The Royal Brothers' Mate

Chapter 1

Chapter 1.

*****

“So, what do you do for fun?”

I clutched the tray in my hands in front of me as I leaned against the wall beside me. This had become routine in the past nine days. My uncle, Brandon, owned the restaurant I worked at. Usually I worked part-time but since I had completed school for the year and was currently on a break before my honours year began, I was working full time. Everyday all day. Usually my uncle joked that because we’re family, I should not be paid since instead I got paid in love, boarding and food. Still, he paid me like he did the other eight members of his waiting staff.

Brandon’s restaurant was a medium-sized niche restaurant hidden just out of the city on the side of a mountain that overlooked the city below, the mountain housed only three mansions, a couple of hotels and the restaurant beside a hotel. At night, from the best seat in the restaurant, it looked like you were floating above a city of lights. It was one of the most popular restaurants on our side of the world and people paid crazy amounts of money to visit or eat at it.

One of these people was Prince Corin, or his family. Basically, one of the Royal family’s representatives had offered to pay my uncle peak-hour rates for every table in the restaurant, six hours at a time for three weeks so that the Prince could have his dates here. I’ll never forget Brandon barging into the quiet meal his mate – my aunt Liana – and I were having to yell about the royals choosing his restaurant to have their son’s suitor meetings at. He looked like he was going to burst into confetti, balloons and whatever else people associate with excitement. I had never seen him more excited.

“I work. What do you do?”

I was not standing anywhere near them, but I could hear every word of their conversation – everyone could because we were all werewolves and our hearing was incredible.

The raven-haired Prince Corin was sitting upright, eating his food slowly in small bites while looking quite distant and, despite being ethereally gorgeous, did not seem to be the best company for these girls… I mean, they tried, they tried really hard to speak to him, they were all so beautiful and most of them very nice, smart girls but from what I had seen he had no idea how to have a conversation, or he really was just not interested in talking. His answers were mostly one-word and then he recited the questions they asked him back to them. From what I gathered in the past few days listening to the meetings, all the prince ever does is work and train. I did not question that as a fact, people barely saw the prince outside of the palace, and when we did see his face, it was in a newspaper, magazine or social media because he had attended some press conference or incredibly important parliamentary or world leaders meeting. It was funny, I certainly had my doubts about him even being real until he actually showed up at the restaurant the first day.

Brandon had me, himself, my friend, who was another waitress, named Olivia and two cooks, Joseph and head cook Maria on shift right now. He did not think we needed more than two waiters for two people and gave the others the few weeks off. I agreed. Olivia and I basically just spent our time standing in the corner of the room beside the kitchen watching the prince and his date for the evening, surrounded by twelve bodyguards in the room and more outside.

Usually when we had nothing to do, Olivia and I would wait outside the kitchen talking as we looked over the city, but Brandon wanted us on call for the Royal seated across the room.

Right now, I was hidden from anyone’s view which was why I was leaning. If I dared lean where I could be seen, Brandon would probably rip my heart out with his bare hands and eat it. He probably would not even shift into his wolf form before eating it. Of course I’m exaggerating, my Uncle was awesome, he did take this restaurant very seriously though, I respected his work ethic and I hated being near angry work Brandon.

‘Eden, I’m going to the bathroom. Take over.’ Brandon’s voice popped into my head. As werewolves, we could do this thing called linking where we could talk to each other telepathically. It could only happen between blood-related family and mates. Alpha, Beta and Luna wolves could link to everyone in their pack though – or in the case of a royal Alpha, they could link to every person in their kingdom from any of the packs that lived in it.

I straightened up and stepped back out of hiding into the dimly lit restaurant. The prince and Justine, his date this evening – the Duchess of Faverlon – were seated at the best seat in the house. The one that felt like floating. He wore an expensive black suit that looked similar to the one he wore the previous day, this one just with gold trimmings on the lapels and she wore a long, beautiful red dress. The dress looked great on her, the fact that she seemed like one of the nice ones, smiling at us every time we served them, added to it. I bit my lip trying not to laugh as I recalled a picture of the man that had spoken to my uncle to reserve the restaurant sitting at every table in the restaurant trying to judge which one was best suited for the Prince, after Brandon had already told him.

I watched the prince’s hand raise moving to motion for his butler who was standing not too far from them and felt my heart sink. I had come to know this little motion as him being sick of the date and usually right away the older man would have to tell the woman to leave. This girl had been my favourite. Mostly because she greeted everyone individually when she walked in and bowed back at me when I bowed at her. She seemed so nice. I guess she deserved better conversation than Prince Corin seemed to be though.

As I expected the butler walked up to the table and said something about the prince having enjoyed his time with her and needing to head home. Justine’s face fell a little before she regained her smiling features and gave them a polite nod. The prince replied with an emotionless nod as he got up when she did, she gave him a bow before the woman she had brought with her and a couple of guards escorted her to the door. I looked at Olivia to see her brows raise as she looked at me. Usually when the prince got up to say goodbye to his date, he never sat back down as he would be leaving directly after walking her to the car they had waiting for her. This time he had stayed still as she left with one of his guards accompanying her and her guards outside before he sat back down. I watched his butler hunch over the table as if listening to the prince whisper when it was clear they were linking to each other because we could not hear a thing. Maybe it was a habit of his? Weird, because he really did not need to lean down. Was the prince planning to see two girls in one night? The butler stood up straight and turned to Olivia and me.

Olivia did not move and I held back a frown as I stepped forward instead of her, she knew we had to attend to customers with urgency, but I knew she was somewhat star-struck and terrified of walking up to the waiting Prince. She had spent the last few days before work at either of our homes talking non-stop about how beautiful Prince Corin was. Olivia tended to fall hard and fast into a crush, and I had been there to hear her fawn over them since we were seven, fourteen years ago. I tended to be much quieter about my crushes, yet somehow she knew when I liked someone, not too surprising because she knew basically everything about me and vice-versa.

I walked up to the table before stopping in front of the butler.

“How may I help you, Sir?” I tried to hide how intimidating I found the man towering in front of me.

“The prince wishes to have… dessert.” The man said the word slightly weirdly, it made me wonder if he was surprised about the request too because Prince Corin did not seem to like dessert much, he always left without having any. I did not dare make eye contact with the Prince and instead kept my eyes locked on the man in front of me. I had to tilt my chin up slightly to meet his gaze.

“Of course. Will he be choosing from the menu or could I recommend –”

“He will take your recommendation. Miss, please may we have two…” He was looking past me at Olivia before he looked back at me. Why wasn’t he looking at me? Was he speaking to Olivia? Did he want me to pour drinks while she got the dessert? The Prince’s glass was still partly filled with wine… Wait, he was waiting for me to finish his sentence.

“Uhm – Brownies.” I said looking over my shoulder at Olivia. She visibly furrowed her brows at me. I understood why, I had mentioned the messiest and most childish dessert on the menu. Gooey chocolate and caramel brownies that tasted amazing and would undoubtedly be sickening if more than one portion was eaten. What the heck was I thinking? I forgot who I was ordering for. It was my usual recommendation though – mostly because I usually served tables of families and the kids loved it. “I-I mean –” I tried to ask for the Tiramisu instead but the man behind me cut me off.

“We will have the brownies.” He confirmed.

I turned to face him trying to hide my uncertainty about his decision because based on the food that the prince had ordered previously, this was not going to suit his taste. I was afraid to argue with the man though. He looked very terrifying, especially from close by.

“We will get that for you.” I said.

“No, she will. The prince requests your company.” I was sure I heard him wrong, but the fact that even the kitchen seemed to go silent and I heard Olivia’s soft gasp confirmed what he had said. I felt my heart pick up in my chest as my hands tightened around the edge of the golden tray I was still holding.

“You may sit.” When Prince Corin spoke I felt my body go cold, yet somehow my palms began to sweat. Sit… he said sit… I could not sit with him… He was a prince… We were not even allowed at Alpha’s tables if you were not a Delta wolf – a wolf in a very high leadership position within a pack or an incredibly wealthy normal, also known as Gamma, wolf. Uncle Brandon was, but his money was not mine and I was certain it was not enough to earn him a seat at a Royal Alpha’s table.

“His highness request that you take a seat, Miss.” Oh. Right...

I swallowed nervously before I complied, because I did not feel like I could deny his request – I did not think I was allowed to. It was conflicting because I really did not want to. I kept my eyes on the table now, avoiding the Prince’s out of both respect and utter fear. He was incredibly intimidating, as were all the guards around us. They had to be immensely strong wolves, and he was as well, I could practically feel the power radiating off him which would be expected, him being the son of the most powerful Alpha wolf in our country – King Kenneth. I did not know how to address or act around Royal wolves, I did not know what was dangerous to say or do.

“I’m Prince Corin Alexander Lance.” He spoke in a modulated voice that made it sound like each word out of his mouth was carefully thought out, even though he had only said his name.

I looked up slowly as his hand entered my view. I traced the hand to a stretched-out arm and then finally met his eyes. His dark, almost black eyes were staring at me questioningly, they matched his voice looking quite serious and enigmatic. His hand. He wanted me to shake his hand.

“E-Eden… Slade…” My voice came out much softer than I thought it would, half getting stuck in the back of my throat. I lifted my hand to meet his hesitating before I decided to just get it over with. I did not even know what this was about but I was sickly afraid. Had I done something wrong to warrant their attention? Did I serve them rudely? I could not have. I was very careful, I was always friendly to customers. Was I going to be punished?

I took his hand, it was cold around mine, but that was not what made my breath catch in my chest and my heart stop. I felt my mouth gape open as a soft gasp released from my throat when I felt a second of pure electricity before I tried to pull my hand back instinctively but his larger hand clutched around mine. I looked up from our hands to see him staring our hands. He narrowed his eyes, they looked confused but on-edge and suspicious.

“What was that? Are you a witch? What did you just do to me?” He asked.

I felt my heart racing in my chest, it made my head feel light because it had literally just gone from being completely still to beating like it was going to burst from my chest. I felt nervous butterflies cramming my stomach as restlessness filled me from my wolf as well as both panic and excitement, all of it mixing with my own immediate fear.

“No – no, I’m a – I’m a wolf.” I said. “I – I didn’t – didn’t do that, I-I didn’t do anything.” I added in a stutter. I knew what it meant, but it could not be happening. Please, no. This can’t be happening. Not now, not him. It can’t be him.

“Then what was that?” He asked looking at me, still not letting me pull my hand back.

“What was what?” His butler spoke.

“The… it felt like electricity, the...” He lifted his fingers to his right temple shutting his eyes tightly, “My wolf is so loud but I-I cannot understand him. What are you?” Did he just stutter? Wait… he didn’t realise… He could not possibly not know what this meant, could he?

“Electricity?” I was not going to explain it but the butler’s shock mixed with Brandon and Olivia’s was enough to kill any hope I had of lying to the prince about my hair being static.

“Yes.” The prince looked at his butler, “What was it?” he asked.

“She…” The butler looked at me but he did not finish.

‘Is he your mate?’ I heard my Uncle’s shocked voice in my mind.

“Mate?” Corin had been listening in on our link and heard Brandon’s question. He finally seemed to get it as his jaw dropped open. I looked at our hands considering pulling it from his again but I did not want to anger him. Wait, why did he not know what the electricity meant? I shifted a little feeling my wolf itch to make us shift. I needed to get away from him, she was too excited to have found him for me to keep controlling right now. I did not want to destroy any of the plates or tables or look like a possible threat by shifting. “Calm down.” The restlessness of my wolf instantly vanished with his command and I looked at him half grateful half wondering if he actually felt her like people said mates felt each other’s wolves. Did it feel like he was about to be forced into shifting as well?

I felt his grip on my hand loosen and immediately pulled my hand back to put it on my lap where it clutched the serving tray once again, but this time tight enough to bend it slightly until I realised I was ruining the tray. I looked back at Prince Corin to find him staring at me. I suddenly felt a wave of sadness rush over me as I realised what this meant.

If Prince Corin was my mate… and no prince had ever married his mate… This was not going to end well for me… He was going to reject me… but why did it seem like he did not even know what a mate was? That was impossible, he was a werewolf.

“Your highness, our time has run out. We must return to the palace.” The butler spoke.

“You’ll come with us then.”

“What?” My shocked voice was laced with my Uncle’s.

“You’ll come with us.” The prince repeated. “My wolf demands it.” He added. I looked over at Brandon feeling helpless because half of me, that had been instantly affected by the mate bond we had just discovered, wanted so badly to go with him – in fact, the thought of him leaving for even a second seemed horrifying – and the other part knew that I had no idea who he was and there was no way we were going to be together. Usually I would have told a guy to just leave me alone, but he was my mate, an Alpha… and the fricking Prince, I could not tell him off.

“Your Highness, she cannot.” Brandon spoke up. He was by my side in a second having used his werewolf speed to get to the table. “You cannot take her.”

“Why not?” The prince replied looking at my uncle.

“Your highness, we need to leave.” One of the guards spoke. They all looked fidgety. I watched as Corin’s eyes moved to him and then back to me before he raised his hand. The look of shock on his face was gone, replaced by his emotionlessness again. I looked at the hand he held out to me and had to bite back a smile before I felt a heavy sadness fill my chest. I reached out and took his hand, not half as afraid of it as I was the first time. He seemed to feel it and even though his hand was still as cold as before, it felt more relaxed.

That was until his hand tightened around mine and he leaned over the table as he got up, making me instinctively lean back in my seat until my back was pressed against the back.

His eyes stared at me intensely as he studied my face before they met mine again.

‘I’ll find you, Eden.’ He linked to me before he stood up. “We will take our leave.” He nodded to Brandon who gave a bow back before they stared at each other for a second, it did not look like they were linking.

“Um… the – your dessert.” Olivia’s voice made me turn.

“Oh, thank you, Miss. We’ll have it to go.” The butler spoke. Olivia nodded and raced back to the kitchen with the dessert she held. The restaurant was awkwardly silent until she came back and handed the man two boxes. He placed one on the table in front of me. He gave my uncle a nod before they began leaving.

The guards leaving seemed to make Prince Corin follow their lead and I could feel his presence moving away with every step he took, it made slight anxiety fill my chest watching my mate move away from me. He walked out without looking back at me but my eyes followed along the wall because I could tell exactly where he was outside.

Right. Finding me would not be that hard.

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