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“If it’s bothering you that much, let’s return,” I whisper as I stroke her bicep, trying to settle her nerves. A slow, understanding smile escapes amid the maelstrom of what appears to be sadness coming from her. She reaches both hands out to me and gets a wicked gleam in her eye. The next thing I know, we’re whipping through the shadows again, only to emerge in the room off to the side of the main dining hall. Everyone’s voices flitter to us through the shadows and she raises a finger to her lips, silencing me. We stop and listen to the others as they carry on about their conversations. The one thing that aggravates me is my brother’s disdain, because she spoke to me instead of him. He’s rambling on about how he’s the one that she was there for. How he’s the one that drew her to our kingdom. That may be the truth, but at this point, she is uninterested in him and his malarkey. The stance he took when she arrived and how demanding and demeaning he was toward everybody else around her is what made her change her mind and to pursue me.
Bella grabs my hand and walks me back into the dining hall. The queen’s stance that she had earlier has returned. Her head is held high, and her shoulders are pushed back. Every movement she makes is fluid and regal. There’s not an ounce of the fun woman that she was earlier when we were on the beach. She seemed slightly detached and is constantly scanning the room. I’m not sure if she’s looking for threats or just watching to see everyone’s reactions. Either way, I can tell that my future mate is uncomfortable. It won’t be a true mating for us, not like it would probably be with my brother. But she’s making this decision based on what her mind and heart agree on.
“He is not your true mate,” Callan screams, standing up, slapping his hands down on the tabletop, glaring at Bella.
The power of his wolf shines through his eyes, almost illuminating the tabletop. I can watch the hair ripple up and down my brother’s arms as he stares at her. Bella’s left eye ticks as I watch her wolf’s obsidian fur race up and down her bare arm in agitation. Her eyes slowly take on their haunted glow. The green soon encompasses the table and then fully illuminates the room. Watching her, she smiles and then leans on Hollis’ shoulders, still staring at my brother. “That may be true,” she says calmly as she raises her hand and watches her nails turn into talons. She flexes her fingers several times just before the talons become nails again. “But this is my choice,” Bella says as she stands up and walks around the table. She moves to stand beside my father and rests a hand on his shoulder.
“More than once, a political marriage has worked out well, and has produced children.” She enunciates her words, staring at my brother now. She knows my parents were a political marriage and that they’re not true or fated mates. As she slowly rounds the table and is on the same side as my brother. He growls, and his teeth elongate, staring at her.
I prepare to move to intercept, but Kaedyn grabs my wrist and shakes his head no. “It’s best not to interfere,” he says as a warning.
Before anyone can move, Bella has my brother’s throat in her hands. Her other hand comes up, talons glistening in the light bathed in the green glow of her eyes. “You don’t own me,” she says clearly, and how she says those words makes me sing the song in my head. “You have no providence over anything I say or do. You don’t own me. And you will not tell me who to choose.” As she says the word choose, I watch her canines descend. And she’s practically growling out the last word. My brother pales staring down at her and I’m not sure. what he sees in those fathomless green orbs as she stares up at him.
Her right hand comes up quickly and cracks him in the jaw, knocking him out cold. He falls like a bag of potatoes to the floor with a loud thud. Bella calmly walks back around the table and takes her seat between Hollis and Kaedyn, as if nothing ever happened. She calms down instantly as she reaches out and touches both of her mates. It’s moments like this that I guess my father’s warning of never piss off a she-wolf. It’s now that I see the deadly reality of that. Even though most times females are smaller. Bella has us outclassed in size and strength one hundred-fold. I can only hope the rest of the night goes well and without a hitch.
Chapter26
Kaedyn
WatchingBella go toe to toe with Callan was quite enlightening. She not only knocked him down a peg or two. But she made it 100 percent clear she knows about their parents and their arrangement. She stops and stares at him for several seconds and then returns to my side and kisses my cheek. One servant assists Callan back to his feet, and he stares at Bella with nothing short of hatred in his gaze. She takes mine and Hollis’ hands and looks back and forth between Orwell and Callan. “I know I will not have a true mate out of this pack. But from what I’ve seen, the only wolf here that I feel is worthy for me to take as a mate would be Orwell.” The minute the name slips from her lips, Callan goes on a tirade raging about how Orwell gets everything. How he ends up with seconds and how he has to fight for everything that he has.
The deep, reverberating growl that escapes from Bella is just as terrifying as I remember it in the dark forest of my kingdom. I remember that growl well from the night that she saved me. It’s a sound that you’ll never forget in all of your days after you’ve heard it once. It’s a sound that you would believe that the devil himself has risen from the bowels of hell and is walking upon the earth again. The tone itself is deep, haunting, and powerful. It’s as frightening as the glow of her eyes. You know, with how she’s staring, she is barely holding on to any semblance of control. I’m afraid at any moment that any control she has is going to slip.
She’s an alpha in every way, shape and form of the word. It’s not heard of for a female to be as powerful as she is. As she stares down Callan, he eventually gets the point and shuts up. I watch as their parents stare almost in horror as Bella inches closer to their golden child. Eventually the words stop falling from his lips and he stares at her wide eyed, realizing now that he has completely overstepped his bounds and is pushing on the last threads of her sanity.
Within a matter of seconds, Bella is back in front of him again. Her eyes still glowing brilliantly in the muted light of the candles on the tabletop. She doesn’t utter a word and just the stare alone is enough to silence the room. Hollis gets brave and moves to stand beside her. Gently taking her under her arm and guiding her away from him again. I watch as he escorts her out onto the back porch. They stand there in the moonlight, talking adamantly with each other. I can’t hear what they’re discussing from in here, but I can only assume it’s him trying to calm her.
Several moments passed before I excuse myself from the dinner table and move out to stand on the back patio with them. He has her in his embrace. Her head is resting on his chest as they look out over the ocean. No words are being exchanged between the two of them as they stare out over the moon, dancing upon the water. Its pale silhouette dances with each individual wave. Moving and reshaping itself each time a fresh wave comes. There’s a beauty in the motion with the water and the reflection of the moon’s light. Its slow rhythmic motion is soothing all by itself. I move forward and gently rest my hand on Hollis’ shoulder and then move to come to stand behind Bella, pressing my chest into her back. She sighs softly, feeling both of us surround her. It’s a moment like this that I feel all the torment and the maelstrom of emotions that seem to rip through her. That she needs both of us to be stable for her.
It’s now that I get the brilliant idea to take our mate back upstairs and take care of her. Nibbling along the back of Bella’s neck, up into her hairline and over to the shell of her ear. I nibble softly, lightly nipping at her flesh. “Baby, won’t you take us upstairs?” I whisper against her ear, and I feel her body shiver in anticipation.
She takes a good grip of me and Hollis and moves us through the shadows, sensing where our belongings are. The next thing I know, we arrive in the room, and everything seems in order. The sheets slowly slide down the bed at Bella’s command. Her eyes glow intensely as things organize within the room to suit her desires. I’ve not seen her use her powers to this level and Hollis is just as impressed as I am watching everything as it moves. The room is dimly lit by the light of the moon. And as the last of everything moves into place. She snaps her finger, and mine and Hollis’s clothing is ripped off us, shredded by her desires. Looking down, I can’t help but stifle a laugh and a smile. “Well, now that you’ve got me naked, what do you plan to do with me?”
A wicked grin crosses her sanguine lips as she walks over to Hollis and pushes him down on the bed and climbs up to straddle him. By her scent, I know that her desire is ramped up. She nibbles at Hollis and looks back over her shoulder at me, motions with her head. Apparently, she wants us both at the same time and how could I possibly say no? Before climbing onto the bed; I go to the toiletry bag on the table beside it and grab ahold of the tube of lube and start rubbing it between my hands to warm it gently. Bella’s already slowly sliding up and down Hollis’s length, keeping herself just at the edge of orgasm. His hands palm her hips and ass, slowly spreading the cheeks to me as I climb up onto the bed. I squirt some of the lube onto my fingers and rub it between them, warming it up even more. Gently, I massage the rosette, getting the muscle to loosen up. Bella pauses in her movement at the first feel of intrusion. The minute my finger pops through that ring of muscle, she moans deeply and by her reaction I can tell this isn’t the first time that she’s done this. My girl’s been a naughty girl in her past life. I keep working the muscle as my free hand works the lube up and down my shaft.
I’m dripping with anticipation as I slowly withdraw my finger and line my phallus up with her entrance. Over Bella’s shoulder, I give Hollis a nod and he sinks balls deep within our girl and holds her still. Giving me time to slowly rock my way into her. With every slow stroke, I inch deeper into her until I’m fully seated. She’s so tight and so full my balls ache and pull up tight into my body. To be perfectly honest, I realize I’m not gonna last long. Hollis and I find our rhythm one withdrawing, while the other one stays seated, alternating slowly, picking up pace.
Bella is a writhing mess between us until she screams out as her orgasm grips her. Her muscles milk our lengths in tandem. One by one, we go over the edge with her. Our knots seating deep within her, locking us both in place. Her spasms causing us to jerk our hips in time with the milking. Several minutes pass and finally her orgasm slowly abates and allows us to calm down enough for our knots to slowly deflate and allow us to slip free of her. We remain curled around Bella, each of us stroking her sides and whatever part of her body we can reach. Both of us offering her comfort.
It’s interesting to be here now with a man that I’ve considered one of my good friends over the last dozen years. Both of us sharing a mate and intimate times with her. It’s not abnormal for young wolves in our respective packs to share a female. But to actually be part of a mate bond like that, it’s truly rare and abnormal. We make it a point to keep Bella as comfortable as possible as she slowly drifts off to sleep. Knowing the fact that we are here with her. Keeping her safe between the two of us.
The idea of having to travel pack to pack as she assembles her little family in some sense throws me off and makes me uneasy. But in another sense, I know it needs to be done. In order to keep any sense of peace within the kingdoms. I’m glad that it was Hollis that she picked from the earth pack. He is one of the easier guys I know and I get along with him well. As for the others, I can only suspect that Bella choosing Orwell over his brother has become a big to do. I honestly don’t understand what the big deal is. She is picking a mate from the Water Pack like she’s supposed to. I honestly don’t believe that there should be a difference between brothers as long as she chooses one of them. I know Callan thought it was going to be him.
But I believe his actions spoke louder than words, and Bella did not appreciate the way he was acting around her. You can only do so much before you turn your own mate against you. Bella admitted it herself that neither of the males in the Water Kingdom is her true mate. They’re probably compatible mates and nothing more. Though the chances of producing an heir with a compatible mate are much lower than a true mate. I guess it’s a bitter pill for Callan to swallow. That, and that she rejected him, his brother Orwell would be the one to have the chance to produce offspring.
When we’re sure that Bella is completely asleep. We gently slip free of her warm, welcoming depths and go about grabbing washcloths and towels to take care of our mate. We clean her most intimate parts and pat them dry gently, before pulling what I have to say is the softest blanket I’ve ever felt in my entire life up and around her. Hollis remains with her as I go through the castle to explore. Looking for food to bring back to her, knowing full well she will be hungry when she wakes up like she usually is. I make it down to the kitchen and request several of Bella’s favorite foods and then swiftly return to the suite. Upon returning, Bella is shifted to that of her wolf and curled up in a ball in the center of the bed.
Arcing a brow, I looked curiously at Hollis and he just shrugs. “I really don’t know, man. It wasn’t long after you left the room; she shifted. There’s no danger. I guess that she just doesn’t trust somebody here.” I stand there, puzzled, pondering what Hollis just told me, and I can only suspect that she doesn’t trust Callan. Something in how he’s handled things around her must have set her wolf on edge and now because of it; she’s sleeping in wolf form. I can only assume that with tomorrow’s trials quickly approaching us, that she’ll only be more on edge until they’re over and a definitive winner is chosen. Now that she’s gone after the first-born, the trials are no longer a moot point. I guess I’ll have to wait and see what tomorrow brings, but for now, the only thing I am most concerned about is keeping my mate comfortable and protect her while she sleeps.
Chapter27
Hollis
Before the trials begin,we take a small tour of the shops in the area. A sculptor named Sebastian catches Bella’s eye. She hangs on his every word and seems drawn to him from the moment we enter the shop. If she wasn’t already set on Orwell, I would have questioned if this artisan was her true mate.
Returning to the castle grounds, we come face to face with lines of tables and puzzles. Of all the crazy things that I’ve seen in different trials, this one takes the cake. You would think that we were at some prestigious academy. Whereas entrance to the Academy was that you are required to have an IQ of over 140 and that you could solve every puzzle known to wolf and man. We explore the field filled with all the different levels of puzzles in the arena, each station having a different puzzle with a different difficulty. Bella walks between all of them, looking over each, noting that there are three different styles of puzzles.
The first one appears to be a three-dimensional puzzle. There’s a picture and a bunch of pieces laid out on the table and Bella looks that one over. There are several choices of three-dimensional puzzles that need to be built. And of course, my mate takes the most difficult one possible. We’re not allowed to stand anywhere near her once she takes a table, and when she does, the official comes over and sets the timer next to the puzzle.
