The Royal Brothers' Mate

Chapter 3

Chapter 3.

*****

“Alright, you can have this room, mine is right across the hall so if you need me, I am right there.” Corin had opened a door to a room we had yet to enter and was pointing at another a few paces down the long hallway.

‘Can I go home, please?’ I linked to him instead of saying it out loud because Edwin was still following us along with a couple of guards. Did they think I was going to attack Corin or something? Even if I planned to, he was obviously much stronger than I was so it would be stupid because I would lose. Badly. He was one of the strongest two people in our country – well, three. Rowan had to be just as strong. Royal power always outweighed even the strongest normal Alphas.

Corin’s face remained straight, but I felt a little bit of hurt from his chest making me regret even asking. I tried to shove the feeling away, I could not and I felt guilty. Our mate bond was too strong to ignore his feelings. It made no sense that it was this strong when I could not even feel his pull before we met.

‘No… Eden. You cannot.’ He linked back to me as he looked into my eyes, I averted mine to the ground.

After meeting Rowan downstairs, Corin had ended the conversation where it was and pulled me upstairs. Rowan had not followed, I was grateful because I was still utterly confused about how I could possibly feel the same pull I felt towards Corin connecting me to Rowan as well. It’s impossible to have more than one mate, all of this was so confusing.

“Please leave us.” Corin spoke, his back to the guards. Edwin and the guards left immediately without question. “Your room is –”

He stopped speaking as my phone cut him off and looked down.

“I – I’m sorry.” It felt wrong not to apologize to an Alpha Prince for my phone interrupting him.

I reached for it to silence it but I stopped seeing my Uncle’s name on the screen. I looked at Corin wondering if I was allowed to answer it. I felt like I needed to tip toe around him, or something would happen to me. Bad things usually happened to people who upset royalty… He grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the room he had told me to use, shutting the door behind us before motioning to my phone.

“You may answer.” He said.

I did and I stepped slightly back when I realised how close he was standing to me before I brought the phone to my ear.

“Uncle Bran –”

“Where are you?! Lee called and said the prince came to our house and took you. I knew something would happen, I should just have let Warren handle the restaurant – not like he would need to because I knew there would be no meeting here tonight. Are you okay? Did he hurt you? Where are you –?” I looked at Corin to see him staring at me. His non-changing dark-eyed gaze made me nervous because I could not tell what he was thinking. I felt the need to cut my Uncle off before he said anything insulting about the Prince.

“I’m okay.” He stopped taking immediately, “I… I’m at the palace.” I mumbled looking down.

“The palace… Is he keeping you there?”

I did not want to look up to question Corin about it because I already knew the answer and I did not want to say it.

“Yes, she is my mate.” Corin responded in his normal, cold tone. I looked up at him.

“Can…” I cleared my throat cautiously, “Can I see them?” I asked carefully.

“See them?” He asked.

“So they know where I am.” I said. “I mean… what it looks like, so they know I’m…okay.”

“If you must.” He replied before sighing, “You may come to the palace for breakfast tomorrow morning… my parents should be okay with it… Sir.” He said. I watched him surprised as he furrowed his brows. ‘Is Sir wrong?’ I bit my lip as I smiled.

“Breakfast at six. We’ll be there… Take care of her… Prince.” I felt my face burn slightly at Brandon’s words.

“Of course, Sir.”

“Love you, Eden. Call if you need us, okay?”

“Yes, Uncle Brandon. Love you too.” I smiled before I hung up.

“Uncle?” Corin asked making me look back at him as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

“Um… Yeah – Yes. My dad – My father –”

“Speak as you normally would.” He cut me off with a chuckle. I wanted to hide my face because of my embarrassment but I just nodded.

“Uh – My dad passed away a long time ago, so my Uncle Brandon raised me, kind of.” I said. Brandon never had any of his own kids, so he was thrown into the deep end when my parents died – having to suddenly learn how to take care of a toddler – he babysat me before that but when I was older he insisted babysitting and adopting were two utterly different things.

“So… it will be like meeting your father.” He said.

“Kind of, except you’ve already met him and because of yesterday, he really doesn’t like you –” My eyes widened at having told him that, “I mean –” I stopped. s**t.

“Well, I did basically kidnap his niece after several dates with other women so yes, I think I understand.” He said plainly. I frowned. He seemed nice to an extent, well, reasonable. At my house he had been so intimidating and commanding. “You would not have come with me if I did not command it, Eden… and I doubt I would have survived another night away from you.” He said.

“Ha… Please don’t link to me without warning.” I said. You could usually block people from your mind when you did not want them linking to you. It was harder with Alphas, but still possible… hopefully.

“I guess I could ask that that is mutual.” He said. “You just ignored my heartfelt mention of survival and I never say things like that, it was embarrassing to say, Eden.” I laughed at his honesty.

He was right though. Even with being mated to him, after what Brandon had told me, I had no intention of following him to the palace. I looked around me. The room was huge. Like my room combined with the living room at our house. Was this much space necessary? I looked back at Corin and he looked away immediately like he was caught doing something he was not supposed to.

“My Uncle… Brandon said… Royals don’t end up with their mates.” I said drawing his eyes back to me. He squinted his eyes up at me with a small smile.

“That’s true, but Royals don’t usually find their mates. I feel drawn to you, though. I haven’t felt attached in this way to anyone before you, we have no intention of parting with you.” The words made my stomach flutter with butterflies and got my wolf excited, while still making me quite anxious.

“We?” I asked remembering Rowan. Corin’s eyes narrowed into angry slits making his cold features look terrifyingly threatening.

“I.” He muttered.

I turned to the door feeling Rowan before he was close enough to knock on the door. Corin must have heard his brother too, because he did not say anything until the knock sounded and Rowan did not wait for an answer before he pushed the door open.

He smiled as his eyes met mine and I felt myself give a nervously polite smile back. I could instantly tell how different the brothers were.

‘Cute.’ I felt my face heat as he linked to me and he chuckled before I turned to Corin feeling a sudden surge of his anger. I frowned realising it was going to be hard to tell whose emotions I was feeling when I was not in a room with both of them at the same time.

Mates could feel each other’s emotions and physical sensations, it was so that you could protect your mate or sense their distress if need be. Feeling both of theirs was going to drive me crazy.

What if they are not my mates?

I stood straighter at the thought. Right, being mated to two people was impossible, maybe this was just a slight surge in my senses because I was close to finding my mate. That does not explain the sensations every time Corin touched me... There has to be some explanation. If I could figure out why they would not be mated to me, this whole Royal mate crisis would disappear.

“It would but you are not going to be that lucky, Eden, because even your wolf knows I am your mate.” Corin snapped me from my thoughts again.

“Hey! I just said –” I cut myself off as I realised I had just practically yelled at the Alpha Prince, “I… I just asked if you would not do that… Your Highness.” He smirked and it made me slightly angry but he raised his hand.

“Okay, but please do not call me that, you are my mate.” He said, it was immediately followed by a low growl from behind me that made me tense up. I looked over my shoulder at Rowan and gasped slightly seeing that his light brown eyes had turned to a solid, almost glowing red. He felt angry now, and I felt my wolf whimper with fear at his sudden rise in power, his wolf was definitely fighting to control them. “Rowan, do not shift.” The sound of Corin’s voice only seemed to make Rowan’s wolf angrier and I stepped back slightly as he began to shift, tearing out of his clothing as his body changed form while cracks from breaking bones echoed through the room.

I stumbled back as Corin grabbed my wrist, pulling me behind him as he shoved in front of me so he was between his brother and I. I guessed he intended on fighting his brother because I could feel his wolf’s energy surge like Rowan’s had right before he shifted so I shoved Corin out of the way and knelt down in front of Rowan’s massive grey, fiery-eyed wolf. I assumed that because I was his mate, I would be able to calm him down. If I was wrong, he would probably maul me to death to fight his brother – maybe because of sheer pride if I was not his mate because then he would not have a reason to fight him, right?

“Calm down.” I said softly as I lifted my hand to touch the back of his ear gently. I felt myself smile as the wolf’s eyes immediately faded to a calm brown that resembled Rowan’s eyes.

“Get away from him.” Corin clearly sounded jealous and it made Rowan’s eyes flicker back to red as he growled past me.

“Please stop.” I said suddenly feeling terrified as I sat back on the carpet away from both of them and pushed myself up against the bed.

I did not know if it was the sudden realisation that they were both actually my mates, and that they were incredibly powerful and maybe ‘calm down’ would not work the next time they got jealous or protective or the being with a couple of princes that I could be killed for even being too close to while being away from Uncle Brandon and Liana when I desperately needed to talk to them about all of this that just overwhelmed me with fear and panic. I lifted my knees to my chest as I struggled to breathe, my eyes burning because of my lack of oxygen and felt my own wolf stir to make us shift because she sensed the danger in my panicked state.

“Eden –” Corin knelt in front of me and lifted his hands to cup my cheeks.

“Are you okay? It’s okay.” Rowan was beside Corin in a second, slightly shoving his brother aside as he knelt.

“Calm down.” My panic disappeared as soon as Corin commanded and it was replaced by a feeling of heaviness that told me I should be worried about something, but I could not be worried about it.

“I-I wanna go home.” I said.

“No.” The prince’s voices were laced together as they responded in stern unison.

“Eden… It’s going to be alright. That won’t happen again.” Corin glanced at Rowan.

“Yes, we will be civil.” Rowan stated.

“I wanna be alone.” If I had to choose something other than going home. They both looked hurt and I pushed Corin’s hands from my face as I felt tears well up in my eyes. The side-effect of not being able to be anxious was just being really scared without freaking out about it and I wanted to cry. He should have just let me panic instead of forcing me to calm down.

“Eden –” Rowan tried again.

“Please leave me alone!” I cut him off with a yell. The brothers exchanged glances and that was when I noticed Rowan and immediately covered my eyes before they could see anything past the top of his bare pecks. “Put clothes on!”

“Oh – come on, Rowan!” I heard Corin scold.

“What? I shifted. Don’t tell me you’ve never seen anyone naked, you’re a werewolf, I know you see men this way all the time.”

“So what? Stop trying to seduce her.”

“I am not even trying… Is it working though, Eden?”

I gave a chocked laugh that only succeeded in pushing the tears from my eyes.

“s**t –” Rowan began making my eyes widen as I dropped my hands. Princes can speak like that?

“You cannot speak that way, Rowan.” Corin said. Oh, princes can’t speak like that.

“No, you cannot.” Rowan looked at his brother.

“Bullshit, you’re still a f*****g prince even if no one knows you are.” Corin responded.

“Shut up, what if father hears you?!”

“Oh, but it’s okay if he hears you? Hypocrite. He’s not even here.”

“I’m not pre-king, you idiot.”

“What does pre-king even mean? I am older than you are, stop being disrespectful –”

“Older by like fifteen fricking minutes.” Rowan rolled his eyes.

“Do not –”

I doubled over laughing, this time there were no tears, just me laughing at them. They suddenly seemed completely normal and it almost made me forget who they were or where I was. When I gathered myself I looked up and saw both of them smiling at me.

“You’re still naked.” I mumbled to Rowan, there were dark, almost black, natural tattoo markings that indicated his ranking just under his left peck and I fought to keep my eyes from trying to study them and focused on anything above his neck.

“Oh, right. You sure you don’t want to look a little longer?” He smirked and I felt my heart pick up as my face burnt. I bit my lip hearing Corin let out a shaky, restrained breath as if he was trying to control himself. Rowan looked at his brother. “Oh, right. Close your eyes before you can’t control them, Eden.” I glared at Rowan who just smirked back at me, but listened to him and shut my eyes. I heard him leave quickly before I opened my eyes.

Corin was staring at intensely.

‘You’re mine… mine.’ he linked to me making me raise my brows before he looked at his watch. “Are you hungry?”

Nachos… I wanted the nachos we had made at home, thinking about food made me think about Liana and I felt my mood drop.

“It’s late...” I mumbled.

“Right.” He said but he did not move.

“You’re not sleeping in here.” I said.

“Are you telling me what to do?” He asked. He looked intimidating, but his face seemed to have that state naturally.

“I’m your mate.” It seemed to be the best thing to say to excuse bossing people around and forcing them to do stuff from what I’ve seen from him.

“What?” He asked. I frowned at him and he chuckled making my heart race for absolutely no reason other than mate bonds were stupid and turned you into a giddy teenager with a crush on steroids and he actually had a really nice laugh. “Want to tell Rowan that?” He asked.

“Go. Corin.” I said.

His smile disappeared and I felt almost sad about it as he stood up and held his hands out to me once he was towering above me. I hesitated for a second before I reached up and took hold of his hands. He pulled me off the ground easily, a little too easily because I ended up stumbling due to the amount of force he used and bumped right into him. I immediately stepped back.

“Sorry.” I said quickly.

“No, I am. I should not have –”

“Hey, Eden. Did you bring any of your clothes?” I looked past Corin as Rowan spoke, he held what looked like clothing in his arms. He had changed into silky looking pyjamas.

“No…” I glanced at Corin and he looked guilty.

“Oh great, you can wear some of mine.” Rowan grinned.

“No, we will just have someone drive out –”

“It’s almost eleven at night, it’ll be four by the time they get back, Corin. I’m not marking her, back off.”

“You back off, she can wear my –”

“Thank you.” I cut Corin off seeing that this was going to escalate into another fight, not as funny as the last one was. I took the clothing from Rowan and avoided looking back at Corin because I could feel his glare. I bit my lip holding the clothing. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Eden.” Rowan smiled at me.

“Night.” I stopped breathing when Rowan leaned forward quickly and planted a soft kiss on my cheek, he lingered for a second before he pulled back and I felt my heart basically explode. He smiled and I could feel his happiness as well as Corin’s seething annoyance.

“Goodnight.” Corin grabbed Rowan’s arm and began dragging him towards the door before he stopped and turned back to me. ‘Stay in here, okay?’ He linked to me, I smiled at the fact that it was not a command and gave a small nod.

“What did you say to her? What did he say to you –?” I did not get a chance to reply to Rowan because his brother had dragged him out of the room and shut the door behind them.

I bit my lip as I sat on the edge of the bed holding the silky men’s pyjamas Rowan had given to me. I sighed. I just have to make it to tomorrow morning, then I would see my Uncle and Aunt. I figured the king and queen were not at the palace and I dreaded meeting them, I did not even want to think about it. I wanted Brandon to be able to convince the Princes that there was no way I was going to be with either one of them, like he had said, royals don’t end up with their mates… but now that I had spent just a couple of hours near them… The thought of being rejected hurt so so much already.

I swallowed shaking the thoughts from my mind.

Just get some sleep, Eden… You’ll figure it out in the morning.

*****