The Alpha Prince And His Bride
Book 2 The Alpha’s Forbidden Bride – Episode 19

“How sure are you?” Austin whispered. We had to be extra quiet while the Blackners continued to walk in front of us. If they had the slightest clue that Lucas and Avery were mates, that would be it for us. They would surely do anything to keep them apart.

Lucas rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know,” he whispered. “I’m not sure what the mate feeling is supposed to feel like. I felt an instant connection the moment I saw her but—,”

“But what?” I asked.

“Something feels like it’s blocking it.” He confessed. “It’s hard to explain.”

“You think it’s possible that Gideon placed a spell on his daughter like Ariana did to Austin?” I asked.

After that incident with my brother, I wouldn’t be surprised if a similar thing was happening here. And Gideon definitely had motive to do something like that. He may have done something to block her from figuring out who was her mate or to block her mate from replaceing her.

“Walk faster.” Arthur growled in front of us.

“Imagine having to live with him.” Lucas grumbled with an unpleasant look on his face. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, Arthur looked like a pain in the a*s.

Austin placed his hand on Lucas’s shoulder. “We’re taking everything one step at a time. Trust me, when your time comes. We’ll replace a way to get you out of it as well.”

“I’ll like to see you try.” One of Gideon’s sons said from in front of us. I still had no idea what all of their names were, all except Arthur.

Was that a threat? They clearly didn’t know us well enough. We always found a way to escape from a trap like this. It may take a while but we always got out.

After Eden was out from the council, I’ll make it my priority to get Lucas out of this mess.

But if his mate truly was Avery, I didn’t think Lucas would want us to take him out of this. He would want to be with her no matter what.

“Next time,” Arthur said suddenly as we reached the wall. “Keep your packs at home. We don’t do well to threats. We won’t let it slide the next time.”

“Sure thing, brother.” Lucas said as we reached the top of the wall.

The Blackners looked at each other. They all had a dumbstruck look on their faces as they peered up at Lucas as though he’d completely lost it.

“Did he just call Arthur his brother?”

I shook my head. It was good to see that Lucas still had a bit of that playfulness in him despite what had just happened. I never wanted to see that part of him disappear.

I always wanted to see him happy and I would do everything in my power to make sure that happens.

. . . . . . .

~EDEN~

I was restless. The last I’d seen of James was when he’d left on that trip that no one seems to want to tell me about.

At first, everyone seemed so open and like they wanted me to know everything about my life. But now, I felt like they were keeping a lot of things from me.

I didn’t like it.

If there was something that I should know, I wanted to replace out the truth now. I didn’t want them to keep it from me and then throw it at me when I least expected it.

I tried to focus doing things around the house but even that no one would let me do. They made it clear that I should just relax and make myself feel at home.

“Hey,” Isabella called as she peeped into my room. “I just wanted to make sure that you’re doing okay.”

I got up from the bed and met her at the doorway. “I’m alright, I guess.”

I didn’t know how to tell her that I was worried about James. I didn’t know what she would think about me if I said something like that without knowing who or what James truly was to me.

“You don’t look so well.” She said. “Why don’t we go downstairs and have something to drink?”

I nodded and followed her out the room.

We found Lucy pacing at the bottom of the stairs as she spoke to Maya.

“I just don’t get it,” she cried. “How can they take so long?”

Was she referring to James and his brothers?

“This is why I told Austin to let me go with him but no, he wouldn’t let me.” She complained. “Just like always. Now look at me, I can’t focus on anything because of how worried I am about him.”

“Looks like you’re in trouble brother.”

We all looked up at the voice of Lucas. He was a few feet away with Austin just behind of him. My eyes were immediately drawn to James who stood just besides Lucas. His thick hair was in a mess and even his clothes were completely disheveled. And was that grass stuck to his hair? They all looked completely exhausted. Wherever they’d visited, it surely was a stressful trip.

Lucy all but ran into Austin’s open arms and he held her close to him. “This is the last time I’m ever letting you go anywhere without me.” She insisted. “I’ve been so worried Austin.”

He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “I’m absolutely fine. We all are. . .” His voice trailed off as he looked at Lucas.

Maya looked between the two of them and quirked a brow. “Okay, someone needs to start talking. What exactly happened out there?”

Austin looked torn, so did James and well, Lucas. . . I didn’t remember much about him but he definitely didn’t look as lively as he did earlier.

“Something bad happened, didn’t it?” Lucy asked with terrified eyes. “Does it involve Lucas? Did they do something to you?” She asked as she walked over to him.

I didn’t understand what was going on and for once the focus wasn’t on me.

“How about we talk about this somewhere else?” Austin offered as his eyes settled on me. Everyone turned to gaze at me and suddenly the entire room grew quiet.

Like that wasn’t weird at all.

“We’ll be right back!” Lucy promised me as everyone followed Austin.

It was just James and I alone now. I opened my mouth to say something but just like before he kept on walking, like he was trying his best to avoid me.

“Hey!” I called out to him, running after him this time. He couldn’t keep doing this to me. I wasn’t about to let him go this time, not until I got answers as to why he kept avoiding me all of the time.

I managed to reach forward and grab onto his shoulder.

His entire body tensed the moment I touched his skin.

I was surprised at the immediate spark I felt and quickly pulled my hand away. I looked down at my fingers; they were still tingling from the light touch. I peered up at him in wonder, curious as to why I felt this way around him.

My throat closed as I forced my gaze away. The fierce look on his face definitely caught me off guard. I didn’t know why but I felt like this wasn’t the way he usually acted around me. This was why I needed to know the truth!

“I need to ask you something.” I finally managed to say.

“What is it?” He asked, looking impatient.

. . . .

~JAMES~

It was hard not to pull her into my arms and k**s her when she was looking at me the way that she did right now. The moment my gaze had fallen on her earlier tonight, I had to use all of my self-control to fight the instant attraction that I felt. It wasn’t just that, even before I’d entered the room, her scent had hit me so hard that I’d immediately searched her out even before she’d seen me.

“You’re avoiding me,” she whispered. “Everyone else around here is trying to help me remember but you seem to want nothing to do with me.”

Wrong.

I was dying to be next to her. I just had to be strong for one more week, just until everything was confirmed with the Blackners. Like promised, I would replace a girl that fit their criteria. I wasn’t sure what our plans would be from there, I definitely didn’t want to be responsible for an innocent girl being locked up with the Blackners. That was another thing Austin and I needed to discuss as soon as we got the opportunity to do so.

“You’re reading too much into this.” I told her. “I barely knew you even before you lost your memory.”

Her lips curved into a frown. “That’s impossible, I feel this pull towards you and it makes me feel like I knew you well.”

I bit my tongue and tried to look anywhere but at her. “I have things to get done today; we can continue this conversation another time.”

I needed to get away from her before I gave in to my desires.

Before she could say anything else, I was already walking away.

I couldn’t keep doing this. If I let Eden come onto me every single time she saw me, I would grow weak. Eventually, I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands of her.

I hung my head as I tried to think of some way to get her to stop trying to replace out the truth about us. At least not until I had things properly sorted out.

“Alpha!”

My eyes focused on the figure in front of me. I found Clara making her way towards me; my body already became alert with the worried look on her face.

“What are you doing here?”

She didn’t stop walking until she was a few inches away from me. “I just wanted to make sure that everything went well today. You didn’t let me come with you to meet the Blackners and I just wanted to replace out if they agreed to help you.”

I sighed. “They did but at a very costly price.” I didn’t want any reminders of our horrible trip; I still had a guilty feeling inside of me knowing that I was the one responsible for Lucas being trapped in a loveless marriage.

I felt Eden behind of me and immediately every part of my body awakened and begged to be near her. I stifled a g***n as her scent consumed me and made it difficult for me to concentrate on anything else but my growing need for her.

No!

My determination to protect Eden was far greater than my need for her.

I clenched my jaw and tried to focus on the woman in front of me.

And then it hit me.

What better way to make Eden feel like I wasn’t interested than to have someone else in my life?

“I need a favor from you.” I told Clara, still very aware of Eden only a few feet away from us.

“Whatever you want, just name it.” She said. “I’m happy to help in whatever I can.”

I dropped my voice so low that only she could hear me. “I need you to pretend that you’re in a relationship with me.”