Claimed And Marked By Her Stepbrother Mates

Chapter 716: 716-Mansion Full Of Mates

Helanie:

Seeing Emmet again stirred up some emotions in me, and seeing him with Azura specifically stirred up many. But I kept my calm, because in the back of my mind, I kept reminding myself, ’now my other mates have mates too.’ I’ll get to see all of them with others, so I need to adapt to it.

Charlotte had left for her room after Maximus told her he didn’t want to accept her. I guess she had briefly left the mansion and then gone back to her room, and she hadn’t come out since.

Meanwhile, I checked on everyone, going from table to table to make sure they were doing fine, that they had food, and now, I was at Jessica’s table. I already knew she had felt a mate bond with Norman, but she looked so lost, sitting there in silence with her father.

"Did you guys have food?" I asked the two, trying to hold a smile on my lips to seem welcoming.

"Yeah," Jessica said in the softest tone, but her father snapped.

"Of course she had. She can stomach food even after killing her brother."

It was the tone he used, and the reminder of the criminal she eliminated for me, that broke my heart for her.

She looked thinner than before. She had dark circles under her eyes. Her lips were dry. Even though she was wearing a new gown, it looked loose on her, probably an old one. I wondered if her father was even letting her use any luxuries anymore.

She just gave me a small nod to assure me that she had eaten. I had been contacting her, checking on her for a while, but she never responded, and I knew why. Things had grown really awkward between us. And now, they were going to get even more awkward.

I turned around, and my eyes landed on Kesha. I didn’t want to go to her table. She, her uncle, and her father looked very mean and proud. The way they held their chins up and sipped their drinks made it seem like peasants shouldn’t even get close to them. So I walked away, and reached Dalton’s table.

It had been a while since I’d last seen him, not since I had returned from his pack. He seemed to be doing very well now.

"Hi, Helanie," he said, almost getting up from his seat before his beta touched his hand to remind him to stay calm. He sat back down.

"Did you have food?" I asked him, and he smiled.

"Wow. Yeah. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. It’s just that I didn’t think you would talk nicely to me again."

I could tell he was anxious, he was stuttering, skipping words, missing a few here and there.

"I hope you had a great time," I said to Dalton. He just kept staring at my face as if he had never seen me before.

After finding out that his brother had tragically passed away, the only best friend I had when I was a kid, I kind of felt bad for Dalton.

It wasn’t that he left me there on purpose. Sure, he was a bad boy, but that could be overlooked after he had redeemed himself.

"I really hope we can talk about the pack matters soon," he said, and I gave him a nod, even though I had no clue what he was talking about.

But in the corner of my eye, I kept checking out my mates with their mother. I did not like that woman, and I did not trust her.

But with this new fated mate bond thing, I could tell she must be feeling victorious. I mean, she did not like me at all in the beginning, and still doesn’t, so I could only imagine how happy she must be feeling.

"Yeah, definitely. We need to talk about that," I said as I moved a little to look at my mates once again. This time, I found Maximus with his hand up, gesturing at me, probably asking me to follow them into the mansion.

"Um, I hope you had a great time, Dalton. We will speak again," I said, excusing myself and walking away from him.

I heard him call my name, but then his royal beta sort of asked him to let me go. I heard it all. I’m pretty sure he didn’t know yet that I could hear everything. noveldrama

I went into the mansion to find all four of my mates present. I already knew what this conversation was going to be about.

Although walking into the living room with Emmet sitting on the couch with his arms spread, being the only one who looked relaxed, I felt a bit nervous around him.

"Yeah, what is it?" I asked all four of them, passing them a quick glance, but a bit too quickly at Emmet. I didn’t know he was the one who was going to do most of the talking.

"You already know your mates found their fated mates, right?" he asked.

I took a deep breath before giving him a nod.

"So are you going to let them accept their other mates?"

The question came like a bullet. There was no build-up, no excuses, no warm-up. But before I could respond, Norman cut in.

"Hold up, Emmet. It’s not only her who has to decide if you want a mate or not."

As he said that, I began to feel very self-conscious. For a single split second, I thought maybe they wanted to accept their mates. But then he cleared that up for me very quickly.

"We don’t want our mates either. So it doesn’t matter if she wants it or not. If I don’t want someone, nobody can make me accept them." Norman was pretty stern when he said that.

"Got it. I understand," Emmet said, nodding his head.

"But Kaye has already decided to accept Kesha." And then in a very low and unsettling tone, he exposed his brother’s plans.

I looked up from the ground at Kaye and found him looking at me. There wasn’t guilt in his eyes, but he looked determined. That would be the right word.

I couldn’t understand what he was so determined to do, but he had been giving me that look for a while now, probably since the cruise ship.