The Prince’s Unwilling mate

Chapter 54

Griffin 54′ I knew why Mom wanted to speak to Ayla, and I was happy for her. Training with my mom would be a good thing. And I hoped it would show her just how much my family loved her. Even if I did wish, she didn’t just barge in like this. She is just as impatient as I am, but being on the receiving end of it wasn’t great this time. And I was a little nervous to hear what Ayla thought about all of this. She has been doing a lot better with accepting what we have and accepting my parents and most of my packmembers see that too. Honestly, the very few people who have something negative to say about her dislike that she is waiting so long, keepingat a distance for a bit. I’ve been telling everyone that we are the ones to set the pace of our relationship. That helped stop the gossiping, as does the fact she officially acceptednow. And soon they will see that my personal living room has been redecorated as our living room. Well if she likes idea of going to a furniture store to get snew stuff anyway. The first weekend she was here she commented on my couch, and if we replace those most of the other stuff would not suit the new couch. I’ve never spent a lot of tin my living room, so back then having a sleek modern modern- looking room was all I needed. It looked good when I had friends over. Now all I want is to have a comfortable room where I can spend twith my mate. Hanging around in my bed with her was great but now we have taken the next step in our relationship I think that just spending tin bed would get too tempting. But most of all I felt like a room where you can live as a couple, maybe even a family down the line was a sign of maturity. Something that fitsnow, a room to reflect that I am a mated wolf. Ready to start a life with the woman I love. That’s exactly what I tell her when she comes back to the room. Askingwhy I am dressed like we have to be somewhere. For a second ||| 09:31 1288 mouchers something flashes over her face, regret or uncertainty. As I brace myself for the rejection of my

plans she shakes it off and givesa mega-watt smile. “Sure, let’s do it I’ll show you we can have a beautiful living room without it being overly modern and impractical” She happily agrees. As soon as she tellsit is OUR room I no longer care about the look on her face just now. Whatever it was she didn’t mean it. Her excitement is genuine and she sees this room as ours too. It is all I ever wanted, it’s another thing that is givinghope. She has been givingso much hope lately that I have already started looking at jewelry to gift her after we complete the mating process. As is custom for members of the royal family. I’m still not in a rush, but seeing as it took only two weeks of dating to get her to accept me. It is clear she feels the matebond too. It’s the only explanation for falling so hard and so fast for someone. *** We spend the entire day shopping for furniture and while it has been a lot of fun. Especially since we told all the humans working at the shops we were a couple moving in together. Causing them all to congratulate us. But it had worndown, I was happy to walk back into the castle planning to order sfood from the kitchen. Crawl in bed with Ayla to eat there and then we would spend our night as we loved to most. With her reading leaning against my shoulder as I was gaming. My gamer friends had already textedabout another. campaign they would start tonight askingto join them. But when we walked inside we were greeted by a ser vant. Letting the two of us know my parents invited us for dinner at their place. Just them and us, a little family get-together. The same weird look flashed over her face. and it hada little worried now. But she was the one to tell me we should go. “Your parents want to get to knowbetter Griff, and I think that’s ||| only fair. Let’s go freshen up and then we can go there” She was right, of course she was so I told the serv ant to let them know we accepted the invitation and then we made our way back to our chambers. “Why didn’t you just mindlink them?” Ayla asked the second the serv ant walked off. So I explained to her that would make it a bit awkward for the se rvant. Who then had to walk off to

either help my parents prepare for the dinner or to retire for the night. She agreed that in cases like this, it was better to just let the serv ant tell my parents. As she was going to go there regardless. She toldto go shower first as she needed to pick out something to wear. I did but I was hoping she would joinin the shower as she was done picking out an outfit but she never did. And when I got out she was waiting forat the end of the bed, doing something on her phone. I know it was a little silly we didn’t have to be together all the time. We could just shower separately and most likely it would have made us late if she had gotten in the shower with me. It just felt like something was a little off, and all I could do was wait hoping that it was just her nerves for going to have dinner with my parents. As official mates for the first time, I know she still struggled with it a little bit. She might have been able to accept me. And she did beyond good with the things expected of the prince’s mate like the sudden photoshoot yesterday. But all the trauma and the hurt she has gone through weren’t just about to disappear. I would need to love her until she believed it with every fiber of her being. Not that would stop loving her after that. *** At the start of the dinner, she was a little quiet and it reassuredthe only thing that was going on was her nerves. The more we ate, the more we chatted and the more we laughed, the more relaxed she got. I could see her visibly relax her b*dy going softer not as uptight and rigid as she was for the first minutes. When dinner was ready she 50 801 00:31 insisted on helping my mother clear the table and clean up the kitchen. I always loved that Mom and Dad hardly had serv ants clean their personal quarters. As a kid it always madefeel more normal. Sitting at the kitchen table seeing one of my parents cook or clean the kitchen, doing the dishes always felt homely. It wouldn’t have been a big dealbreaker if Ayla had wanted to take more advantage of the fact we did have serva nts. Still seeing our wishes aligning for yet another thing, something that would severely shape the lives of our pups madesmile. “Boy, you’re smitten your face tells an entire story” Dad chuckled at me. I could tell he liked it. I had no other choice but to agree with him, because I was smitten with her. He was happy for me,

especially since he could see the change in Ayla too. He was convinced she was just as smitteri with me. I didn’t know if that was true, I felt like she wasn’t exactly there yet but this was the one thing I could be patient about. Mostly because I wanted her happy, and I was a little simp for my mate according to Dillion. He stated he was a simp for Collin so he could tell. When we are back in our bedroom however the mood shifts again, Ayla looks even more nervous than she was before dinner and it’s makingworry. Even more so when she tellsto sit down because we need to talk. “I hope this doesn’t change how you feel aboutGriff, and maybe I should have told you before. But I was just trying to find the best way to tell you something like this. Please promisenot to get mad or do anything. Not until you hear the full story okay?” Her words do not sootheat all, I just give her a tight nod with my jaw clenching and then she begins to speak 77.20%