Claimed And Marked By Her Stepbrother Mates-Chapter 686-Marry Me, Marry Me Not

Helanie:

"Please pick up my call." I had been impatiently waiting for Norman to answer for the last half an hour.

"Ugh!" I grunted. "Neither of them are picking up."

I complained just as Emmet returned, holding two coffee mugs.

"He isn’t responding?" Emmet asked. When I gave him a nod, he sat down and started pulling out his phone as I accepted the coffee.

"Try his office number. He doesn’t always take his phone with him to the warehouse when he’s checking the weapons," Emmet suggested, giving me Norman’s office number. I almost slapped my forehead for never saving it.

Norman had stored all his numbers in my phone over time, but with my phone always breaking or other issues coming up, I had lost them more than once.

I called the number this time, and just like Emmet predicted, Norman picked up.

"Hmm?" he answered, sounding like he was too busy to talk.

"Norman," I said, feeling my heartbeat rise in my chest.

"Helanie? Wait—oh, shit. You must’ve been calling my phone. I left it outside," he started explaining almost instantly, but then paused, probably realizing I wouldn’t be calling like this unless it was serious.

"Is everything alright?" he asked, worried now.

"You’re coming home tonight, right?" he added, making me bite my bottom lip as I turned slightly to look at Emmet. The way he leaned back in his chair, narrowing his eyes as he watched my face, made me nervous.

I felt like I was trapped between my two mates.

"Yeah—about that," I said softly, standing up and strolling a few steps away from Emmet.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want him to hear, but I felt awkward talking to Norman, especially knowing how upset he was about to be.

"What’s going on? Is Emmet there? Are you okay?" Norman’s rising agitation made me anxiously swallow, my throat suddenly dry.

"We’re at the council building—the courthouse, specifically," I muttered, trying to control my breathing.

"What? What for?" The anxiety in his voice was unmistakable, and I hated how it made me feel.

So I decided to stop stalling and say it outright, to save both of us from more stress.

"Emmet wants to marry me—tonight," I said finally.

He went completely silent.

"What’s going on?" I heard Maximus say from behind him.

"Maximus should know, too," I said quickly.

As soon as I did, I heard Norman grunt in frustration.

"Emmet wants to marry you and you went to the courthouse with him? You’ve already made up your mind, so why are you calling me? Just to tell me? Or do I actually get a say in this?"

Norman’s voice was sharp and harsh, and I immediately closed my eyes, like that would somehow shield me from the sting of his words.

"Wait—what? What do you mean Emmet wants to marry her?" I heard Maximus yell, and then his voice came through more clearly. I could tell they had put the call on speaker. fгeewёbnoѵel_cσm

"Look," I began, "he said something about needing to be saved. Whatever he’s going through is stopping him from telling me the whole truth."

I stopped talking as Maximus began to argue.

"He’s using that as an excuse to marry you. Does that not strike you as suspicious?" he grunted, and I bit the inside of my cheek.

"I just want to know, Norman, what if Maximus wants to marry me in the future?" I asked, genuinely trying to understand why they were so opposed to Emmet.

"That will be between you and Maximus. But we’ll all sit down and talk about it first," Norman said, making me wrinkle my nose at his hypocrisy.

"So I’m calling you to talk about it," I muttered. It’s not like Emmet and I got married, we were waiting for them to pick up our calls.

"Okay, so it’s discussed, and it’s decided. You will not marry him," Maximus declared from the other side.

I closed my eyes again.

"May I know the reason why?" I asked, hoping one of them would finally explain.

"Because we don’t want it. Is that not enough of a reason?" Norman groaned.

I started biting my nails.

What was I supposed to do now?

But I hadn’t realized that Emmet had been watching me the entire time. He came over like a gust of wind, snatching the phone from my hands. When I reached out to get it back, he raised a finger, signaling me not to interfere.

I didn’t want the brothers to argue again, so I stepped back.

"Hey," Emmet said into the phone, his voice unnaturally cheerful, "it was just a joke. We were bored and decided to pull a little prank. We’re actually stopping by a café to grab something to eat and then we’ll be on our way."

I felt my heart shrink in my chest.

"Yeah, don’t worry. Your wife will be back to you in no time," he added through gritted teeth, then hung up and handed the phone back to me. Without even glancing at me, he turned and stormed off.

"Emmet—!" I called after him, briskly following, but he didn’t stop. He kept walking until he slipped inside the car.

’Did we do something wrong?’ I asked my wolf.

’Maybe we should have just told our mates without listening to their arguments. I don’t know, Helanie. It’s like they have issues and we’re the ones paying for it,’ my wolf replied.

She was right. I didn’t understand why I was being made to suffer through this. At least one of them should’ve explained why they were so strongly against the idea of me being with Emmet now.

I got inside the car and stared out the window as we hit the road again.

"Emmet, we shouldn’t have left like that. You said it was important for you to get married tonight or else it’d be too late. I want to save you from whatever danger you’re running from," I said, turning to look at him, feeling my heart ache. I didn’t say it to my mates, out of fear of their scolding, but I wanted to marry Emmet because I loved him.

"Yeah, I guess that was my mistake," he replied. "I put my burden on you. Now, I don’t want to marry you anymore, Helanie."

Those words hit me like a stone to the chest.

I was left speechless.

This chapter is updat𝙚d by f(r)eew𝒆bn(o)vel.com