Chapter 24
HUSTON
Brotherly love
Our bears needed to run until they were worn out and couldn’t run any longer.
The problem was, they didn’t want to. They kept pushing us to go back to our mate and we kept having to tamp them down enough to regain control.
More than once one of us had to force a shift to assert power over our beast. It sucked, but it was better than the alternative, which was to mark a mate who didn’t understand what was happening.
And then there was the whole practicality of this mess that the human sides of us needed to deal with.
We couldn’t all be his mates, except we were.
How would that work? I for one knew I wasn’t strong enough to step aside for one of my brothers, even if he asked me to.
I’d try, my mate’s needs always coming before my own, but I just didn’t see it happening.
I shifted and waited for my brothers to do the same. I wasn’t sure how long we’d been running but my bear was worn out and for the first time, I felt strong enough to go back and have the conversation we all needed to have.
“My bear is under control.” I wasn’t sure how long that would be true. “Yours?”
“Yeah. Mostly,” Oberon pressed his eye with the heel of his hand. “He doesn’t want to wait to mark him. I think he’s afraid you two will and we will lose Candrin.”
Shit. I hadn’t even thought of that.
“You won’t mark him,” Tanner said firmly. “Not without permission.”
“He doesn’t know enough to consent,” I said. “We need to tell him—to explain it all.”
“And if he leaves us?” Oberon asked. “Then what? We just let our bears spiral until we can no longer control them?”
“Dramatic much?” Tanner rolled his eyes.
“History ignorant, much?” Oberon stared at him, almost begging for a fight.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” It was safe to say that I might have subdued my bear, but that didn’t mean I was calm and collected.
“You two are asshats. Didn’t you ever listen to Great-Great tell us about his childhood?
” Oberon asked. Great-Great was our great grandfather who passed away when I was seven.
He had us call him Great-Great because he thought great grandpa made him sound old and Great-Great made him the super cool relative.
“Not really,” I admitted. He would ramble on about all the people he lost in his life when he had too much to drink and as a kid I found it depressing and tuned him out. As an adult, I’d have still found it depressing, but at least I would’ve listened. “Why?”
~Oberon
How many days had we sat there waiting for our parents to save us from Great-Great’s rantings about how he was all alone and was ready to cross over? My great grandfather had two modes: Fun Grandpa and Depressing Grandpa. There was no in between.
Unlike my brothers, I listened to all of his stories.
I didn’t understand them, but I listened.
It wasn’t until I was a teen that it clicked into place that he hadn’t been confused about my other great grandfather, Great-Pop, and his brothers—he had been mated to them—all four of them.
I asked my parents to be sure I was right and they very sternly informed me, “We do not talk of such things,” which I took to mean that I was right.
“Great-Great had four mates. Great-Pop was only one of them.” And the only one still around when we were small, passing away a year before Great-Great. “His mates were all brothers.”
Hudson’s jaw dropped. “No… Yes?... How had I not realized that? I thought he just got names confused, he was always calling me Tanner or Dad.”
“I did too and then when I was a teen something told me I should ask our folks and they… they didn’t say I was right, but they also didn’t say I was wrong.”
“So we were doomed by some family trait of mate sharing?” Tanner shook his head. “Not that it matters. Either way he’s ours and if we don’t get back to him soon, he might think we abandoned him and leave.”
My bear heard that and ripped through me, taking his fur and barreling home.
My brothers followed right behind me only I didn’t know if it was their beasts or their human side that were in control.
I hoped it was the latter because there was a very real possibility I was going to need their help subduing my beast.
When we broke through the tree line, all three of us stopped short as our mate stepped out the back door.
“Don’t leave.” He spoke low, too soft for a human to hear. “I’m so confused.”
That made at least two of us, but at least I understood the mating and shifter part of the situation. Our mate was thrown into this completely unaware there was more on this earth than humans.
Tanner went toward him in his bear form, while Oberon and I shifted before doing so. It was six of one, half dozen of the other which was better; to see our cocks pointing in his direction or our huge ass bears.
Candrin sat on the steps and I took that as a good sign. He wasn't running or even scared from what I could tell, if anything he looked sad.
“Sorry we had to leave you,” I said, wanting to wipe the sadness from his face. “We needed to get our bears under control.”
I wasn’t going to sugar coat things. Our mate deserved nothing but the truth.
“And yet Tanner is still a bear.” Candrin held out his hand and Tanner went over to him. Our mate rubbed his head, no fear on his face. “I need to talk to you all. It’s hard when you’re like this. Bring Tanner back.”
~Tanner
When my mate rubbed his hand through my fur, I was sure I was dreaming and was about to be ripped from my sleep. There was no way it was happening in real life—only it was. I shifted back, not willing to deny my mate anything.
“We should get clothes,” Oberon said and Candrin shook his head. “Don’t leave yet. I need to understand.”
“Should we go inside then?” I asked.
“No. I can’t think in there. It smells like you all and has my head swirling.” Candrin felt it too. He didn't understand it, but he felt it. That was something.
I sat on the ground in front of the steps and my brothers sat next to me. I didn’t want to be standing taller than my mate as we spoke. He needed to feel like the one in control because he was. All of this was up to him to decide and it was terrifying.
“Explain why I want you all so badly I can’t think straight.”
I looked to my brothers and then back to Candrin. I could do this. I sucked in a deep breath, “We are shifters—bears. That means we are both man and beast.”
“I know. I have seen it with my eyes, but even your beasts are not dangerous, not even to me. I believe that.”
My heart swelled. He might not have all the facts, but he was already accepting us regardless. Thank fate.
“You are safer with us than anywhere else,” Huston said. “We are your mates. Your needs and happiness come before our own.”
“Mate. I need you to explain that to me like I’m… human.” He forced a chuckle. I wasn’t sure if it was from nerves or if he was attempting a joke.
“A mate is like a partner— a husband only more,” I said and he wrinkled his nose and tilted his head. Great, I was confusing him more than clearing things up.
“A mate is someone we recognize immediately as our always and forever. You sensed it too even though you aren’t a shifter. The way you were drawn to us, kept thinking about us, missed us while we were gone.”
“How did you know? I mean me throwing myself at you and sporting a hard on all the time was a give away, but about the rest of it?” He pulled his bottom lip in with his teeth.
“Fate tells us you are ours and the same happened to you.”
Candrin nodded. “That’s the thing though, let’s pretend the bears are not a barrier, because I don’t think they are…”
He was so nervous. All I wanted to do was hug him and reassure him, to let him know everything was okay. Little did I know his concerns weren’t at all what I’d been worried about.
“How does this work? Like I’ll be honest… I can’t think of a scenario where I would want to see you three… you know…together.”
“Same.” The three of us said at once and our mate let out a long sigh and for the first time I believed that everything would work out the way fate intended. If his only concern was triple-cest then the rest was smooth sailing.
Or at least doable.