Tasting 156

156–Not Accepted As Their Mate

Nora:

Now that Ryker had made it clear he wouldn’t accept me so easily, I had only one option left.

“I need to speak to Cain. He has to tell his father that we are mates,” I said, pacing around the

bedroom.

“It will hurt Lord Atwood so much that we hid such a big thing from him,” I understood where she

was coming from. But I was also in a situation where I needed to tell him now before it was too late.

“Better late than never,” I groaned.

“But do you think Cain is even in the mood to have this talk with his father?” Her question elicited a

grunt from me.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Oh, come on, Nora. Don’t you remember how he acted with us a few hours ago? After that, even

when he knew we would be stressed out, he never came to have a talk with us. Even Ryker came

but Cain didn’t,” she was right in a sense that Cain was acting differently all of a

sudden.

“Wait! What if Cain had heard about the rumor and that’s why he was so cold towards me?” I

jumped on my bed, piecing clues together, and it made sense. Right after Cain started acting up,

the whole rumor thing came. Maybe his guard or spies had told him about the rumor before it even

spread? Or maybe Natalya did.

156–Not Accepted As Their Mate

“Oh no! Why didn’t I think about it before? Of course, it would upset him,” I felt a little relief at least

knowing what the problem was.

“I will go have a talk with him, and I am sure he will figure something out,” I jumped out of bed and

had only just opened the door when I found Silas standing there as if he was about to knock.

“Silas! What are you doing here?” I asked, frowning.

“I am not alone, Dad came with me,” he stepped aside to reveal Dad, who looked visibly upset.

Every time I saw him like that because of the rumor, I felt like slapping myself awake.

“Can we come inside?” Lord Atwood asked, and I had no choice but to lead him in. I quietly needed

some time to speak to Cain before Lord. Atwood asked me if I was dating Brody or not.

“Sure,” I led them in

He paced steadily near the couch and sat down, while Silas folded his arms and motioned for me to

sit next to Lord Atwood.

“I don’t know where to start,” Lord Atwood kept his head down as if he were embarrassed about

something.

“Dad has been very upset that he failed to protect you from such nasty rumors,” Silas added. It was

confirmed that Silas had brought him here

to have a word with me.

“Dad, you didn’t do anything wrong,” I

mured softly.

“I was also thinking about the whole mess and realized, what if–” Silas paused when Lord Atwood

raised his head to hear him clearly.

I held Lord Atwood’s hand, and he instantly kissed the back of it, showing me that he was on my

side.

“What if we just tell everyone that she is not our stepsister and that we don’t even see her like that?”

Nash interjected, stepping in, saying what Silas couldn’t. My Body tensed up curiously, hoping to

get a good response to the question.

Lord Atwood immediately withdrew his hand from mine and watched as his sons exchanged a

glance.

“Think about it, it will resolve all the issues. It’s not like she’s related to us by blood or that we’ve

grown up together. She’s not adopted either. She just came here to live with us. It’s like when two

friends say, ‘Oh, she’s like a sister,‘ but does that make them siblings?” Silas continued to explain.

I stayed frozen, liking the idea so much.

I honestly hope Lord Atwood accepts this idea because it would save me from having to beg any of

my mates to tell their father about us.

“I think Nash is right. It’s natural for our enemies or others to talk about our dynamic. Since we all

know the history of her mother-” Silas scratched the back of his neck when Nash signaled him not

to say anything bad about my mother.

“Look, she has her father lurking around somewhere with her brother. So why should we take that

responsibility? I mean, we’ll keep her here. as a guest, but giving her the title of stepsister? Why

force it?” Nash continued firmly.

For the first time, I felt hopeful.

“It will be hard to recover from it, but once you make that announcement that she wasn’t adopted on

paper, it will all be fine. We’re alpha kings, who would dare disrespect us?” Silas shrugged.

I didn’t want to say it, but for the first time, I was so happy with Silas talking. He was saying all the

right kinds of things, and Lord Atwood was listening attentively as well.

I sank in and waited for Lord Atwood to respond to them.

After they were done talking, Lord Atwood turned to me and gave me a broken smile before he

looked back at his sons.

“That is not possible,” he said in the calmest way possible.

“Why not? Imagine if she were one of our mates, would you have said. the same thing then?” Nash

blurted out without realizing that was indeed the case.

Lord Atwood gave another silent stare at me.

“I mean, Nash is right. I never thought about it. But what if that were the case? What would you

have done then?” Silas queried his father.

I was now listening even more keenly because it was exactly the right question to ask Lord Atwood.

This was precisely my situation.

After a deep sigh, Lord Atwood lowered his head and clasped his hands together to respond to his

sons, “I would have requested Nora to reject the mate.”

I don’t know if I heard him right, but whatever I heard, it broke my heart into tiny million pieces.