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I wait a moment, watching them. I try to leave my feelings out of my inspection. Their faces convey their own pain.
I remember all the fun we had as boys. Our close bond was never tested until later in life. We loved to fish and would take every opportunity to cast a line. We would camp regularly. Life was filled with possibilities at that time and we swore we would always be together.
I open my door and step out. I pull my hat down further and pop a toothpick in my mouth as I move closer.
“Brother, it’s good to see you walking,” Draden says.
“You look better,” Brae says.
“I am better,” I mutter. “I’m mated.”
“She completed it?” Draden asks.
I nod and stop in front of them.
“You want to sit?” Brae asks, motioning to the empty chair between them as if they were just waiting for me.
“I suppose.” I take the offer.
We all sit and the quiet that descends is uncomfortable. I fiddle with the brim of my hat and lounge back in the chair, stretching out my legs.
Staring at the fire and not at their faces, I blurt, “Are we going to do this shit or just sit here all night?”Draden leans forward,his elbows on his knees and joins me in my study of the fire. “I’m trying to decide where to start.”
“How about the night I was kicked out? When both of you were on a trip. What happened when you got home?” I ask harshly.
Brae clears his throat. “We got back two weeks later, having no idea what had happened. Dad told us that you ran off with Tiffany.”
I straighten sharply. “He what?” I growl.
“He said that you found out she was your mate,” Draden explains. “He said it suddenly hit you and you left everything behind and left with her. He didn’t know where you went.”
“What the fuck? I thought Tiffany was dead. Didn’t he tell you? Mom?”
“We know that now. Logan informed us what happened,” Brae says softly.
“As far as we knew then, you found your mate and left us,” Draden adds.
“Why would you believe that? You knew that she was stalking me.”
“Dad showed us notes,” Brae says.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I snarl, and they look at each other and then back at me.
“He had notes that you had written to her, and her to you. He said in your rush, you forgot them. Tiffany expressed her love and devotion to you. You reciprocated. There were stories of the time you spent together. Some were explicit. There were details of your plans to run away together. In some you wrote about the burdens of the prospect of being the next Alpha and that you didn’t want it.” Draden clasps his hands. “We knew that you didn’t want it. We knew that you were fighting the expectations Dad had for you.”
“Elijah, we remembered all the nights we spent talking with you, all your fears about taking over,” Brae continues.
“How?” I ask weakly.
“He must have written them himself, or Tiffany had planned things more than she admitted,” Draden guessed.
“Why? I don’t understand why he would go so far.”My dad must have hated me that much.
“You know he was all about appearances. We knew, as your brothers, what his pressure did to you. It wasn’t a stretch to us, that you would find a way out.” Brae leans toward me. “We thought you found a way out,” he says.
“I didn’t want her. She wasn’t my mate. Don’t you think I would have found you to tell you that I had a mate?”
“We assumed you would eventually. We know how much a mate consumes you. We waited for you to call us. To reach out,” Draden says.
