Cillian’s POV
When Killian told me that Aunt Celia wanted to see me, this was the last conversation I had envisioned us having.
She looked at me, her dark eyes watchful and missing nothing.
“Is there someone else?”
Truth be told, I had assumed that Killian had been lying. He obviously wanted to speak with Rosalind in private.
I trusted Rosalind but I didn’t exactly like the fact that she had to sneak around with me, she could walk around freely with him.
I blinked at Aunt Celia not knowing what to say to that.
“What?”
She narrowed her eyes almost suspiciously at me.
“I’m talking about Adeline. Both of you were seeing each other when tlyoy were much younger, when I found out she won your flag, I thought you would be happy.
That was true.
She didn’t know the true colors of Adeline as I did. She still thought of her as that naive girl that I had grown up with and it was only normal that my aunt would be baffled that I wanted to end things with her instead of building up our last relationship into a stronger mating bond.
My words came out a tad stronger than I wanted them to but I meant every word.
“I don’t intend on mating with her. Not now, not ever.”
Aunt Celia was silent for a moment. An almost contemplative air around her.
“That will not sit well with her father.”
It could sit well with him or it couldn’t. That was his business not mine. I was a prince and he was a council member.
I held the reins to my life not him and if anyone should be bothered about anyone not sitting well, it should have been him because I ranked higher than he would ever dream of.
It said a lot of his arrogance that he felt as a council member he would be able to forcibly sway me to agree with whatever he had in mind.
Or maybe it spoke a lot of my lenient character because he would never try to pull a stunt like this with Killitan who was so volatile sometimes that he might have killed him for his insolence already.
I looked at my aunt.
“I know it will not sit well with him but I don’t care. This is my life in question and I have no intention and outright refuse to spend it with someone I do not love for the sake of politics.”
The one person I wanted to be with. The one I wanted to share my life with couldn’t be mine -at least not publicly- because she was my brother’s by a weird quirk of fate.
There was no way to break a royal engagement that would not result in significant damage or trouble for Rosalind herself and I couldn’t do that to her.
My aunt placed her hand above mine parting it gently, her face full of concern.
“I understand. Don’t worry, I’ve got your back.”
“Thanks Aunt Celia.” I smiled at her. I felt grateful to have her in my life. That was the only thing I felt vaguely thankful to my father for.
Now that an uncomfortable conversation was out of the way, I had to ask her one question that had been on my mind since Rosalind told me she was around.
“Why did you come all the way here?”
Aunt Celia left the palace shortly after my Killian and my coronation as princes. She didn’t want to deal with the palace intrigues or so she said.
She shrugged casually. Too casually.
“I needed to see you. Talk to you about all this.”
Somehow I doubted that she had come all the way here to talk to me about my mating or mir to Adeline.
She could have sent a message or simply asked me to pay her a visit.
I noticed her luggage on the side of her room. She was planning on staying.
I had no problems whatsoever with that but it bothered me that she felt the need to avoid the truth from me in the first place.
I didn’t mention the luggage.
“But you’ve never had an interest in this before. With my mating.” I clarified.
Something sparkled in my aunt’s eyes.
“Before the border wasn’t open to rogues either. A lot can change.”
She sounded so cryptic and I felt even more confused.
The borders had been open to the rogues for some time now despite the council already beginning to push against it. Looking for ways around our agreement. What had changed now?
She smiled again and the moment was gone.
“Moving on to less gloomy topics, your brother seems more pleased with his mate than you are considering her humble beginnings.”
I paused. She had not seemed derogatory with her words although I knew that she would find the fact that Killian who always hated having anything to do with people of a lower social class getting mated to an omega extremely funny.
He seemed more pleased? She had just arrived. What had she seen to make such a deduction?
I stopped myself from asking her uncertain if she would be able to read the jealousy in my voice. I shrugged.
“Killian is unpredictable.”
Aunt Celia nodded with understanding.
“True. His mate seems like a cool person. They will make a great match.”
I thought of Rosalind walking into the petition hall wearing Killian’s colors.
Thought of him entering and the fact that despite I was the one closest to her, they were the ones matching while I seemed like the outsider.
Once they were fully mated, how would I be able to take being the one stuck on the sidelines? And when they wanted to have children that would be heirs to the throne where would I fall?
I saw the look in his eyes as well. He didn’t like this arrangement any more than I did but neither of us could let go of Rosalind.
I forced a smile up my face so that my aunt would not see how much her words troubled me.
“That they do.”
Talking about this made me feel uncomfortable and the last thing I wanted was for Aunt Celia with her zero understanding of boundaries to ask me about Killian and Rosalind’s relationship.
“I’ll leave you to settle in.”
I embraced her and dropped a kiss on her cheek bidding her goodbye.
She patted my cheek fondly. “I’ll see you around,” She winked almost playfully at me.
“This old woman needs to rest.”
I laughed, shaking my head at her theatrics. She was anything but old.
As I left my aunt’s room, I found my feet carrying me towards Rosalind’s room. Not that I could do anything if u saw her with Killisn since I already promised that I wouldn’t make her choose but I just had to see her.
Her room was empty and from the windows over viewing the courtyard I could see Killian standing next to… was that Aunt Lilly?
My thoughts of jealousy abated for the moment and I knew that I needed to find a more permanent solution to this thing between the three of us.
I was no longer in the mood to go through petitions, maybe a run with my wolf would help me get my head back in the game.
I entered my room to change. Only Adeline was in my bed.
Completely naked.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”