The Royal Four... Finding Their Mate

Chapter Fifteen

Dante’s POV:

I absently rubbed my jaw. Fuck, Lars can really throw a punch. If I weren’t a shifter, I would be sporting an ugly-ass bruise right now. And on my face no less. Jeez, did he really have to hit me there… and so hard. Crap, I sound like a fucking pussy right now. No wonder my brothers don’t respect me. I sometimes wonder if we’re even related. Cade is the top tactician. Lars is the best fighter. And Marcus is the chief ambassador. What the hell am I? The comic relief? The court jester to their kingly court?

Groaning, I scrub my hand over my face, wincing when I reach my jaw. Pussy. My wolf growls at me. ‘You are not a cat. You are a wolf. An alpha wolf.’ It’s a figure of speech, I shoot back. A growl is his only response. I chuckle internally. My wolf has never quite grasped my sense of humor. Much like Lars and Cade.

A whimper drew me from my inner musings. My mate. She looks so frail right now. Though her coloring looks a bit better. When she had her dizzy spell earlier, my heart nearly stopped. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life. My wolf wasn’t any better. He was clawing at me. Pushing to get free. My brothers weren’t much better. Thank God Cade took control of the situation!

As I watched Lars feed her the food Cade ordered me to fetch, the guilt from earlier events began to set in. Why didn’t I think to get her food earlier? That’s easy, because I’m obviously incapable of intelligent thought. If I were, would I have spoken those heartless words to her? To my mate? Hell no! Who the hell says that they most definitely won’t let you die after someone wakes up from a nightmare mumbling that? Me of course! Ugh… My father was right. I’m a failure. The runt of the litter. If it weren’t for our familial ties, my brothers would have abandoned me long ago. I’m just a nuisance.

There was a soft gasp. My gaze focused on the source. It was Aurora. Her lips trembled tears shone in her eyes.

“You’re not a nuisance,” she said softly.

Shit, I’m not even capable of keeping my thoughts to myself!

“Did you’re father really say that to you?”

I couldn’t look at her. Couldn’t bear to see the sympathy in her eyes.

“Yes. My father was honest wolf. He always told it straight.”

“Well you’re father was wrong,” she murmured.

The steeliness in her voice brought my gaze to hers. There was not sympathy in her eyes. Only anger.

“And an asshat.”

I barked out a laugh. I could her my brothers chuckling as well.

“An asshat?”

“Yes, an asshat.”

She answered so matter-of-factly that she drew another chuckle from the group.