Chapter Nineteen

When I woke up the sun was already high in the sky. I knew that Brent would be here soon and that if I ran into Mark he'd probably want to talk about the last time we saw each other. So I decided to just take a shower then put on some jeans and a t-shirt with a jacket and slip-on shoes. I went as quietly and swiftly as I could to the kitchen.

When I didn't see anyone I hurried through searching the cupboards for something I could just take to my room. I found a package of granola bars and took a bottle of water as well. I almost ran into Mark on the way back, but ducked into an adjoining hall before he noticed me. I had to take the long way around to my room. When I got in, I decided to read up on different fairy enchantments and fairy culture until Brent came.

The fairy culture and abilities are the most complicated and confusing. Since you can do a lot of incredible things, but not anything and everything. You couldn't make the whole world suddenly drown or catch on fire or make someone fall in love with you or suddenly feel uncontrollable hate. Then there is a whole bunch of legends and fairytales or bedtime stories that the fairies have. Sadly, there isn't a way of turning myself back into a human that I've seen, yet. I'd grabbed a random book from the section on fairies and found it to be one on the legends. It had many interesting ones about great queens and kings of the fairy kingdom and even some about different werewolf and vampire people. Most were fairy related, however, and so there were few that had any werewolf or vampire references without having to do with the fairies as well. The legend that is supposedly about me is even in here.

The part about me really ticked me off, though. I would have thought Violet would tell me everything it said, but she either forgot about some of it or just neglected to mention it. I should have asked her if that was all there was to the legend so she had to tell me if there was more. It says that when I'm in my heat I'll die if I don't sleep with one of my mates. Plus, there is one every year, which really sucks. It doesn't even count as mating either since I'd have to have a mark. I'm so going to kill Violet if she knew about this. Especially since it's generally mid-summer that werewolves go into heat and it's late June. Why don't they just kill me now? This is horrible news!

Suddenly, there is a knock on the door and everything comes crashing back down on me. Brent is back from his meeting and we're supposed to hang out today.

"C-come in!"

Stupid, stupid, stupid! Now I'm stuttering. I have to keep calm and collected.

'You know, I find this hilarious! You're losing your head because you have no want of our mates because you think you're so much better on your own. Then, just like I told you, things are crashing down around you! You know you could just fall for one of them and let them steal away your heart. They're our mates! So it's not like they'll break our heart. They'll make us feel complete and so happy and loved. It'll be the best feeling you'll ever feel. Why won't you see that?'

Stupid wolf with her stupid insistence on falling in love. It'll never work!

'You don't know that. You're just afraid of falling in love and even more so with time closing in on you. Don't hurt yourself, sweetheart. Not by refusing to let our mates love you, love us.'

My wolf's points are almost convincing, but I can't help continuing to fight it.

All this talking and I didn't notice Brent standing in front of me. He gave a little cough and I looked up, embarrassed because it looked like I was staring at him in a not so reasonable place.

"My eyes are up here, sweetheart. Is there something wrong, Sasha?"

I blushed a bit more and tried to compose myself before answering.

"Um, yeah! Sorry, I've just been thinking a lot lately and you know, my wolf."

I flashed an overly huge, fake smile for a moment before going back to my usual neutral expression.

"Oh, Okay. Yeah, I get it, with the whole wolf thing and I realize it's probably stressful with all of this mate stuff, but I'm here to talk any time you want and, I hate to say it, but so are the other two. "

He gave me a small smile. I just shook my head.

"No, I'm fine. What are we doing today?"

He brightened up a bit and grabbed my hand heading for the door. I was reluctant to let him touch me since he'd probably think it was a sign of submission and that I was starting to like him, but I just let it go.

Today we headed the opposite direction of where we went yesterday and passed by the kitchen. I saw Mark inside talking with the kitchen staff. Mark saw me and Brent stopped to let me say hello to Mark, but only for a moment before we were off again. It was sad since Mark seemed somewhat upset but still happy to see me and friendly as ever. We walked down that hall then took a left and walked down that hall, but stopped at a door on the end on the right side. Brent gave me a huge smile and then opened the door. Inside was a roller skating rink.

One stretch of the floor near the door held a few tables and a section with snacks, a rack of skates, and a restroom on the far wall. The skating rink was huge and even had all those cool things that the normal ones had like the disco ball and music playing in the background. There was one of the kitchen staff in the room to control the music and run the snack bar. It seemed rather simple, but I've always loved roller skating and used to go every Wednesday with my older brother before he went off to the war. I was actually pretty good at skating and loved to go fast. I am not a huge fan of going backwards, but I'm able to.

"So, what do you think?"

Brent seemed nervous like he thought I expected something huge and fancy to do. Maybe skating wasn't a room full of expensive paintings, but we had the room to ourselves, which was pretty amazing in itself.

"It's amazing! I love roller skating! "

He seemed relieved and ecstatic to hear that he made a good choice. I had to say that he did plan some pretty amazing dates since all the dates so far have been things I actually enjoy doing.

"I'm glad you like skating, I was worried you'd be one of those girls who thought it was too normal and boring. So, do you want regular skates, in-line, or the other kind?"

He seemed somewhat unsure of what the types were, but it was rather cute and I can't remember them all either.

"I want the fastest ones you have."

I gave him a huge dare devilish grin as he gave me the skates and took off ahead of him saying

"Catch me if you can!"

Yep, I loved going fast and he had a hard time catching up at first, but he was pretty good at skating too.

While we skated we talked about our childhood and our families. He seemed rather sad to hear how my family was taken away from me during the war. It was almost heartbreaking to see how sad he looked at the thought of my family being gone and how it was just me now. I guess he didn't like the idea since he found his own family so important. His mom had Xavier, his brother, before she met the king. Her mate, Xavier's father, had died and Brent's father was like a second chance for her. Brent was born not long after his mom and dad met and Xavier was still rather young at only two years old. Since Xavier wasn't born of the king and royal blood he wasn't in line for the throne but, according to Brent, Xavier wasn't interested in all the responsibility of ruling anyway. Brent says he was super close to Xavier and they had always been the best of friends and inseparable. That made me think of how he had thought his brother had died, at my hands no less, and I instantly felt horrible. He told me he was over it, but that he was just glad he still had his brother.

By the time the night was over my feet were killing me. I had learned quite a bit more about Brent and knew that he put his family and mate above everything else. It made me feel a lot more comfortable around him, but there was still that feeling that I didn't want to fall for him, or really any of them. When I got to my door we were so close and we almost kissed. I could feel tingles and I felt my skin heat up in anticipation for the kiss. His lips were almost on me and at that moment I craved his kiss like my life depended on it. I needed it like I need air and I couldn't think about anything else, not even why I didn't want to kiss him.

At last moment we were interrupted by the sound of a vase being dropped by a maid down the hall. In that moment, it all came back to me and the moment was lost.

"I should probably go check that out."

He seemed like he didn't want to, but that he knew he needed to take care of it since a lot of the decorations in the castle were rather expensive and one of a kind.

"Yeah, I guess you should. I'll, uh, see you around, I guess. Good night."

He seemed even more distressed about leaving, but simply mumbled a soft "Goodbye." Then I closed my door and sank down into my bed thinking about how that was the second time I nearly kissed one of these princes and how my time is running out.