Remy was waiting outside to talk to me. He’d arrived at his own unhurried pace, in no rush to console me. He had no sympathy for me since I was the one with a female and he was, as of yet, unmated. I’d already fed my queen, and she was sleeping again. Or at least pretending to sleep. She did not want to talk to me, but I wasn’t about to press her at the moment.

“Brother.” He looked me over and scowled. “Why do you look worse than before you had a mate?”

I sighed. “It is more difficult that I thought it would be. She does not want to be my mate. She does not understand that it is not a choice. She will not even give us a chance; she just wants to leave.”

Remy frowned. “Have you tried explaining everything to her?”

I nodded, then hesitated. “I think I have. I don’t know. I get so angry and frustrated when she insists on leaving.”

“Does she not feel the mate pull?” He sat down in one of my chairs and rubbed his temples. “That is how it works, right? Even with humans? They feel the pull, just like we do. Isn’t that what Beast and Cezar said?”

I sat across from him and shrugged. “I don’t know. I was not listening to them. I was too busy thinking about both of us slowly going insane and having to be put down like rabid animals.”

“I was not paying much attention, either.”

We both sat in silence, each lost in our own thoughts. When I finally looked up at my twin, I found him frowning again. “What?”

“We did not have a good example of how to behave as mates.”

I squirmed uncomfortably. Remy and I didn’t normally talk about our parents. The turn in conversation suddenly made me feel about as comfortable as if I was sitting on a cactus. “I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do. We both know. Father was not a good mate.” Remy sighed deeply and stretched his legs out in front of him before crossing them at the ankles. “I don’t think we should model our relationships with our mates after our mother and father’s.”

“Father was…”

“Not a good male.” He met my eyes. “I also do not think Mother was his real mate.”

“What?”

“It’s something I’ve thought about for a long time… I’ve seen how Beast and Cezar treat their mates. They would never hurt them.” He held his palms out to me, face up. “I cannot say for sure, brother. I have no proof. It’s just…he was so cruel to her.”

I stood up and paced behind my chair for a few minutes. Then, gripping the back of it, I tried to take an objective look at our younger centuries from my now more mature viewpoint. I could not do it, though. Mother must have been Father’s mate. Why else would she have given up her life to be with him?

“It does not matter, really. It was not as though either of us thought that Father’s behavior toward her was an appropriate way to treat one’s mate... Right?”

The way he phrased it as a question pissed me off. “What in fire’s sake do you think?”

“I’m just…you are not forcing her to stay against her will, are you?”

My face flushed with fury, both at him and myself. “Get off my land.”

Remy lightly grinned. “Of course, you aren’t. You are not our father.”

Feeling as though he’d dealt a physical blow to my chest, I stumbled backward. I was not holding her against her will. Not really. It was for her own good. I was attempting to care for her…perhaps against her will.

With Remy’s parting remark, my stomach soured and I wondered if I was more like our father than Remy was, more like him than I’d ever realized. I would never lay a hand on Chyna in a harmful way, not ever. But…there were ways of harming someone other than physical blows. Mental torment was just as bad sometimes. Where was the line?

Heading back inside, I passed my bedroom door and listened to her shallow, even breathing. She was finally sleeping. I slipped inside and stood next to the bed, watching her chest rise and fall. I tried to imagine sending her away, but I couldn’t do it. I could not let her go. It had nothing to do with wanting to control her or with anything Father had done to Mother. It was purely because I felt as though I’d die if she wasn’t close by—as though I’d cease to exist. I needed to be able to make sure she was safe. I needed to be able to touch her, to reassure myself that she was okay.

I didn’t know much about her, only that she was my queen and that she had a feisty nature, even up against a dragon. I needed time to learn her, to know how to please her. Maybe then she would want to stay. I just needed a little more time. I could not let her go yet. That probably made me more like Father than I cared to admit, but I would learn as much about her as quickly as possible, then do whatever it took to make her happy.

Chyna whimpered in her sleep, and my heart skipped a beat. How could I leave her alone when she might be plagued by nightmares?

I eased into bed behind her and pulled her onto my chest. She curled up and sighed happily. Even asleep, her body knew that I was hers. If she’d just listen to her body, she’d know that we were meant to be.

Remy’s words came back to me as I relaxed under Chyna. I couldn’t stop thinking about our parents and their relationship, or the relationships in our kingdom in general. Women were seen as inferior purely on the basis of their physical strength. They stayed close to home and maintained the household. They had been fine with it, or so I’d thought. My mother had been fine with it. Hadn’t she? They’d all been fine with the males being in charge.

Our kingdom had been scorned and mocked by some, though. While the role of females in most of the kingdoms around us had progressed, my father very strictly forbade such a change in ours. Remy and I had questioned very little when we took over. This new world was very different from any of the kingdoms in the old world. My words—my thinking—had seemed to greatly offend Chyna.

I had much to think about and even more to figure out. While Chyna napped, I wracked my brain trying to determine my next course of action. I wanted to do the correct thing for my queen. I wanted to please her even if what she wanted did not please me.