen would never go for this. But luckily, she wouldn’t have to.
“I don’t see this as a problem,” she said, lifting her head regally. “I’m queen now, and what I say goes. If you want someone and she wants you in return, I say take the chance. I did, and I don’t regret it one bit.”
Kade frowned, unknowing that the wheels were already turning in Lexi’s sharp, sometimes devious, little mind. “How can I take her when she will be serving and not attending?” he asked. “If there’s a good way to go about this, I’m all ears for hearing what you have in mind.”
“Well, I don’t really know as of yet,” Lexi admitted. “But I will think of something, of that you can be assured.”
Kade shook his head at her, thinking it would be a miracle if she could pull anything off to place Meredith at the ball as a guest, and not as a servant in the castle.
К*К*К
“Kade? Can you come in here?”
Another day had passed since speaking with Lexi, and his mother’s pleas to help with the Coming of Age Ball were becoming more desperate. To aid in that, Lexi had told him to let his mother plan the confounded thing, and she would make sure that true love conquered all in the end.
It was almost too amusing to see his older sister with that devious little grin on her face. If she wasn’t with her children or mate, she could be found humming to herself and looking contemplative and sly. The tune she hummed was very familiar, but damn it if he could place the tune.
“Yes, Mother?” He feigned a pained tone, much to his mother’s displeasure.
“Are we going to have a problem again today, Kade?” she asked, perfectly prepared for any excuse he might dish out as to why not to hold the ball.
“Nope,” he told her, taking a seat across from her in the lavender room. “I’ve decided you can go ahead with the preparations for the ball. I don’t care what you do and how you do it, and you won’t hear one word of dissent from me.”
Margot blinked at her son. It was a complete 180 from the day before, and to say that she was surprised would have been a gross understatement.
“W-well then, that’s fantastic,” she sputtered, eyes blinking rapidly as she tried to regain her equilibrium in the conversation. She had been expecting anything besides his consent, up to and including a full-out temper tantrum, though it wouldn’t have been Kade’s style at all. “Are you sure you don’t want to give just a little input for your ball? It is in honor of you choosing a mate, after all.”
He didn’t care if she festooned the ballroom all in black and had sacrificial totems or skulls scattered about the castle. He’d let the tomfoolery go on, but he wasn’t interested in the intricacies of such large events.
At least, not until his wedding. Then he would be sure to give his input, so long as his bride was amenable.
“I’m sure you’ll do a wonderful job as always,” he told her. “Getting a mate out of the night is all I ask.”
- Writer
