Page 2 of The Prince's Mate

“Glad they’re safe from your greedy paws,” I told him.

“I don’t have paws,” he said in an utterly disgusted tone, making me laugh.

Once I was finished writing, I placed the journal and pen back in their drawer before turning to him.

“So, what are we doing today?”

He narrowed his eyes at me as he slithered down the curtain with a mix of magic and skills. “I’m not your assistant.”

“You aren’t?” I asked in mock-surprise, and he hissed loudly.

“Maybe we should hit the gym,” I said, poking my belly. Everyone in Otherworld had the perfect physique. Everyone. Pops—known to everyone else as Arty or Artemus, Consort ofOtherworld—said it was because their bodies were made up of magic, and while that should be true for me and my dads too, we were different. We still had bits of our humanity. My dads had theirs because Pops and Da—known as Reece, Consort of Otherworld—had been human when they came here, and Dad—Damien, the King of Otherworld—because he was bonded to them and had gained pieces of their humanity like they got pieces of his magic.

I was a different issue entirely. Since I’d grown up from a kid to an adult, the magic had designed my body so it could grow like a human’s would. The only problem with that was that I gained weight like a human too, and I had a bit of a sweet tooth, which I totally blamed on all the hot chocolates and sweets my dads had fed me when I was younger.

Pops thought that once I was fully grown and my brain had developed completely, which apparently won’t happen until I was twenty-five, I would stop growing, and so, I needed to work hard and lose this extra weight in the next three years if I didn’t want to end up being pudgy forever.

“The gym, huh? The one here or the one in the office building?” he asked, and I shrugged.

“Here, I guess. It’s better equipped,” I said, and he nodded.

“Of course, that’s why.”

I narrowed my eyes at his tone, but he merely stared back at me. For a snake made from the King of Otherworld’s excess powers, he could be an ass sometimes. Dad was such a sweet man, I wondered how his powers could create someone so salty. Hmmm…maybe Ro’Shassz took all the snark with him, and that’s why Dad was such a sweetie. Shaking my head, I changed into a pair of gym shorts before heading out.

When I’d turned sixteen, Da had used his magic to separate my room from theirs, turning it into a smaller suite for me. Ourplaces were still side by side, but now, they needed permission to come into my space, not that I’d ever denied them entry.

The dads and I—and Caelan, much to my annoyance—lived on the third floor of the Brume Villa. The only other room on this floor was the library, where I liked hanging out sometimes, though I preferred spending time in the lounge where there was always someone to talk to.

Closing the door, I turned to head toward the staircase, and scowled the moment I spotted him. Caelan was a few steps ahead of me, heading toward the staircase in a pair of shorts that clung to his ass like a second skin, his fluffy cat-like tail swishing slightly. What were the chances that we’d decided to head to the gym at the exact same time? And why did he have to keep his tail and cat ears visible? So what if he’d been a cat shifter in his human life? He had a secondary human-like form that was much less…distracting.

Grabbing my doorknob, I decided I’d go later. It wasn’t like I couldn’t postpone it. As if he could hear my thoughts, Caelan turned, his aqua blue eyes finding mine instantly. A smirk spread across his lips as he looked me up and down, and I stupidly felt the urge to cover my stomach.

“Heading for a workout, my prince?” Caelan called, and I gritted my teeth as I realized I’d lost my chance to escape. If I left now, he would think I was avoiding him, and I couldn’t give him that satisfaction. He’d moved back to Otherworld a few years ago, declaring the project he’d been working on for Fate was over, and now he was staying. At first, I’d avoided him, but I’d soon realized that I was making his life easier by doing that, so now I made a point of being around him and annoying him as much as I could.

“Yeah. You could use some exercise too, I think,” I said, and he grinned, his cat ears—the ears I’d once loved tugging on—twitching.

“Come on, then,” he called before rushing downstairs, and I followed him, leaving Ro’Shassz behind, muttering to himself.

Caelan

Every time I thought I’d felt the worst pain I could ever experience, I was proven wrong. Unlike most people, I wasn’t lucky enough to forget my human life. I didn’t know if that was because of all the trauma I’d experienced, or because I couldn’t seem to let go of those memories, but I remembered my darkest days in the human realm, and for a long time, I’d thought nothing could be worse than what I’d gone through.

But then I’d had to leave Walker as he bawled his eyes out and begged me to stay, and I’d realized I’d never felt pain as bad as that.

And yet, both those instances paled in comparison to now. Now, every time Walker looked at me, all I saw in his eyes was distaste. He hated me, and I didn’t know how to change that.

I’d come back to Otherworld a few months after Walker turned eighteen, intending to stay, to win him back, after Damien, Reece, and Arty all assured me that it was okay. But the Walker I returned to had changed. He’d grown, for once. He was twenty-two now and so beautiful. He wasn’t the sweet little kid I’d left behind. He was a man now. A man who hated me.

For the first few months after I got back, he’d avoided me. He would leave the room if I stepped inside, ignoring me if I knocked at his door. Then he changed his mind and started haunting me. But no matter how many times I tried, I couldn’t break through his walls, couldn’t figure out how to get him to stop hating me.

When sweet words and pleas didn’t seem to work and only served to push him farther away, I started playing his game. I acted like the feeling was mutual, like I hated him just as much as he hated me, because it was the only way I could think of to protect myself from the hurt that came from knowing that my mate hated me more than anyone in the world.

I glanced over at him as he pushed past me on his way to the gym, eyeing his ink-stained fingers. “Have you been scrawling in that journal all morning?” I asked, desperate to know anything about his life that he deemed to share with me. Damien had been kind enough to not call me out on how pathetic I was for acting like an enemy simply to have a reason to be around Walker, but it was probably because he was trying to stay away from the whole mindfuck that Walker and I were. Being my best friend and Walker’s dad, Damien was in the worst position ever, and he was trying his best to stay out of the mess.

He shot me a scowl as he hurried his steps, and I followed, making him grumble under his breath. “Yeah. I had a few choice words to write about this annoying asshole who won’t leave me alone.”

“Aww, you write about me in your diary? I’m honored, my prince,” I teased with a smirk, and he glared.

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