"He's going to be here in a week's time!" She exclaimed as she barged into her cousin room.

Dani was already in bed and like the warrior she was, she shot up even before Cari had uttered her first word. "What the heck Cari?" She demanded.

"You called him." Cari accused.

Her cousin shifted her feet to the floor so that she could face her. "Yeah," she agreed in a dry annoyed tone. "You were being a baby about it and moping around worse than when you got here."

Cari reared back a bit at that, as if her cousin had just slapped her. "No I wasn't." She denied.

Dani rolled her eyes at that. "You were walking around like someone had just killed your dog right in front of you. And yes I called him, you'd set him up to fail."

"No," she said through her teeth, annoyed at the unfair accusation. "I didn't." Her heart sank, Dani was the last person she'd expected to be against her.

"Cari," her cousin emphasized. "There was no way he was going to win. If he called, you were going to panic and tell him he called too soon or something. Even though your brain has been torturing you with ideas that he hasn't called because he gave up on you."

Cari bit her lip, unwilling to concede her cousin might be right. "What are you now? Our grandmother?" She deflected.

Her cousin walked over to her chest of drawers, opened up the second one then took out two packets of cheese snacks. Cari caught the one Dani threw at her before they both sat on the bed. Dani had her back against her headboard and Cari sat near the base facing her.

"She's the one who put me up to it. How do you think I got his number?"

Cari shivered at that. "Nana is scary."

Dani crunched on some cheesy goodness. "Right?" She agreed.

"I don't know how you do it, living with her."

It was a recurring conversion, though both girls loved their Nana and had no problem living with her. "I deserve a royal badge of service." Dani deadpanned.

Cari laughed, the first free laugh she could remember having in a long time. Which meant Dani had been right to call Andre. Or maybe their grandmother had been right to play puppet master. Not that Cari had any plans to tell her that. It'd invite more of her meddlesomeness.

"Hey, do you think Nana has ever advised the royal family with her powers? I know the king and queen keep track of human mates' abilities. They have to be aware of hers."

Dani paused to think about that then shrugged her shoulders. "Don't know. I doubt she'd ever tell, Nana's good at keeping secrets." She met her gaze meaningfully. "Your mate was angry at her for not making sure you were sent to the castle."

A thrill raced down her spine at that. She couldn't help the pleased smile that bloomed on her face. "He was?"

Dani smiled back at her, that conspiratory smile girls had when they were sharing secrets about a boy one of them liked. "Yeah, when I explained about Nana he said..." Dani deepened her voice. "You might be willing to trust her inane reasons for making her granddaughter suffer but I'm not."

Cari giggled, pleasure settling her centre as she held those words to her heart. Dani joined her and they looked at each other with happiness. "He said that?"

"Yeah. He really seems to care about you. He didn't call you because he felt you still needed space. He thought you'd call when you were ready."

Cari winced. "You're right, I did set him up to fail."

Dani held out her hand and Cari took it. "Hey, it's okay. Everything is going to be okay. You reserve to be happy and you will be."

Tears filled Cari's eyes at that. After all she'd been through, it was nice to have someone believe in her. "Thanks."

"No need for that Cuz."

Cari sniffed her tears away then gave her cousin a tentative smile. "I haven't asked how you're doing." She admitted. "Sorry."

Her cousin's face fell a bit and she avoided Cari's gaze. "I'm good." She stated though her voice lacked that sincerity that testified to her truth.

"You know I'm here for you anytime you want to talk right?"

Dani gave her a true smile. "I know." she rallied once again. "But right now we're concentrating on your happy news."

Cari nodded then smiled. "How did he sound?"

Dani leaned forward. "He has an accent, a sexy European one."

Cari squealed then covered her mouth so she wouldn't wake anyone who might be sleeping already. Once again she giggled and her cousin joined her. She wanted to stop herself, she was too old for this kind of behavior but she just couldn't help it.

Even though she'd talked to him, she needed to hear what her cousin thought. It made it real somehow. "He sounded so cultured." Dani continued, then recounted every word of their conversion while Cari drank it up.

Even as she still found it hard to believe this was really happening her heart couldn't help but hope. She took out her phone and opened the photo she'd been looking at constantly for the past five days.

"Is that him?" Dani asked and she nodded. "Can I see?" Her cousin enthused and Cari passed on the photo.

"OMG!" Dani screamed. "He's so hot!"

Cari smiled as she nodded then she frowned a bit. "He looks a lot like Xander though."

"No way, Xander can only wish to have that bad boy aura on him. Andre has power any blind person can see, not the whiny spoiled brat kind either."

Cari took her phone from her and Dani scooted over so that they could both see. "He does seem intense."

"He looks like the type to hold you close and tear into anyone stupid enough to look at you funny."

Cari looked at her cousin with her hope in her eyes. "You think?"

"He was really mad at Nana. I hope bimbo Barbie doesn't try anything silly. I have a feeling he'd love an excuse to put her in her place."

Cari looked into her nearly finished bag of snacks. "I still can't believe Claire knew he was my mate and decided to take him."

"You've never been able to see her for who she is." Dani said quietly.

She shook her head. "Everyone in the pack loves her, she can't be that bad. Maybe she'd always loved Xander and was afraid to lose him."

"That's no excuse Cari."

"Yeah." She looked up to meet Dani's sympathetic eyes. "It's better to believe that than to believe my own sister would hate me that much."

"She's always been jealousy of you."

Cari frowned unable to comprehend that. "Why? She's the one who had all the friends while I had just the one. Everyone wanted to be her or be seen with her. She's the most popular person in the pack."

"But every one of those people would bring her down at the first chance. Besides, she can make people love her. That's got to make it hard to believe they truly care for her."

"Shouldn't that have made her want to wait for her mate? Someone who'd truly love her?"

Her cousin gave her mock shocked look. "And risk he wouldn't be an Alpha?"

Cari sighed. "I don't understand why that's so important."

"We're beta bloods Cari, we either mate betas or alphas unless we're too weak."

"And I'm supposed to be the weak twin."

"Doubtful, but Claire probably thought she'd get the weak mate so why take the chance?"

"Yeah." She sighed.

"Anyway." Dani drawled. "You better go to bed since we have a lot of shopping to do tomorrow."

Cari frowned at that. "Shopping?" She asked, Dani knew she hated shopping. "Why?"

Her cousin smiled and gave her an excited but conspiratory smile. "The royals are coming with your mate." She whispered.

She froze. The royals? She was going to see the royals, be presented to them? She couldn't... "Why?"

"Nana said they're going to make an example of Claire and Xander."

That didn't sound good. All Cari wanted was to live her life without having everyone knowing what was happening in her life. If the royals came then the surrounding alphas and important humans would come. Everyone would know what had happened, would know her shame.

"We need to get a start to get ahead of everyone before they find out."

"Okay." She agreed while inside she was screaming. His was she going to handle meeting the royals? "I better go and sleep."

"Goodnight."

"Nite."