Chapter 65: Their Cursed

Calder

Soon after Cullen left with Remi, others slowly started to depart as well. I was most surprised out of all those that came to speak with us tonight, Alpha Zane and Luna Marie were not among them. The conversation at our table soon started to die down.

“It’s probably time that I also take my leave. I am sure my mate will want to spend some time together before the talks begin,” I said. Zeus nodded at me. I looked at Pip, trying to see what she wanted to do. I preferred her to come back with me tonight, but I wasn’t going to stop her from going with Zeus.

“Can I walk you back?” Zeus asked her. Pip blushed for the hundredth time tonight and nodded. It was nice to see her so happy and strange to see her so tongue tied. They both stood and we all left the hall together moving towards our suite. I walked behind the couple, leaving a few paces so I wasn’t bothering them. When we arrived back at our suite, I could tell Pip didn’t want to part from him. Zeus kissed her hand and said good night. She smiled brightly at him.

Before he walked away, he turned to me as I approached. “Calder, can I have a private word with you before you retire for the evening?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said. I motioned for Pip to go inside without me. With one last look at her mate, she went through the double doors. When they closed behind her, Zeus continued, “I think an apology is in order.”

“Oh,” I said surprised. “And what for?” I asked. I had no reason for proper social convention with just the two of us standing here.

“I am not going to apologize for how I reacted when your brother tried to stop me from getting to Amanda earlier. But I should apologize for what I did a few years ago. I never did after that day and that was wrong of me,” he said.

“You should apologize to my brother, not me. He was dating Bea. We share a mate now but that wasn’t true before,” I said.

“And what about Jaime?” he asked. I narrowed my eyes. Last year, Jaime and Zeus had a suspicious cool between them that Cullen found easy to ignore but I had not. Cullen had found many things easy to ignore about Jaime since he only cared about her as far as claiming the Alpha title.

“I never accepted Jaime. She was chosen for us by our elders but that changed when we found our fated. We have both accepted Remi, and she will become Luna when we officially take the Alpha title,” I said.

He laughed his shoulders relaxing from tension I hadn’t known was there. “I guess there will be no hard feelings then,” he said.

“Hard feelings about what?” I asked.

“You don’t know?” he questioned. I shook my head, unclear as to what he could be talking about. “Bea was not the only partner of Cullen’s that showed me interest,” he said with a cocky smirk. I took half a second for me to connect the dots; a low growl escaped my lips.

“You slept with Jaime?” I clarified.

He snickered. “She is the one who sought me out. How could I deny her?” he said shrugging. “She was unmarked, and Cullen seemed ambivalent to her existence. You followed your father around like a loyal puppy, so I knew she wasn’t getting attention from either of you. I am not entirely sure what the relationship between Cullen and Amanda is, but it seems he cares for her about as much as he did the first one. I have to say, I thank the Moon Goddess for providing me a mate that is guaranteed to get under your brother’s skin.” He gave me wink. My temper was rising. He moved to leave but then stopped. “Oh, and your mate? Quite the tiny beauty. I bet those eyes are very expressive. Too bad you two actually seem fond of that one. I would have loved to see Cullen’s face had I the opportunity to snag another from him.”

With that he turned and strutted away. My fists were clenched at my sides. I couldn’t attack him although every fiber of my being wanted to after his words. How dare he think about my mate in anyway. The door to the suite opened and Remi stood there, eyes immediately on me. Her expression full of worry.

Remi

Cullen and I stood there together for a while. I could feel him calming down and relaxing the longer he held me. I didn’t want to be upset with him but the longer he stayed mad at Zeus, the more I couldn’t help but feel this little pang of jealousy in my heart. I wasn’t sure why I was feeling it either.

“Let’s get ready for bed, love,” Cullen finally said into the top of my head. “We have a long few days ahead.” I nodded and he slowly pulled away from me. I felt like he was just craving my touch right now and I felt the same. Our bags had been brought in and set near the door. Cullen retrieved them, setting them on the bed. I don’t know how I hadn’t realized before, but Cullen’s was a steel grey color, Calder’s was an amethyst purple, and mine was more of a mauve color with silvery designs on it. It made me smile; they were both the best parts of me in my opinion.

As I looked through the bag for something to wear to bed, I felt Calder. But my normally jovial mate was infuriated. I looked towards the door in confusion. Why was he so angry? When he didn’t come through it, I moved towards the door, needing to find him.

“Remi, what’s wrong?” Cullen said behind me.

“It’s Calder…” my voice trailed off. I moved out of our room and back towards the main area of the sweet. Calder still wasn’t there. I knew he was close, but I didn’t know where. I went to the doors leading to the hallway.

“I would have loved to see Cullen’s face had I the opportunity to snag another from him,” came a voice from outside the door. Was that Zeus? Were they back? I waited a moment but didn’t hear anymore talking. Was Calder out there? I opened the door to see Calder staring down the hall at someone. The muscles on his neck were taught and his fists were clenched. He turned his head to me, and I could see his purple eyes full of rage. My heart sunk fearing this whole weekend would be like this.

Calder’s quick movement caught me off guard as he grabbed my upper arm and pushed me inside the suite. He held me tightly as he slammed the door behind us. “Calder, you’re hurting me!” I said quickly. I wasn’t sure that he heard me as he pushed me further in the room. Cullen had to have been close because he was quickly pulling me away from Calder with a growl.

“What the fuck!” he shouted. Calder started to snap back to reality when I left his grip because he looked at his hand and then me.

“Remi, baby, I’m sorry,” he said in a strained voice.

“Calder, what is going on?” I asked quickly.

“I didn’t mean it. It isn’t you,” he said pulling me back to him, gently this time. Cullen was reluctant to let me go.

“What the hell was that? Aren’t you the calm and collected one?” Cullen shot at him. Calder glared at his brother.

I put my hand on his chest, trying to get his attention to focus on me for a minute. “Calder, please, tell me what happened,” I asked softly. He took a deep breath and looked down at me, his hand coming up to cup my face. He looked down at me and I could see a storm in his perfect eyes.

“I need you to avoid Zeus this weekend, okay?” he said softly.

“Why? What happened?” I asked. This clearly had to do with whatever they had been talking about outside the door. Calder looked up and scanned the room with a frown.

“Let’s talk about this in our room,” he said. He grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the bedroom. Cullen followed. They were both practically vibrating with distress now and I couldn’t make heads or tails of this.

When we were inside and the door closed, I stood there waiting for him to explain. Calder stood a few paces away from me rubbing his hands over his face. “Calder, why do I need to stay away from Zeus? What were you talking about outside?” I finally asked. Cullen was standing behind me. I looked over my shoulder at him, but he seemed to not know either.

“Zeus slept with Jaime during last year’s Summit,” Calder finally said, his eyes trained on Cullen. I could feel Cullen tense up behind me.

“But he knew she was with you right? Like supposed to become Luna at the time…” I said. Calder nodded. “I don’t understand where I come in. You are my mates. I would never even think…” I was cut off.

“But he would,” Calder interrupted me. My mouth dropped open and Cullen let out a dangerous growl. It was so loud I cowered a bit, discomfort flooding through me. I knew his anger wasn’t directed at me, but I couldn’t help my response. Calder closed the distance between us, pulling me tight to him.

“He takes some sick joy in pissing Cullen off. His last comments before he left were about his disappointment in our affection for you as he saw no chance to…” Calder couldn’t finish his sentence. My stomach turned.

“Pip needs to be sent home, now,” Cullen said. His tone was glacial causing me to shake slightly. It didn’t go unnoticed because the next moment he was pulling me out of Calder’s arms and into his. He took a deep breath before whispering “sorry” in my ear. Everything was silent for a moment.

“Zeus was thrilled to find his mate and that it got under your skin all at the same time,” Calder finally said. “He tried to apologize for Bea but when I told him he owed that apology to you, it came out about Jaime. He said she sought him out. I can honestly believe it knowing both their personalities. Before he left, he made the comment about Remi and I saw red.” His voice was remorseful now. He hadn’t meant to grab me so hard.

“We will arrange for Carson to take Pip home tomorrow. I will not let her be some conquest for him,” Cullen said above my head.

“Then who will stay with Remi all day? She can’t join us in the meetings,” Calder argued.

“Then we will call Gentry or her father,” Cullen countered.

I pushed myself away from him and they both looked at me. “No, we won’t!” I said firmly. They both looked at me like I grew a second head. “The Moon Goddess gave Pip to Zeus for a reason and maybe that reason is to change him! We can’t interfere!”

“Remi, we can’t let him hurt Pip. She is practically our sister!” Calder tried to reason. I shook my head at him.

“Your mom gave me a book about the Moon Goddess and werewolves. I only got to read some of it before we left but I did read the part about mate bonds. Mates are supposed to be the exact thing you need to complete yourself. They are perfect for you in ways you didn’t know you needed sometimes. Pip is a strong girl and she’s a little love struck now but she won’t allow him to mess with her heart. We have to leave it alone,” I told them. “I will stay away from him. I don’t want to be near him after hearing this anyway. I will stay with Carson or you both. I would never let him do anything to me. But we have to stay out of things between him and Pip. She will know if she needs to reject him.”

I looked at them both. They were conflicted and I willed them to trust me. I was still learning about being a werewolf and everything that went with it. The things I was learning were clicking in so many ways. I wanted nothing to do with Zeus, but Pip was his fated mate and they had their own destiny.