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Conquering Kolton (Book 2 of The Sovereign Series)

Chapter 1 

    "You leave me no choice, Kolton," Xavier told his son. "I will call upon your brother to force a mating. You are 21 years of age. You will take a mate, no matter what the circumstances."

    Kolton grumbled his irritation. He hated to be called into question, especially by his father. Besides, no one could force a mating, could they?

    Oh—but it turned out they could.

    Kane entered the room, a riot of noise following behind him. The twins must be up from their afternoon nap.

    "Karter! Get back here!" He could hear his sister in law crying out to the future King of the wolves. Kolton had to smile. The little man was a chip off the old block and ready to wreak havoc on the palace grounds at only one year old. Just like his father at that age.

    The door closed and the sounds of little arms and legs on wood became muted.

    "What is going on?" Kane asked, sounding agitated. "I was playing with my children when Frederick told me you needed my help. What is happening?"

    Xavier looked at his two sons with a grim expression before opening his mouth.

    "He refuses the mating," Xavier told his oldest son.

    Kane looked at Kolton, his younger brother by two years.

    "I know he refuses to have a Coming of Age Ball," Kane said, his voice measured. "He can still choose a female to mate with though, so all is not lost."

    "That's the thing," Xavier stated boldly. "He refuses to pick a mate at all. I have been trying to convince him, but he won't hear of it. I'm afraid we may need to force a mating."

    Kane blinked, recognition slowly flickering over his face. "You mean to say we use Article 22 of The Code to force him to choose a female?"

    "Article 22, chapter 14, to be exact," Xavier stated as he opened up an old tome that he had stacked amongst the other papers on his desk. He looked down upon it and explained.

"It states that, if a mate is not chosen or cannot be chosen, that the ruling family—the king, to be precise—can force a mating bond upon the 21st birthday of the royal wolf in question."

    "Victim in question!" Kolton corrected. Because he did feel victimized by the whole situation. He wasn't like their youngest brother, Kade, who wanted a mate, or like his oldest brother who was already married and had two children by his. He wanted nothing to do with mates after the debacle of his older brother's mating. His pride was too deeply rooted to choose a female who may not want him as a mate, and he didn't want a female who wanted him only for his name. Prince Kolton Reifenberg.

    Any way you sliced it, he wanted nothing to do with the whole circus of mating.

    "Kolt, you are 21. It is natural for the royals to claim a female to mate through the Mondblume Elixir at that age," Kane told him darkly. "I did it. Your brother will do it." He paused, suddenly looking unhappy. "Louisa will have to do it when she comes of age." Yes. He was definitely unhappy about his younger sister finding her mate.

    "You're the king!" Kolton told him, his silvery eyes narrowing on his brother. "You can make exceptions to the rule! You could throw the whole damned rulebook out entirely if you wanted! No one would question it. You are the golden boy with the commoner queen whom all the kingdom loves!"

    "And as king, I will see to it that you are mated and wed," Kane said sternly. "If you are not to choose, I will have myself or Father do it."

    Kolton scowled, dark thoughts cluttering his mind. He could run away or escape the island, maybe join the military. He already had the haircut for it.

    Running a rough hand over his head, Kolton shook his head vehemently.

    "I will not have a ball. I will not choose," he told them both, king and prior king. "I do not want a mate. Not now anyway. I am young and free and wish to remain so until I am ready."

    Kane and Xavier shared a long glance. Some sort of silent exchange went on for a minute before anyone else said anything.

    Xavier stood up slowly before making his way to the door of his own office.

    "You try to speak sense to him," he told his oldest son. "There has never been a Reifenberg without a mate upon their 21st birthday, and I will not have it happen during my lifetime."

    He looked over at his younger son and his voice softened.

    "A mate will be the best thing that has ever happened to you, Kolton," he told him. "They come to be your everything. The bond, the pull you have toward each other—there is nothing like it."

    The man walked out of the room quietly, the door snicking shut behind him.

    "If this has to do with Ali—" Kane began to say.

    "It has everything to do with me determining my own fate and not being forced into a coupling like my ancestors before me," Kolton lied. "You and Lexi are only a small part of my hesitance to find a mate, though you both seem happy as clams."

    Kane sighed. He was irritated that his brother had seemed to come to the conclusion that mates are more trouble than they're worth. He would have blamed himself for choosing Alexandria and not someone else to be his queen if he wasn't so irrevocably in love with his wife. Weren’t they proof that a mating bond was worth every trial and tribulation one could go through? Wasn’t it worth it in the end?

    "Give it one more night to think over," Kane implored him. "In the morning, if you refuse to bend, I will have father choose your bride for you. I know you still escape to the mainland at times. Surely you have come across a female that has caught your eye, have you not?"

    Kolton didn't answer, averting his eyes from his king and brother. He had met a few females he felt like that could live with on the occasion if pressed to, but they had been either too young at the time or involved with another man. He hadn't been in a hurry to meet his 21st birthday. Flirting was fine. A kiss or two in a secluded spot was the norm. Never anything more. Royalty always stayed pure for their mates, and he had every intention of staying pure until he met his. Years from now. His whom would choose for himself when he felt the time was right to settle down. Not a moment before.

***

    "How was the meeting with Father?" Kade asked.

    Kolton had spoken with Kane for a few more minutes, neither one of them budging. Kane had thrown up his hands at him as Kolton slinked from the room, annoyed.

    He turned 21 in one week. His mother was upset with him. His father. And now his brother was irritated with him.

    Kade and Louisa were not, though Kade was a little baffled as to why he wouldn't choose a mate at all. Now they were outside their rooms, Kade standing as he was about to leave his, Kolton on his way into his boudoir.

    "It was the same as it has been for the past five months," Kolton grumbled. "Father trying to force me. Me trying to tell him I'm not ready. He brought Kane in."

    Kade's eyes widened a bit. He wondered where his oldest brother stood on the mating. Surely he would be for it, for he was happily mated himself with two children and another on the way. The current Queen, Alexandria, was heavily pregnant with another male baby. Kane was beside himself to be having another son.

    "What did Kane say?"

    "He's with Father on the mating," Kolton muttered, pulling the door to his bedroom wide. "Should have figured he would since he has his own 'happily ever after'."

    He walked into his room, Kade following behind him.

    "Most males cannot wait to be mated and claimed by their females, and most of them do it by the time they are your age," Kade told him. "Why are you the exact opposite? Surely your tendency to be contrary doesn't go so far as to deny a mate completely."

    Kolton shrugged his shoulders and stepped over to his nightstand, straightening his alarm clock and a photograph he had there. He was impeccably tidy for a man. The complete opposite of Kade, who wouldn't pick up his room if it had layers of gold underneath the bundles of clothing and piles books.

    Kolton pitied Kade's poor maid and manservant.

    "I said everything I needed to say to Father and Kane," Kolton grumped. "I do not wish to beat this dead horse any further with you. I already know the dreamer you are and that you wish to be a year older so you can find your mate as well."

    Kade shrugged, but did not deny it. If he had been in Kolton's place, he would have been eager to place a claim on his female. Kolton was...a rarity for a wolf.

    "What's the problem with finding a mate?" Kade asked. "She would be yours and only yours. Surely there is someone out there who could catch your eye and make you dizzy with lust just at the sight of her. If Father chooses, he could choose anyone and you would have no say. Pick someone so that he doesn't have to."

    "No."

    "Fine. Be that way," Kade told him. "But if Father chooses, you know she will be noble and boring. If Kane chooses, he will most likely choose someone who is the complete opposite of you. You know how he likes you to be challenged."

    "And what is the complete opposite of me?" Kolton had to ask.

    "You know—pleasant and docile. Petite and happy to oblige. Lord knows you like to make life difficult for anyone in your path. She'd be easygoing and pliant, but something makes me think you would like that in a female, so you'd better hope that Kane chooses instead of Father. Father picked Mother, and though she has gotten better since Lexi came, she is still as authoritarian as always."

    Kade then left the room, as always, finishing his conversation abruptly and moving on to the next thing, his mind was so flighty.    

    "Enjoy your book," Kolton grumbled just before Kade had a chance to completely close his bedroom door.

    "I will," he heard his youngest brother call out before moving off down the hallway, most likely on his way to the library.

    Kolton strode to his window and watched some of the boats on the lake as they went from the island to the mainland for the night. Only one boat remained on the lake after a few minutes, slowly making its way toward the island. It was not a large vessel, and with his sharp eyes, he could see people moving across the deck as they came closer to the mooring at one of the piers.

    Shaking his head, Kolton moved away, only slightly interested in what was going on outside his own head.

***

    Floors beneath Kolton, Xavier was welcoming a guest at the front door.

    "Ah, Adam! Good to see you again!" Xavier exclaimed as soon as the doorman opened it to his guests.

    "Your Highness," Adam said with a bow to his former king.

    "I'll have none of that, Adam," Xavier chided gently. "We've known each other for ages. Please call me Xavier. I'm king no longer since Kane has taken over the reins. And who is this?"

    A diminutive and quiet female was behind Adam DeWitt, quiet and respectful with her head bowed to her former king.

    "Ah, this is my daughter, Eliza," Adam told him. "It's...uhm, well—it's on account of her that we're here."

    The man seemed saddened by the thought, almost ashamed. Xavier could sense it and invited them in.

    "Well, as it's late, I'll have the maids show you to your rooms," Xavier said. "We can chat in the morning if that would suit you."

    The man nodded back at Xavier, his gaze flickering over to his daughter, whose head was still bowed, eyes to the ground.

    The two visitors were given two suites in the guest wing on the second floor. Adam, whose journey had been long, got ready for bed immediately while his daughter in the next room sat up for some time.

    Jonathan, she thought, her strong countenance crumbling under the mere mention of the name. He had been her best friend for years until about a year ago when she found out she was his fated mate.

    His mate. And he didn't want her as his.

Chapter 2 

    "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...well, she is very lovely."

    Xavier couldn't understand. Eliza was a pretty little thing with dark red hair and pale cornflower blue 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 could never understand our ways," Xavier remarked gravely. "Does the girl even 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 divulge their status as two-natured unless they were quite 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...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 here as long as you like, Adam," Xavier told him. "You and your lovely 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 for Kolton.

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

    "Just 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 once-again 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 it over. He had never heard of a male wolf rejecting his mate before. 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 this rejection well, and I would hate for her to revert back to months ago when Jon cut her off completely."

    The memory of the day he had found his daughter fainted on their doorstep took him back to the dark place she was in. Jon had tried to let her down easy before that, and his temper had 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 their 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 difficult right now. He always has been. His brother's mating to the current 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 that, my dear," Adam said, his voice growing lower and his face becoming a thick mask of trepidation.

    "What is it?"

    With Eliza's fair skin and dark red hair, she looked just like his wife at that age, and it made Adam's heart ache. Colleen would have been so proud of their daughter and 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 wish 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 also knew that being marked by another would negate the pull she felt towards her former best friend.

    That hurt, but the hurt would lessen when she was marked by another…perhaps 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 told you I don't want a mate," Kolton growled.

    "Don't sass me, boy," Xavier warned, 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 his daughter’s delicate 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 son 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 abruptly. "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 shut 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, and 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 gingery 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.

Chapter 3 

    "Are you going to sit in your room like some spoiled little child while your future mate waits patiently downstairs?" Lexi asked Kolton as she bounced up and down, trying to calm a screaming Kate.

    "Sounds like a great way to spend the day to me," Kolton grumbled out as she rotated her trunk in time to Kate's wailing. "Why won't she shut up?" He gestured to Kate, whose face was a flood of tears.

    "She's a sensitive baby, Kolt!" Lexi told him. "She can tell when things aren't right with people. She's been off and on bawling since you and Kane butted heads the other day about taking a mate!"

    Kolton looked doubtful, and eyed the 1-year-old with a skeptical eye.

    "She doesn't look like the type to be into Dionne Warwick's Psychic Friends Network," Kolton said scathingly and looked back to the magazine he was reading. Lexi snatched it from his hands before he could get into the article about the highest rated motorcycles and their safety ratings.

    "And you don't look like someone who wants to babysit my children all day because you were too stubborn to come downstairs and eat a meal with your family and future bride!"

    If it was a threat, it was a damned good one. Karter and Kate were very different as siblings, but they were a handful indeed. Kate was sensitive, picking up on every little nuance and word. Karter was just a little machine, constantly getting into anything and everything and laughing gleefully when he wrought mayhem. The boy was lucky his grandma loved him so much or the Ming vase he had destroyed when he had first started crawling could have been the end of the little tyke.

    "I'll come down to breakfast, woman," Kolton gritted out. "Just don't threaten me with babysitting your progeny again. It's like trying to fight a fire and cooking over a gaslit stove at the same time. An utter disaster in the making."

    "Oh, like you know what cooking would be like," Lexi said. "If you've even cooked yourself toast I'd be surprised."

    "Went camping once," Kolton choked out.

    "Yes, Kane told me," Lexi retorted. "He also said that he's not altogether sure you weren't the cause of that wildfire in Yosemite that year."

    The vexing female took her pregnant belly and now-sniffling daughter out of the room before calling back to her brother in law.

    "I'll expect you down within 15 minutes," she said. "If you're not there, I am sending Kade up with Duplos, Legos, and two cranky children. I'd like to see you not cry when you have a Lego nearly impaling your foot!"

    She slammed his door and Kolton was left in silence. Since he had already showered, he decided to put on his least pleasing outfit and get ready for breakfast. Since he never had to comb his hair, what with it being so short, he simply ran a hand over his whiskers and deemed he could go another day without a shave. As far as he was concerned, he had no one to please but himself, and if his mother or sister in law didn't like it, it was just too damned bad.

    Pulling out his oldest pair of sweatpants and a tight t-shirt with a hole in the armpit, he deemed himself ready to go and walked out in a pair of his oldest loafers. His mother would probably order his maid to extract and burn the clothing he was wearing today, but he didn't care. It was worth it to him.

    His journey to the breakfast room dragged on as he slowly made his way to the ground floor. He couldn't hurry if he tried as he had zero interest in being at breakfast with his family and their guests.

    Even if one of the guests had been a pretty redheaded female he had seen constantly when he had closed his eyes the night before.

    He could hear lighthearted chatter as he made his way down the hallway to the breakfast room. He walked in and stalked to his place at the table without catching anyone's eyes. All was silence as he took his seat, and after a few moments, someone cleared their throat.

    "Good of you to join us this morning, Kolton," his father told him as the sound of cutlery being used started up again. "I'd like to introduce you to—"

    "The DeWitts," Kolton interrupted. "Yes. You told me about them yesterday."

    Kolton was not a complete Neanderthal and knew he should greet them as guests of the former king. He nodded to Mr. DeWitt, who was a large man with shovel-sized hands, and then scanned the table for the daughter.

    His eyes slid over to the female with the brightest hair in the room, and wanted to cuss when his throat locked up on him. He swallowed, ridding himself of the imaginary blockage and nodded the faintest of nods at the female. She was prettier than her profile and hair had suggested the previous night, and he cursed himself for the definite stirring in his sweats.

    He had known she would be pretty, but his father hadn't done the girl justice. She had large blue eyes almost too big for her face, and deep red hair that fell in waves to her small waist. No freckles, it was a pity, for he adored them on a female, but her skin was milky-white and flawless. She was flawless.

    His c**k stirred again and he cleared his throat before grabbing a pot filled with steaming coffee. One of the servers came around and laid an omelet on his plate before adding a bit of bacon and sausage.

    "Mr. DeWitt's daughter is across from you," his father told him, as if the young man had gone blind overnight. "Her name—"

    "Yes, I caught it last night when you told me. Eliza. I’m not as dimwitted as all that."

    He had said the name as if it were filled with venom, and he heard a gasp as he went to take a sip of his coffee. Black and scalding. Just the way he liked it.

    "Kolton—" Lexi began.

    "I told you I would breakfast with you," Kolton stated harshly. "I did not say I would be on my best behavior. Not when I am forced to be, or being forced into something I wish not to deal with until I am ready."

    The table was silent for a few minutes and he caught the red head of the female guest as it looked down at her lap.

    "Kolton—" Xavier began again.

    "If you wish that I make lighthearted small talk or chat up the guests, you are looking at the wrong person," Kolton interjected. "I am neither in the mood to make idle chitchat or discuss my mating at this hour of the morning. Strike that—I wish to never discuss any of that, as I have no need of meddling in my love life, as it were."

    Lexi went to open her mouth, but Kolton silenced her with a look.

    "What would you have me say?" Kolton asked his Queen and sister in mating. "Yes, she is a pretty thing, but so is jewelry and I have very little need of that as well. I am sure the girl is lovely and docile and everything you wish for me to be, but I am not. I am cross and sullen and I like it that way. I just wish you people would quit with your matchmaking and leave me be."

   Kolton stood, only having finished a few bites of his food. "This was a mistake. All a mistake. I suggest you stop trying to make me bend to your will and leave me be. I am not wishing to make enemies of friends, and that is all that this would do. I am not gentle nor kind and I cannot change that. I suggest you heed that and leave me to my own devices."

    Kolton walked off, having had enough of everyone sticking their oar in where it didn't belong. If he didn't want a mate, he should be allowed to be without one. The common folk were not forced to mate, so neither should he.

    There was silence for a while as people started to eat again, Eliza still gazing at her lap. She suddenly stood and bowed to the table, all manners even when her heart was breaking again.

    "If you will excuse me for a moment," she told the room in a small, clear voice.

    She walked toward the door Kolton had exited a few moments before and headed to the safety of a bathroom, all the while making sure she kept a steady walking pace when she only wanted to run to the solitude of the room she sought. Her bedroom.

    Eliza wanted to know why. Why no one wanted her. She was not unpleasant to look at. Even Jonathan, before his rejection, had told her how proud he was to have such a beauty as a best friend. So why was everyone rejecting her?

    She washed her face, the light lashes catching the water droplets and making her vision blurry.

    No. That was tears that made her vision blurry. A sob rose in her throat, but before it could be spent, a knock on the bathroom door had her jumping in place.

    "Eliza?" It was the queen.

    "I'll be out in a minute!" she called and tried to quell the bubbling emotion that was making her chest ache so.

    "Open up," Lexi called. "Please."

    Eliza went to the door and allowed the queen entrance, though there was nothing more that she wanted than to be alone in her grief.

    "Kolton, he—" Lexi started to say.

    "—hates me," Eliza finished. "I don't see why he wouldn't. It is obvious to me that he wants no mate and that I am being thrust upon him. I would hate me too."

    "He doesn't hate you. He—" Lexi sighed. "Kolton has always been stubborn. Sometimes I think he'd claim the sky was green if Kade or Kane insisted upon it being blue. He's arrogant and willful, but he is not a bad guy. He just hates that he doesn't have the freedom the common folk have. He would be completely happy if he were a commoner and not born of royal blood. He hates his predicament, not you."

    There was a brief silence as Eliza gathered her wits.

    "Do you know why I'm here?" Eliza asked the Queen, who shook her head in response. "I am here because my true mate, the one who I was destined to be with, rejected me. He is in love with another, and that other person is human."

    Queen Lexi drew in a short gasp, her eyes widening slightly. "Rejected you? But—he is your mate!"

    "He didn't want me as a mate. He wanted me only as his friend," Eliza told her. "I was as surprised as he was when I turned 18 and we both felt the bond. But he had been dating a human for a year or so by then and he was deeply in love with her. He didn't want me. No one does."

    Lexi didn't know how to act or what to say to the girl's admission. It had to be mortifying to be rejected by your true mate and then sent away only to find your arranged future mate doesn't want you as well.

    "Please don't tell anyone," Eliza pleaded. "I don't want to see the pity in people's eyes. I had enough of that back home. It was one of the reasons my father asked to come here. That and...I was not taking the rejection well."

    "I would think not," Lexi said stoutly. "Rejection of any kind is horrible, and I can't imagine if Kane were—" She cut herself off, shaking off the bad could-have-been's stirring in her brain. "I won't say anything. If you wish to tell anyone about your situation, it will be up to you to tell them."

    "Thank you," Eliza said, the sting of tears still pricking the backs of her eyes. "I think I would like to go to my room now. Can you make my excuses to the rest of your family? I don't...I'm not feeling very well."

    "I'll send a maid up with some tea if you like," Lexi said, nodding. "Tea always seems to make me feel better when I am feeling low."

    Eliza nodded and left the bathroom behind the queen, turning left to make her way to her bedroom and climbing the stairs to the second floor.

***

    "You really have a way with words, big brother," Kade said as he walked around a cluster of blueberry bushes, a sardonic little smile on his face. "As soon as you bolted, the little redhead soon followed. Charm and grace are all that is asked of you as a Prince, and you've handled both like a bear in a claw-trap."

    "If people would leave me be, I wouldn't have to be as ungentlemanly and sour as all that," Kolton said, standing up from his spot. "I wished not to have to be there, and yet I was forced in pain of...babysitting my brother's evil twins."

    "Oh, I'm sure our dear older sister is quite angry with you," Kade said, chuckling. "I was hearing her go on about gathering up some toys and bringing it to the east wing. You know what that means, big bro."

    "f**k," Kolton said, closing his eyes. "She's having me babysit anyway."

    "Bingo," Kade said, pointing a finger at him. "And Kate has been a pleasure and a half with all her sobbing and sniffling she's been doing since you left the breakfast salon."

    "Shit."

    "Yup," Kade said, sounding almost gleeful. "And since the girl left and didn't come back after you wandered off, I'm sure you have hurt her feelings as well. Lexi came back to the table after going after her and said Eliza was feeling ill and wouldn't rejoin us. Nice work. Pretty soon we'll let you loose on the town and you can alienate them with your gruff demeanor as well. I'm actually happy Kane was first-born now. If you were king we'd have a revolt on our hands. You are singularly unpleasant lately."

    Kolton felt bad about hurting the girl's feelings, but it couldn't be helped. It's not like he could go to her and apologize and give the girl false hope. It wouldn't be fair. He had no want of a mate. Even one with lovely hair, pale, flawless skin, and large cornflower blue—

    "Are you listening to me, Kolt?" Kade asked, interfering on his brother's unwelcome thought processes.

    "What?"

    "I said, Father wants to speak with you in his office soon," Kade told him. "I'm sure he'll have some choice words for you, so you may want to get the browbeating over with as soon as possible. That way you can get on with completely irritating the rest of the family and staff. I promise, though, if it comes to a lynching, I'm not  on board. I loathe crowds and violence."

    "Go away, Kade," Kolton grumbled. "I do not enjoy being a s**t, and I enjoy it less when you remind me of it."

    "Well, if anything, I am glad to hear that being a d**k isn't a pleasant pastime for you, no matter how well you play one. Perhaps if you—"

    "I said leave, Kade," Kolton growled out. "There are books to be read and worlds beyond these to be explored in them. I have no use of you and your airy fantasies."

    "I don't read fantasies, Kolton," Kade told him. "I prefer mysteries and thrillers. But maybe you should read a fantasy or two. Or a romance. It might get your mind in the right place for your bride to be. She is very pretty indeed. I know how you like your redheads."

    "f**k off," Kolton growled.

    "Later, big brother."

    Kolton couldn't help it. Once Kade left, his eyes went up to the room on the second floor just in time to see the curtains being drawn by a slender arm. Just a swift peek of red hair and it was gone.

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