"I actually like it here." Arthur speaks as soon as he walks into the first floor of the blacksmith. "I got to make a snowman with the kids."
"That's great, sweetie." Pascale tells him half-heartedly, not even listening to her son who is rambling on about the snowman and how much he enjoys the snow since in Monaco is doesn't snow.
For only brief moments around dinner time or in the morning did Charles or the others see Max. The alpha was either always with an excuse of going out hunting or busy with the blacksmith. As if the conversation of a week before had him still fuming about since his mother had refused to elaborate on the subject.
"I'm out hunting!" Max shouts.
"Take the men with you!" Pascale shouts as she starts to get annoyed and needs more peace in this room since Lorenzo and her husband are in a heated discussion while Arthur is still bugging her about the snowman while Charles is well, doing his usual, reading in a corner and ignoring the rest of the world.
"Mom!" Arthur and Charles shout at the same time.
"Fine, up! Let's get moving!" Max says before he is out of the door in nothing but his long sleeved green shirt, some leather boots with fur stuffed in and leather pants.
Charles groans as he gets up from his seat. He hates going out hunting. He's not gifted at any of those things. But surely he gets up with Sophie handing him two jackets. "Take care of Max for me. He's as stubborn as a mule."
Charles nods his head as he is the first to head down the stairs to find Max with a couple of bows and many arrows. Sharpening the ends of the flints while looking down. His body not indicating to anything that it is cold in the shop since Max hadn't lit the fireplace at all.
"Wear this." Charles says as he holds the jacket out to Max.
"No, it restricts my hunting besides I'm used to the cold." Max says before looking up at the shivering prince. "You should put on the jacket, before you turn blue."
"You're so annoying, you know." Charles says to Max.
"Like you're a saint." Max says before turning around and heading out of the shop without Charles or the other men.
"Wait! We're suppose to go with you!" Charles shouts as Max shakes his head.
The dutchman gives him a smirk at the door opening while leaning against the doorpost. As if he is taunting the young prince with the smile on his face which almost says that it's not gonna happen that they are coming with. Before Charles can say anymore, Max salutes him and walks out of the blacksmith.
"Max!" Charles shouts before running after the mule like man. He just in time catches the dutchman before he could disappear somewhere within the crowd. "We have to go with you!" Charles shouts louder.
For some reason, Charles can see the people starting to pause at what they are doing, looking with pity at the prince. Which he doesn't seem to get, what had happened for Max to be this cold and incredibly rude to everyone.
"What is wrong with you?! You shut us out like we're a plaque! Like you're above royalty and that we aren't good enough for you!" Charles shouts out for everyone to hear.
Unknown to the two is that both their families had heard Charles starting to shout at Max. Not that Max cares that Charles is causing a scene in the middle of the village. Everything leaves him cold, he doesn't care about anything.
"Me? You wanna know something? You're desperate, so desperate about having a mate, it sickens me. Get it through your head, prince, i don't want you. Not now, not ever." Max says bitterly.
Charles can feel the tears blur his eyes, the aching in his chest as this sounds as rejection. He would never have a chance of finding love again, hell, he would never be able to have kids. Omegas can only get pregnant with their mates or the ones that got marked.
"Are you rejecting me?" Charles asks, his voice breaking and trembling with fear.
"Didn't i just say that?" Max says, looking at the prince.
Charles can feel his heart break, the feeling of rejection sinking in as he can do nothing but let the grief and unwanted from his mate consume him to the point that he knows that he will never have a family or a good mate for that matter.
"You know that if you reject me, you and i both will be alone forever. No kids, nothing. Is that what you want?" Charles tries to have Max take his words back.
"I rather go in solitude than spent my life anywhere near a mate. I'm not a lover, I'm a monster." max says before turning away from Charles and walking off into the woods.
Charles isn't going to drop the subject about this anytime soon. He wants Max, he needs his mate. He had never backed down from a good challenge, he knows that he can have Max change his mind. Maybe not today but trying to talk some sense into Max might do the trick.
"What could make you a monster, Max? What?" Charles shouts as he follows the dutchman into the forest.
Max rolls his eyes as he shakes his head, of course the stupid prince had followed him and not dropped the subjects. What had he expected from an omega, they are needy and will always want their mates.
"Go away." Max groans.
"No! You're my mate and i would be damned if i let you decide this matter on your own. I got a say in this too, i want you! With all the pros and cons! I don't care!" Charles shouts as he tries to keep up with Max.
Who seems to be able to move speedy and swiftly through the thick layer snowed ground while Charles is having trouble getting through. His physic is not something he can be proud of since he can do nothing but heave at the way Max is walking.
"Oh, so you would want a monster as mate? I killed an entire army with my bare hands in rage because my sister's mate got killed by the king! He was my best friend! I! I watched him die as the king had ordered his execution!" Max turns around shouting at Charles. "You know what is even more fucked up than knowing that you have the ability to kill so easily?! The fact that my father is that son of a mother fucking bitch, who starves the entire kingdom for his own selfish and greedy needs!"
Charles stands there, flabbergasted by the fact that Max had so easily snapped at him like that. If it had been anyone else that had shouted like that at him, he would have been frightened but not Max, not his mate. His believe that Max won't hurt him, keeping him confident.
"You heard?" Charles asks softly, not trying to wind the man up even more.
"Of fucking course! I stood there the entire time! I grew up with my mother saying i got my father's temper! I even have seen the posters of the king and i know i look a lot like him. I may be a simple commoner but I'm not that stupid!" Max says before dropping in the cold snow.
"You're not a commoner, you're a prince. But despite the fact that you may look like the king and be related by blood to him but you are nothing like him. You defend your town from him and i don't know what else you have done but i doubt that you have one evil bone in your body." Charles says as he sits down next to Max in the snow.
Without warning, the dutchman lays his head on his shoulder. Charles considers this as a win in the books of Max. Who has shown more emotions in the last hour then in the past week.
"I will end up hurting you." Max says softly.
"No, you won't. You're protective and that has shown." Charles tells Max as he links their fingers together, surprising the dutchman.
"You really aren't gonna give up, are you?" Max asks, his voice almost soft and longing but it could also have been Charles his imagination.
"Not now, not ever. I want no one else then you," Charles says almost too loving to the the alpha.
"Why not? I could so easily hurt you and I will end up doing so one way or another. I don't deserve anyone one, i could so easily be like my father. I always feared that i would be by how my mother always told me that my temper and attitude reminded her of him." Max says to the prince.
Charles can feel the vulnerability that Max shows, the need for him to show that he is just a big scared teddy bear with a temper because he feels done unjust and left out by so many things that it's sort of his resort to have an outlet.
"Because i have a gut feeling that you're more then just my mate. I don't know how or why i feel that way, i just believe that i was paired with you for a reason." Charles explains, he would be damned to let someone go that knows what his father is like and fears to be like that.
"You're a hopeless romantic." Max scoffs with a grin on his face.
He lifts his head from the prince's shoulder and gets up from the ground. Dusting off his pants before he grabs his bow and arrow to hunt. Charles follows suit with the other prince, who seems to ignore the fact that he is.
Charles gets a sly grin on his lips before he scoops up some snow from the ground, balling it up before he aims it at the alpha. It hits the dutch alpha on the back of his head, sliding down his neck into his shirt. For a moment his heart drops as he watches the shoulders of the alpha tense and turn around with a dark look.
"I-I." He tries to find the words to tell the alpha to justify his actions and why he did what he did but before he could, he feels a cold ball of snow hit him right in the face. And a loud fit of laughter following.
He wipes the snow from his face and throws another ball of snow back at the alpha, who he now has realised isn't angry at all and has joined into the fun. He expects a snow ball back at him but he is greeted with a body colliding with his, pushed into the snow.
"Max!" Charles whines as he gets a handful of snow stuffed into his mouth.
Max laughs, ruffling the prince's brown hair. Charles can't help but laugh as the alpha looks years younger then he had done so before. Enjoying the laugh of the alpha before he turns both around to shove the alpha into the snow himself.
Max snickers at the prince before he grabs some snow to smear it across the prince's face, whining as the alpha does that.
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"I hate you." Charles whines as he sits with a thick blanket before the fireplace, shivering as he had gotten terribly cold and sniffling of a cold ever since.
Max snickering beside him as he looks less effected and yet still wearing a blanket around his shoulders. Enjoying the cold of the younger one. Not being too bothered by the cold that he has suffered.
"You started it." Max tells him in a teasing tone.
"Yes but you shoved me into the show." Charles grumbles.
"I didn't know you were such a wimp." Max tells the prince with a cheeky grin on his face.
"Well not all of us are build like you." Charles huffs, crossing his arms.
"It would be weird if you were." Max snickers.
Charles whines before he shoves the cheeky alpha, who just laughs in a teasing tone. The rest of them watching confused and a bit scared of what had kust happened between them. Too afraid to ask what had happened, in fear that Max would go back tl being a grumpy alpha.
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A/n: sorry i am gone for so long, i had a bad writers block and then some things happened for me to not want to write and I didn't have an inspiration since my grandpa is terribly ill and I'm still trying to deal with the new reality of it so I'm not saying I'm gonna be back entirely, I'm not sure how much i will be updating but i will finish this book, that's a given.
Bye!