The guy, Birch as Thorn called him, laughed.
”Is he your real brother?”
Thorn pulled out of me. “Unfortunately.”
Surprise rippled through me as Thorn carefully got off me and grabbed our clothes, helping me get dressed before himself.
Once our clothes were on, he faced his brother again. “You can turn back around.”
Birch turned, and I let out a small gasp. Thorn’s brother looked so much like him. They had the same nose, the same eyes, and the same long blue hair. The only real difference was their face structure. Birch was more slender with less muscle, and he had ice wraith tattoos wrapping around his biceps. Both brothers wore the same royal uniform.
A teasing smile formed on his brother’s face as he raked his eyes over me. “Well, hi, gorgeous. My name is Birch. Prince Birch.”
“I’m Wren.” I held up the hand with Thorn’s mate mark. “Thorn’s mate.”
Surprise took over his expression, and he held up his hands. “Sorry, bro, I didn’t mean to flirt with your mate.”
Thorn rolled his eyes. “Of course you didn’t. It’s not like you don’t flirt with everything that moves.”
“Hey, no need to be rude. I’m sorry.”
“I’m just really surprised that you have a brother.” I flicked my gaze to my mate, and my heart twisted. How could I have not known that? He knew everything about me, but clearly I didn’t know everything about him.
“You didn’t tell your mate you had a brother?” Birch held his hand to his chest with a dramatically pained face. “I’m hurt.”
Thorn lifted a finger and shot an ice spear at him.
Birch stepped out of the way with a frown. “Not cool. Are you bringing her to meet Mom and Dad?”
“No, we have to get back to Kalista. We came for the crystal.”
“Oh, is that so?” Birch stepped over and pulled one off and handed it to me.
I took it from him and stepped a little closer to Thorn. “Thanks.”
“So, how did you guys meet?”
Thorn and I shared a glance as nostalgia shimmered through our bond.
“I snuck away to Kalista, up in the arctic when I was six or so. I played in the woods and ran into her there.” Thorn smiled. “She had also been sneaking out of her village to play.”
“It wasn’t playing as much as I had to run out there to shift into my fox form to release my magical energy,” I muttered before smiling. “When I ran into you, I knew what you were immediately.”
He shook his head with a chuckle. “She ran from me at first, so I tackled her into the snow. Wren was my first encounter with anything other than fae.”
“And then when I screamed, he clamped his hand over my mouth.” I shot a glare at him.
“Sorry.” He shifted on his feet. “I had to make her listen, and I told her I wouldn’t hurt her. When I removed my hand and got off her, she made me stand five feet back. And then, we just started talking and getting to know each other.”
“We talked about everything.”
Clearly not everything,I thought bitterly as I flicked my gaze from his brother back to him. Thorn’s brow went up, but I tried to cover up my thought with something more positive. “Well, I didn’t tell you my name for a year.”
“And a half,” he grumbled. “So I called you Kit as your name for the first part of our friendship.” He smirked, but concern twinkled in his gaze.
“We met every single day since.”
“So she’s the reason you were always running off.” Birch crossed his arms behind his head.
