Evans
The cabin is loud, but in the best way. Although to call it a cabin is an understatement, because it’s huge. Family photos line the walls of the hallway, and knicknacks live on shelves.
We enter a massive open kitchen that smells like garlic bread and along one wall bifold doors open out onto a porch that appears to wrap around most of the cabin.
And I don’t blame them, because the view is spectacular.
From here, the house looks out across the lake, an endless expanse of glistening stillwater and woodlands.
What more could you want when you were trying to run away from your future?
Two older women stand at the island counter preparing food.
They nudge each other and giggle as they see Percy and Hunter enter before a look of surprise flashes on their faces when they spot me.
For a moment, I feel guilty. Like maybe I shouldn’t have come.
But then Hunter would be here with Percy, and I’d be… that wasn’t an option.
“No, it was a last minute change of plans, mother dearest. You’re not senile. Yet.”
She playfully slaps her son's arm as he teases her.
Even if I didn’t know she was Hunter‘s mom, I would’ve guessed.
They share the same almond shaped blue eyes, and wry smile.
She’s wearing a patchwork dress, but her feet are bare.
Bangles jangle around her wrist and her dark curly hair is fastened back with a long silver pin. She looks relaxed. Happy.
The other lady is quickly introduced as the housekeeper, Mrs Marlow, and for a moment I stand there. This is how they treat their housekeeper? Like she’s one of the family?
I don’t think my father even knew our housekeeper’s name. And I only had a relationship with Mrs. Smeathers because often when I visited home she was the only person around. I’d spent many evenings coming home to our empty mansion, to find Mrs Smeathers waiting with dinner.
Two small children rush in, chasing one another, screaming and laughing as they barge past us.
“Hey! Watch it, Thing one and Thing two!” Hunter chides as he grabs one, lifting them up so they were hanging upside squealing.
Without thinking, I snag the other one and do the same.
He looks over at me for a moment, a questioning look on his face and I shrug, which shakes the small child in my arms who only laughs.
I don’t know what I’m doing man, but it looked fun.
The kid pulls themselves up slightly into a half curl and gives me a wonky smile. They have two front teeth missing, and big blue eyes. “Who are you?”
“I’m Evans. I’m Hunter’s best friend.” I don’t know why I say best friend and my pheromones spike, like I’m staking some sort of claim on him, but I like how it makes Percy glance away, a pink flush on his cheeks.
“Hunter doesn’t have any friends.” The other twin says with a tinkling giggle as they squirm in Hunter’s grip. “Ivii says he’s a broody artist which means he needs to be lonely and dramatic.”
"Broody means wanting babies," the sibling I’m holding adds helpfully. “Like hens!”
“You cheeky shit,” Hunter growls, grabbing his sister into a headlock.
“I said brooding! brOODING!” She screeches as she tries to fight his grip, slapping and pinching his arm while they tussle, the twin still in his grip getting shaken like a cocktail being mixed.
Percy covers his mouth with his hand as he laughs, standing back and watching the chaos.
“Evans, I think my siblings need to cool off in the lake. What do you think?” He threatens as he starts shuffling out towards the porch. I know he doesn’t mean it, but I’m still curious to see how far he’ll get as I follow him.
Hunter‘s mother doesn’t look up as she goes back to chopping some cucumber into thin slices. With the tired sigh of a parent who has experienced this before, she sings out, “Don’t murder your siblings.”
“But honey, think of what we could buy with all the saved tuition fees?” A deep masculine voice calls out from the porch, “You could get that craft room.”
She lifts her knife, and cackles. “I’m getting that craft room anyway.”
A handsome older man steps into view, “Stop the bloodshed! Food is ready!”
His father, Lyle, is not what I’m expecting. He doesn’t always accompany Diana to Oakley to visit Hunter, so I’d only seen him briefly over the years.
I think I assumed that outside formal settings, he’d be more of a hippie or boho parent, like his wife and given how Hunter is.
Instead I’m greeted by a man who looks like he belongs in a three-piece suit behind a large hand-carved desk, with his neatly trimmed grey beard and his salt and pepper hair.
His wide smile is the same as Ivii’s and he exudes alpha energy and power.
Hunter drops his siblings almost as if they’re made of hot rocks and so I carefully lower my squirming catch onto the floor before following the still bickering tribe out onto the decking.
There’s a scramble for seats and somehow, I end up sat opposite Hunter. He’s nestled between Percy and Ivii, who lean in close to talk to one another over him while I find myself sandwiched between the twins, Hollie and Harlow.
They’re almost identical, except Harlow has two teeth missing while Hollie only has one.
They also share Hunter‘s bright blue eyes, and dark hair, although Harlow’s hair is cut shorter.
When Hunter’s father plates the meat and places it on the table, taking a seat the head, I realise they all have his nose and high cheekbones.
The entire meal is chaos, but I don’t know why I expected anything less given the welcome we had.
I don’t believe in love, but I think that this is maybe what it’s supposed to look like.
There’s shouting, bickering and sharp words, but there’s also laughter and a warmth that I’ve only really experienced with my housemates.
He said they’re Fated Mates, and it’s like Shiloh and Zale. They just seem to naturally gravitate to one another, there’s this almost tangible connection between them. Hunter‘s parents look at each other with so much care and attention, that I think it must be love.
I wonder what that must feel like. To be so sure in your emotions, and so confident in how the other person feels for you that you can just…relax.
The sun dips below the trees, the last of the dying light scattering across the water. I try to ignore the way my skin feels like there are ants crawling all over me.
There’s a restless energy building and it seems to spike my pheromones every time I look across the table and see Percy laugh prettily, or every time Hunter smiles.
I don’t know why I’m acting like this.
It’s almost like jealousy I realise when the chocolate cake is brought out.
Diane stands behind me, and leans in with a hand placed gently on my shoulder, as my slice of cake is placed before me.
“Don’t they look great together?” she whispers with a conspiratory grin.
There’s a bitterness in my mouth as I nod, my smile tight.
They do.
Percy is the perfect omega.
But I know Hunter.
Ivii said their schedules weren’t lining up, but if Hunter wanted to spend time with him, he would.
How many nights has he spent on his art?
He’d be hunched over his sketchbook, consumed for hours on end.
He would drive three towns over to find a specific shade of green if he couldn’t make it himself.
I know, I’d gone with him. One time he waited three weeks for a certain type of clay from Europe, just to finish a birthday gift for Blake.
If he wanted to make it work, nothing would stop him. He became an alpha possessed.
So, while Percy may have been a great fuck, Hunter has already mentally moved on, like he always does. He’s a playboy, an artist with a wandering eye.
His mother laughs at something Percy and Ivii say, a joke about a project gone wrong in college.
Were his parents pressuring him to settle down?
It didn’t seem like it. The Ashbournes just seemed like they only wanted their children to be happy and healthy.
There didn’t seem to be any ulterior motives or powerplays about producing heirs.
Even Diane’s comment about them being good together was lighthearted.
Biting the inside of my cheek, I try to stop the thoughts racing through my head as Lyle tells us about the time Ivii had a jellybean stuck up her nose.
Even if Hunter did choose Percy as a mate, they couldn’t be Fated Mates otherwise he’d have already claimed him.
Would it be the end of the world if he took a Chosen Mate?
He wasn’t going to stop being my friend.
Just because Shiloh and Zale were now mated and looking at houses, didn’t mean Hunter would be the same.
He wouldn’t leave me.
Would he?
I think the evening air and the hours I spent in Hunter’s trunk has made me grumpy. I’m clearly overtired. And I’d managed to polish off two slabs of cake while everyone else was catching up, promising myself that tomorrow I’ll work it off with a run around the lake.
Even though it’s spring break, there’s no excuse to slack off and if Diane feeds me like this for the entire time, I’d be going back twice my usual size and I can only imagine what Coach would have to say about that.
After the meal ends, we sit out on the porch for a while longer until they bring out citronella candles and light the fire pit. A relaxed lull settles over the evening.
Getting to his feet, Hunter stretches. “We’ll be heading to my cabin now.”
My head snaps towards him. He has his own cabin? Why wouldn’t he stay with his family and his siblings? It’s fun here, loud and warm, full of laughter. I mean, Percy is a little irritating, but that’s nothing in the scheme of things.
As if he can tell what’s going on in my mind, he claps a hand on my shoulder and leans in. “You can stay here if you like, there’s a spare bedroom upstairs but I like my personal space.”