The Royal Brothers' Mate

Chapter 5

Chapter 5.

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I sat between Brandon and Liana while the princes sat across us with the queen beside them and the king sat at the head of the table. It was an unnecessarily long table, so we were all huddled on one side of it. I had no appetite whatsoever for the food that filled the table and my plate. Eating had been relatively quiet for the past fifteen minutes, save for the occasional sounds of silverware against the glass plates. Brandon and Liana seemed uncomfortable, I was sure I did too. Every time I looked up I would meet one of the princes’ apologetic gazes. I was sure their eyes were still glued to me, which was why I did not want to look up.

“So,” The king’s voice drew everyone’s attention to him. I kept my eyes on my food too afraid to look up in case the king was looking at me. “Your daughter is mated to a Royal – oh, no, two royals. You must be proud.”

“Father.” Corin said.

“No. No, I am not.” I looked at Brandon. I knew he was not going to correct the daughter part, he rarely did but his disagreeing with the king was terrifying. He was not really one to hold back his thoughts despite who he was speaking to, I feared this time it was going to work against him. “Of course I am not, but it is not my decision who she is mated to and if it has to be a Prince –”

“‘A Prince’?” The king interrupted.

“Yes, if it has to be a prince… I’ll support it… if that’s what she wants.” Brandon looked at me and then back to the king, “Your majesty.”

“How common.” The king placed his fork down and looked at Brandon, “Brandon – right? I’m sure you already know that royal weddings take place to build alliances, combine kingdoms and create the strongest offspring. Do you feel their power?” He motioned to his sons, “Do you see how big our kingdom is? How safe it is because of how powerful we are? This does not happen by simply marrying your mate, I mean, you would know.” He glanced at me with a frown.

I clenched my jaw feeling Brandon’s power rise with his anger. I looked at him hoping he would just not move.

“It’s a shame that your sons clearly disagree with you,” Brandon said, “Your Majesty.” He added like it was somewhat of an afterthought. The king narrowed his eyes at my uncle and I sat up uncomfortably as I watched them, everyone else had stopped eating to watch the exchange as well.

“My sons have a lot to learn… Like how women… young women… can be terribly deceiving.” He looked at me and I stared back confused about what he meant, “It may have been far-fetched… Eden?” He said my name like he was uncertain of it before he continued, “You being mated to just one – I might have considered despite how unbelievable that is, but two? There is no way this is coincidental, you obviously set this up. So tell me, what exactly is it you want, Sweetheart?”

“Father.” Rowan sounded serious, the playful edge in his voice gone.

“What are you saying?” Brandon asked sounding quite angry.

“You know exactly what I’m saying.” The king replied to him without breaking eye contact with me and I could just not seem to tear my eyes from his gaze, it’s like they held mine, “What is it, Girl? You convinced a very powerful witch to do this, but you got greedy, didn’t you?”

“I-I didn’t convince a witch to-to do anything.” I stuttered. I did not even know Rowan existed until I met him.

“Father, stop.” Corin’s voice sounded on edge, but his father still did not break our eye contact.

“Oh, you did. There is no way this is natural, there is no way someone like you...” he glanced over me and I felt sickly nervous and suddenly guilty, like I somehow actually had made this happen, but I did not even know them, “… someone so common and clearly… sleazy –”

I let out a surprised scream as I saw a blur of movement from beside me simultaneous to a loud crack that echoed through the room.

“No!” Rowan’s voice was drained into the loud fighting. I felt someone grab my arm before I was dragged out of my seat by Liana pulling me back. The scene in front of me was almost a blur of swift movements as I realised my uncle had tackled the king, in turn breaking his chair and they were both on the ground, neither backing down as they began to exchange blows in a fight Brandon was clearly losing.

“Brandon, stop!” Liana screamed sounding more scared than I had ever heard her.

We were shoved further away from the fight more as guards swarmed into the room but before they could even try to pry the two men apart, the princes managed to grab one man each and pull them to their feet and away from each other.

“STOP!” Corin’s command was loud and strong, it worked on Brandon instantly but his father seemed to just straighten himself, pulling his arm away from Rowan who had grabbed him and he began to straighten his shirt. “I am so sorry, Sir.” Brandon pulled his arm from Corin’s and glared at the prince as he wiped the blood from his already healed cheek. The king had little more than creased his shirt.

I looked at the guards around us as my heart raced. What were they going to do? They were obviously more focused on my uncle here than the king. I froze as they grabbed Brandon’s arms. He had attacked the king first, and even if he had not he was going to be hurt because there was no way anyone would believe the king fought someone.

“Let him go.” Corin said to the guards. They looked at him before their eyes moved to the king uncertainly as they were torn about whether listening to Corin’s instruction would be disrespecting the king.

“You heard him.” The king said and Brandon was let go of immediately.

Brandon turned to grab Liana and my hands before he pulled us out of the room.

“Sir, wait –” Rowan began but my uncle ignored him dragging us out of the palace.

I wanted to ask if he was okay, but knowing he was a wolf, asking in front of an opponent would just piss him off.

“Sir.” Corin and Rowan had followed us out, they were followed by guards.

Brandon stopped and turned to Corin, pushing me behind his back. “I told you to leave her alone.” Brandon said.

“You know I cannot.” Corin responded.

“If you care about her you will!” Brandon let out a loud shout.

I bit my lip as my eyes burnt while I looked towards the car behind us. I did not know what to do. I felt like crying but I knew that was a stupid response to all of this and it would not help in any way. I looked back towards the princes’ when I realised everyone had been quiet for a few minutes. Rowan and Corin stood next to each other, Corin slightly ahead of his brother as if trying to hold him back. Rowan seemed afraid and it made me want to hug him so badly because I could feel his fear and I hated it. I could not read Corin, which was weird because the bond did not allow him to hide his emotions from me. The King and Queen had not followed us outside but the guards had and they stood behind the princes looking like they were ready to respond harshly to any movement from my uncle that they thought would potentially be threatening. Corin’s eyes met mine and I felt my chest fill with his anger, fear and possessiveness.

“I am sorry, I cannot – no, I will not let you take her.” Corin finally spoke to Brandon.

Brandon’s fist clenched and I took his wrist making him turn to me. He lifted his hand to my face to brush some stray strands of hair out of it before patting my head lightly.

‘You okay?’ He linked to me. I nodded. ‘We can leave now and pretend this never happened… Mates aren’t all that, Eden...’ I could hear that he did not even believe that as he said it. Mates meant so much that even my own mother chose death after hers died despite having a child to take care of.

I looked past my uncle at Corin. His eyes were darkening into a much darker red than Rowan’s had been when he shifted, it was surprising that he had not shifted yet. He seemed quite angry. There was no way leaving right now would end well… But I did not want to stay with the king and queen. Still, the thought of leaving made my wolf restless and I could feel my chest burning signalling that she may force a shift as I thought more about it.

‘I don’t know what to do.’ I linked to my uncle as I clenched my fist trying to control my wolf. I had felt her restless many times before and lost control of us a few times – it happened to most wolves at least a few times throughout their lives – at which point she would take complete control and I would have no idea what happened in the few hours we had shifted, but those were in times when I was in immense danger, this was just her being too passionate and irrational because of the mate bonds. I shut my eyes trying to fight against her to keep control of us.

‘Calm down.’ Brandon’s voice echoed in my mind as I felt my fists shake.

I opened my eyes feeling a hand take my wrist and felt my wolf begin to calm down feeling familiar warmth and tingling run through my skin despite the cold hand. I looked down at the hand and followed it up to Corin’s face. He looked away from me, back to Brandon.

“Nothing will happen to her, Sir. I promise, I –” Corin’s eyes moved to his brother and back to Brandon, “We will protect her.” Brandon did not look any less displeased by Corin.

“Just the fact that you need to protect her is enough reason to stay away from her.”

I frowned looking between them. Were they trying to make this decision for me? I looked over at Rowan feeling his anger. He was staring at the two men in front of me clenching his fist, his breathing harsh enough to make his chest move up and down, it made me realise my hand was still in Corin’s. I quickly pulled it away making Rowan snap out of it and he gave me a light, embarrassed smile that made me want to squirm at its adorableness before he ran his hands through his hair.

‘Uncle Brandon.’ I linked to him, ‘I want to stay…’ Maybe I was being stupid but I wanted a chance with my mate, from all the stories I had heard, the mates I had seen together before and from what I had seen between Brandon and Liana, mating was amazing and I wanted that. It was not fair that I could not have that, it’s not like I could choose who I was mated to. I trust what Corin had said too. Brandon turned to me with a frown for a moment before he gave a defeated sigh.

‘I don’t want you to get hurt.’ He linked to me as he looked up at the palace. ‘I don’t trust them and I don’t like their parents.’

‘But you can trust me and I’ll stay out of their way as much as I can.’ I said. His face told me he completely disagreed with what I wanted to do but he grit his teeth and pulled me into a hug. I smiled as I hugged him.

‘If you feel threatened or unsafe in any way, you come home, understand? Call me anytime, I’ll come pick you up.’ He linked to me. I nodded against him and felt him pat my head before he let me go.

Liana stepped up to hug me almost directly after Brandon had let me go and I listened to Brandon give the prince’s his number before he turned and opened the back of the car.

“Here, thought you could use some clean clothing if I could not convince you to leave.” Brandon held out two bags to me but palace guards immediately grabbed them, I assume to search it. I smiled at my uncle thanking him softly. He gave me another hug before he climbed into his car.

I felt nervous watching Brandon and Liana drive off, but I tried to shake off the feeling. It would okay… They were my mates, they would not hurt me… Once the car was out of sight I tensed feeling hands take my shoulders from behind me.

‘I like them, he’s scary but I like them.’ Corin linked to me leaning over my shoulder.

“He’s scary?” I mumbled in disbelief. Corin pushed my shoulders so that I turned to face him and I came face-to-face with his chest. I had not realised he was that close to me… I guess I was too focused on the car. I looked up to meet his dark eyes.

“Do you trust me?” He asked. I lowered my brows.

“I don’t know you, Aladdin.” I said.

“Aladdin?” Corin seemed confused.

“It’s a movie. We didn’t finish breakfast.” Rowan rolled his eyes as he walked up to us to grab hold of my arm gently and began leading me back into the palace as he thanked and waved off the guards around us, they dispersed immediately but a few stayed. They looked like they were highly alert as they walked around the front yard. I looked at Rowan’s hand on my arm. Why was everyone pulling me everywhere? It was becoming really annoying, like I was a rag doll.

“Wait, he’s never watched Aladdin?” I asked Rowan, surprised.

“No, Mother does not allow us to watch much here that is not about history or current affairs. I saw it at school when I was younger,” Rowan replied.

“He went to boarding school so he could basically do whatever he wanted.” Corin added.

“Not whatever, the guards would not let me go sky diving because Mother thinks it’s ‘unsafe’ and they agree.” I smiled because even though I was looking at the back of his head, I knew Rowan had rolled his eyes.

“It probably is.” Corin replied.

“You think everything is.” Rowan said as we walked into the dining room. I was beyond relieved to find it empty of any people. The mess the fight had caused had been cleaned up and the table was visibly missing a single seat, but the food on the table was still where we had left it. Rowan ran forward and pulled out my chair. “My lady,” He motioned to the seat. I laughed nervously as I slowly took the seat. “You can relax, Eden. I doubt my parents will be coming back downstairs, they have not slept in a while.” He said.

I nodded slowly as I looked back at the food in front of me that I did not feel like eating, not that I had had any appetite to begin with.

‘So, I can show you around the palace tod –’ Corin stopped linking to me when Edwin walked in.

“The King and Queen request that you attend your scheduled training sessions.” He said bowing his head slightly at the princes.

“Thank you, Edwin.” Corin’s reply made Edwin bow before leaving the room. I turned back to my food but paused seeing both princes staring at me.

“Want to join?” Corin asked.

“She’ll get hurt. Want to watch?” Rowan smirked.

“Get hurt because I’m female?” I asked Rowan.

“No, because you’re not even a Delta.” I nodded my head. Of course. Wolves in higher positions trained harder, I should have guessed these two train exceptionally hard in case they have to fight anyone for their positions.

“Let me see.” I said.

“I was joking.” Rowan said. Corin frowned at his brother looking half annoyed. It seemed Rowan joked like this all the time, something Corin was not too happy about.

“You can’t retract it though, I wanna watch.” I said.

“She’s right.” Corin stood.

“It’s better than letting her join us.” Rowan replied annoyed.

“I’m assuming we have all finished eating. Let’s go.” Corin decided not to reply to his brother.

I followed the brothers out of the dining room and through the palace until we reached an open set of doors that led to the basement. My eyes widened as I followed them down into the second biggest and most equipped gym I had ever seen, the other had been our official pack gym back home, but that gym was made big enough to fit a few hundred wolves at a time.

“Is this just for you?” I asked.

“The guards train here as well.” Corin replied. I noticed a few of them across the room, either stretching or just standing and watching us. I gave an awkward wave and received a few waves back as well as bows that made me feel even more awkward because I did not think I should be bowed towards. “You can sit over there, we will be right back – Rowan!” Corin’s snapping his name made Rowan look up from his hands as they were currently unbuttoning his shirt.

Corin frowned and Rowan looked at him confused before he nodded in realisation as he looked at me. I felt my heart pick up seeing that there was already a deeply parted V going down his chest that revealed some of his rank tattoo. It was dark and big seeming to span from the right side of his chest over to the left, I could not see any symbols I recognised that everyone else in my pack had. My eyes dropped onto the mat when Corin basically reached out to pull Rowan’s shirt closed and I realised I might have stared at it a bit too long trying to read it. I heard Rowan chuckle, which only made my face burn more.

“Right. Sorry, we don’t usually have a girl in here.” I looked up to see Rowan smirking at me and it intensified what I was certain was an already tomato shade of crimson on my face. Why couldn’t I control my heart? Corin let out a harsh sigh and I bit my lip as I was reminded again of our weird situation.

“Your highnesses. Shall we begin?”

The call seemed to clear the playfulness from the atmosphere and Rowan and Corin both straightened up.

“You have seen Alphas train, right? It will be like that… but worse, so don’t be surprised.” Rowan said.

Corin turned on his heel and I felt wind brush against me as he disappeared into one of the rooms, Rowan gave me a smile before he did the same and I nervously walked over to the bench Corin had pointed at. I had seen Alphas of our land train together, it usually gathered a huge crowd because it was incredible to watch. Werewolf training was hard, but Alpha training was ten times that, it almost seemed to be deadly if you could not keep up. I was excited to see them train though, terrifying as it may be.

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