Page 20 of Royal Mate

20

A ddan, Two Days Later

The royal palace loomed ahead, a glimmering fortress of crystal and gold against the dawn. I sat rigid in the transport, my mind a tempest as the vehicle glided silently toward the ceremonial entrance. My parents rode in the vehicle ahead. A contingent of guards in the one behind. My sisters sat on either side of me, their presence grounding yet irritating, as Sorcha hummed some cheerful tune under her breath.

“Addan, your jaw is so tight I’m afraid it might snap,” Catriona stated from my left. Her tone, as always, was sharp. She cared. A lot. Didn’t bother to pretend otherwise.

“I’m fine,” I replied curtly.

“You don’t look fine,” Sorcha chimed in on my right, her tone lighter, teasing. “You’re thinking about her, aren’t you? About Princess Paige?”

Her name shot through me like a lance. Of course I was thinking about Paige. She was all I could imagine. With the information Commander Zeus had shared, I thought about her even more. About how she’d barely escaped the planet. How she’d been close to being murdered on Earth as an infant. Then left to fend for herself for the next twenty-five years. And miraculously–and only by mistake–transported to Insuri to be swept up into a betrothal she didn’t want.

To that wedding that would keep her from me forever.

Yeah, I thought of her.

I turned my head sharply toward the window. “She’s marrying Prince Martainn,” I said bitterly. “It’s my job to keep her safe. Find out who killed her mother. What I feel doesn’t matter.”

“That’s not true, and you know it,” Catriona said, her piercing gaze locked on me. When she didn’t look away, I flicked my gaze to hers. “You’ve been brooding, Addan, and don’t think we haven’t noticed. This isn’t like you.”

To pine for a female? I had never once done so.

“It’s not just her,” I said through clenched teeth, the words spilling out before I could stop them. “I’ve come upon obstacles in the investigation into Queen Madallaine’s death. Commander Zeus hasn’t uncovered anything new, and it’s driving me insane.” I felt like coming out of my skin, so I rolled my neck around in a circle to try to ease some of the tension. It didn’t work. “Someone betrayed Paige’s mother—someone on the inside—and I can’t prove it. There are no clear leads, no names. I’m hunting shadows.”

“And that bothers you why?” Sorcha asked, though her tone wasn’t mocking this time. “Because you want to avenge her or–”

“Of course!” I snapped.

She was undeterred. “–or because it’s a way to stay connected to Paige?”

My silence was answer enough. The way I opened and closed my fists in my lap was also a sign. And the way I ground my teeth together.

Sorcha tilted her head, her playful demeanor softening. “You care about her, Addan. We can all see it.”

Catriona leaned forward, her expression serious. “Do you have a plan in place to protect her? I assume you didn’t bring the extra guards for nothing.”

I nodded stiffly. My personal security detail from home—veterans I trusted with my life—followed discreetly in a separate transport. I’d arranged for them to be stationed strategically around the palace, disguised as visiting nobles’ guards. If an attack happened, they’d act immediately. I’d even gone so far as to arrange for an extraction route through one of the palace’s service corridors.

I could leave nothing to chance, not even at Queen’s Castle where she should be completely safe since it was her palace.

If it came to doing something extreme, I’d get Paige out, whether she liked it or not. I’d toss her over my shoulder and carry her away. Never look back.

“I’m not leaving anything to chance,” I said. “If there’s trouble, we’re getting Paige out of there. I won’t let her fall into someone else’s hands. Not the queen’s. Not her enemies’. Not anyone’s.”

“And you think she’ll come with you quietly?” Sorcha asked, raising an eyebrow.

“She’ll have no choice,” I said, though the words felt hollow. “If it means keeping her alive, I’ll do anything.”

My sisters exchanged a look I couldn’t quite decipher.

“You’re a brute,” Sorcha said finally, though there was a hint of a smile in her voice. “But an honorable one.”

“It’s not just about protecting her,” Catriona said softly, her gaze searching mine. “You’re in love with her. You don’t want to lose her.”

I swallowed hard, staring at the palace gates as they drew closer, reminding me that time was running out until she would be lost to me forever. “She’s marrying someone else,” I snapped, stating the obvious. “She is not mine to lose.”

“Has she actually chosen him? Prince Martainn?” Sorcha’s voice was uncharacteristically serious. “Or have you just failed to tell her she has another option?”

I turned to look at her sharply. “She voluntarily went with him,” I reminded.

She leaned closer, her expression both mischievous and sincere. “She’s from Earth, Addan. Earth girls don’t know about Resonants. They don’t grow up knowing about the bond. They have no such thing on her planet. Quite the opposite, actually. She might not even realize what you are to her.”

“What are you saying?” I asked, my voice rough.

“She’s saying—" Catriona sighed “—that you’re being an idiot.”

“We talked to Paige,” Sorcha continued. I felt like I was being assaulted from both sides. “Asked about Earth men. It seems they’re very different. Earth girls expect the man to make the first move,” Sorcha continued. “On Earth, it’s the men who usually initiate the claiming. They pursue. They initiate sex. Then, after a ridiculously long time of doing things together like walking and eating, which makes no sense to me, she said the men do something called a proposal. That’s when the male asks to claim the female. The male has to say that he wants to be with her. Declare it to her. Vigorously.”

Catriona piped up. “Their mating customs are strange and completely backward, and it was clear when we talked that she has no knowledge of our ways. She probably thinks you don’t want to be with her.”

“That is not possible.” I thought of all the ways I’d pleasured her. Touched her. Made her come all over my cock.

“Sex is one thing, big brother. Did you tell her you wanted her? Or were you simply doing your duty and—umm—” It was unusual for Catriona to blush, but her cheeks turned a bright red as she blurted out the rest. “She might think you were just servicing her. Because that’s what Insuri males do.” Catriona cleared her throat as if relieved to have the uncomfortable words set free. “Please tell me you didn’t tell her about that Insuri custom.”

It is my job to service you.

Of course I’d said that to her. I’d then made her command me to fuck her the night I found her in the kitchen.

I paused.

Stilled.

Thought back to the first time I saw her, under my desk. How confused she’d been about her desire. She had insisted that she was acting strangely. Out of character. That she didn’t understand why she was so eager to fuck me, especially so quickly.

I’d believed at the time that she was playing a role, behaving the way I’d seen other noble females act when in the presence of a healthy, virile male they desired. Demanding. Aggressive. When her transport was delayed, I’d fucked her all night. Insisted it was my duty to service a female in need. She’d been insatiable. Her body overly sensitive. Responsive. Greedy for more.

Did Paige now believe that’s all she was to me? Every touch a duty I was obliged to perform? Every orgasm I gave her a service I felt obliged to fulfill?

My mouth dropped open, realization dawning.

I stared at my sisters, one then the other, my mind spinning. Could what they said be true? Could Paige’s initial actions have been because we were Resonants, but she had no idea what that was? Or that the concept even existed?

Had she–as the Earth woman she was raised as–been waiting for me to declare my feelings and intentions? Waiting for me to claim her? All this time, when she’d said no, she’d done so because she didn’t know what yes meant. Of course, she said no.

FUCK!

I’d thought I was giving her space, respecting her freedom to choose like an Insuri female. But had my silence been a mistake? Were the mating customs on Earth truly so different? I tried to imagine an entire planet where the females did not select their mates, instead waited and hoped the male they cared for might choose them. That the male was in charge. That–

Oh fuck.

No wonder she wanted me to take charge from the very beginning. She hadn’t been playing at being submissive. She hadn’t craved to have me be the dominant because she did so herself on a daily basis, like Insuri females.

No. She really did want me to take control because that was her nature. I missed it all and that was incomprehensible. And unforgivable. Fuck.

I growled. Actually made a sound that made my sisters stare at me wide-eyed. It was me who now had his eyes wide open.

“Then why is she marrying Prince Martainn? If we’re Resonants?” I asked aloud.

“Because she doesn’t think you want her, Resonant or not,” Catriona said. “Because her mother made the match. Because she’s been told since she arrived that she had a duty to the planet. That she had to follow our customs now.”

Fuck. Was it too late?

The transport slowed as we approached the palace gates, the glittering spires casting long shadows over the cobblestone courtyard. My sisters shifted in their seats–a little nervous now that I was behaving like a… a crazed male whose Resonant was about to be wed to another–and smoothed their dresses and adjusted their hair.

I barely noticed. All I could see was Paige. How I could get to her. Keep her. Steal her away. Gods, steal a transport ship.

The transport came to a stop, and the doors hissed open. Catriona and Sorcha stepped out gracefully, their gowns catching the morning light, but I stayed frozen in place.

“Addan?” Catriona glanced back over her shoulder, brow furrowed.

“I can’t do this,” I said, my voice low.

“You can’t do what?” Sorcha asked, though her tone suggested she already knew.

“I cannot allow her to bind herself to Prince Martainn.” The words tumbled out before I could stop them. “I can’t stand there and watch her claim him. I must speak to her first.”

Sorcha’s bright eyes softened as she placed a hand on my arm. “Then go to her. Find her. Tell her how you feel. Stop the ceremony.”

Catriona’s gaze was steady, her voice low. “This isn’t just about her safety anymore, Addan. This is about you. About her. About the bond you share. You are her Resonant. I’ve seen the way she looks at you. If you don’t fight for her now, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”

I stared at them, my chest heaving. Their words pierced through every wall I’d built around myself. I’d been so focused on protecting Paige, on finding out who murdered her mother, on doing the right thing, the honorable thing, that I hadn’t allowed myself to think about what I wanted. It hurt too fucking much.

I wanted her. She was mine, even if she didn’t know it yet.

Thank fuck no male on Earth had mistakenly triggered her resonance. She didn’t belong to someone else.

She.

Was.

Mine.

More importantly, I was hers, her Resonant.

The decision solidified in my mind like stone. I stood abruptly, stepping out of the transport and turning toward the palace’s main entrance.

“What are you going to do?” Sorcha called after me. I could hear the grin in her voice.

“Stop the wedding.” My heart beat sure and steady for the first time in days.

“Be careful, brother. The Prince will not give her up so easily.” Catriona’s warning fell on deaf ears. I already knew the prince would not want to let her go. What male would?

Not me.

He wanted a queen. Power. Status. He’d go from being the queen’s son to being the king. That was his goal now, not the woman herself.

My heart pounded as every step I took carried me closer to her. Closer to the woman who had upended my life and changed everything I thought I knew.

The security team I’d assembled flowed into the palace behind me and disappeared, scattering among the guests, vanishing down long corridors. I was not alone. Every soldier knew their primary purpose was to protect Paige. I didn’t believe Alienor—or whoever had killed her mother—would make a move on Paige before the wedding. Not when she was behaving, obeying, following along with the law and her dead mother’s betrothal contract.

I didn’t know what I would say to her or how I would convince her not to claim the prince. To claim me instead. I knew one thing with absolute certainty, I couldn’t let her go.

Not to Prince Martainn. Not to anyone.

Paige was mine. She was my Resonant, my fucking everything. And I was going to make damn sure she knew it—before it was too late.

It was time to stop a royal fucking wedding.