Claimed And Marked By Her Stepbrother Mates

Chapter 717: 717-He Knows Something

Helanie:

I never got to ask all of them one-on-one, but they had already expressed their approval of me being a mermaid. Except for Kaye. He was the only one who didn’t comment on my new powers, or my new identity. He kept his emotions to himself, and that made me wonder what was going on with him.

Did he not like the fact that I was a mermaid? Because, like my mom told me, many werewolves don’t really mess around with mermaids.

"Okay," I said, giving my head a small nod.

"You’re not going to yell at him?" Maximus asked, pointing at Kaye, who only gave him an eye roll.

"No, Maximus. I have no right to," I said, keeping my emotions to myself and my voice gentle.

"What do you mean by that?" Maximus asked. He was always the curious type, asking too many questions.

"I have four mates. What gives me the right to question my mate if he has two and wants to accept them?"

I watched Maximus’ face lose color.

"That’s not it, Helene. You have every right, at least over my life. I would never ask you to be fair or let me choose someone because you have someone else. That is not how it will work for my life. You know that. You are the owner of my life."

The way he held my hands and gently touched them, the pain started to go away. Maximus’ words made me feel so important that I couldn’t even respond. If I did, I would break down.

So much had been happening around me. I just found out that my father was killed in the worst way possible. I just found out that I had siblings who were snatched away from me, and that they were sacrificed so these four brothers could live.

There was so much going on. I would look at my mother, and when she smiled at me, I would feel my heart shrink. Where did she get the courage to still smile?

"Maximus is right."

And then Norman spoke up. noveldrama

"It was never decided that we would accept our mates too. You never made the decision that you wanted four mates. It was us who decided that. So we kind of made you agree to the terms that you should have four mates. So why would we ask you to be fair and let us have two. It was never your choice in the beginning, Helanie. You did it for us. So there is no way we’ll ask you to let us accept our mates too."

Norman made me turn and look at him. The man who once hated me so much was now so sweet to me, so kind to me. I didn’t need him to say it, but I could tell he loved me the most, maybe even more than his brothers.

’Are you forgiving him for not telling us about Emmet being the one who killed your baby?’ Cora asked, reminding me that it’s not possible he would love us more than his brothers.

’Cora, that was a situation where he had to take that step in order to keep the peace. I know he did it wrong, but that one incident can’t make me turn my face away from him. I was angry for a while, but there is no way I would think otherwise. He doesn’t have to walk on eggshells, always proving himself to me. Because he never asked me to prove myself to him. There are things I do without his permission, without his acknowledgment. So does that make me less affectionate towards him? No. So then I will not hold him accountable for something for so long. It was an incident. It happened. That’s it. There is no prolonged punishment for it.’

I reminded her that Norman had always been there for us, or at least, after some time, he began to be there for us.

’What about Emmet then?’ she asked. And the moment I raised my head, I watched Emmet look at me and tilt his head.

’I don’t know. He chose to leave. Otherwise, we might have figured things out,’ I uttered.

But then, the recent events and my mother’s truth made me feel a little uneasy. It was just the trauma of it all.

First, some women believed my mother’s children didn’t have enough worth to live over her own children. And then, Emmet did the same thing, whether unconsciously, when he chose his ex-lover over my baby.

It was just a lot happening.

"You know what? I think they should accept their mates," However, of course, Emmet has to give his input. I don’t know what’s going on with him. I do not hate him, but he was keeping things to himself, which made him seem very strange to me. I didn’t know if he was on my side at this point. I mean, he looked fine living with Azura.

"Emmet, please don’t intervene," Norman said, turning to him and giving him a look.

But I noticed the way the two of them looked at each other. It was like that old bond wanted to be reformed again. But it was Emmet who was keeping himself away, I noticed that.

"Fine then. It’s just that once our curse intensifies, she won’t be able to help us all. So she must remember that one of us will die." As soon as he said that, my eyes widened.

Maximus intervened, waving his hands between us.

"No, no, no. So listen, we will reject our mates next full moon." Maximus turned to give him a very stern look, as if he knew what he was doing. But it was just his way of trying to divert attention from Emmet.

"Wait, what did you say about one of you dying?" I turned to ask Emmet while Norman began to roll his eyes and scoff.

"Why did you have to open your mouth?" he asked Emmet, overly dramatic in his tone.

"Emmet, tell me. What is it? What are you guys hiding from me?" I asked again and again. I was so irritated. Every time, I had to beg them to tell me things, information they should give me without needing to be asked.

"Mom just told us the rest of the curse," he said, removing his hands from the back of the couch, only to crack his knuckles.

Norman and Maximus looked extremely distraught. Kaye remained silent. His body language was always minimalistic, but now it just felt eerie.

"In the future, our curses will worsen. This time, you were able to save us because it was one at a time. The next time, it will be all of us. And I’m afraid you won’t be able to help us all," Emmet explained.

I turned to look at Norman.

"Why do you guys always hide things from me? And wait a minute, how do you even know if that’s real?" I asked Emmet.

"I mean, we could take chances. But last time, our mother told us something and it really happened. And this time, I’m doing my own research, and I think my mom is not lying," Emmet said, shaking his leg as he rested it over the other and then cleared his throat.

"The thing is, Helanie, you can’t take care of all of them. I’ve already figured out that I need someone else so I’ll be saved." The way he said it made my heart crumble.

"You’re making it sound like I didn’t help you last time," I said. He gave his head one big nod while blinking his eyes forcefully.

"I’m not saying that. I’m very grateful you helped me last time. But after that, I figured nobody would want to help me. So instead of begging you all to take care of me, I found someone. Or the Moon Goddess did." His words hurt me so much. But at the same time, I could tell he believed he was hurting himself too. That’s why he was saying things that would hurt us. Those things were very sad, and we were just listening. He was feeling them.

I could only think about the night when he had almost asked me to marry him. Maybe that night, he realized ’it was getting too crowded.’