Chapter 41 Warren
WARREN
Warren and Vivian’s second day in Orlando was shaping up to be even better than the first. They’d both gotten a good night’s sleep, and they’d taken an Uber to Magic Kingdom first thing after showering and getting ready.
Warren didn’t regret using Harland’s money to splurge on the Premier Pass.
It was a gorgeous Florida winter day, the temperature in the mid-seventies, and since they didn’t have to spend all day waiting in line, Warren and Vivian could walk around the park and shop, watch the parade, and sit and have an ice cream without any stress.
It was delightfully magical.
“It would have been fine if we had to wait in line,” Vivian said, eating an ice cream shaped like Mickey’s head. They’d skipped breakfast in favor of snacks. “I mean. I’m glad we don’t have to, but it would have been fun.”
“How would it have been fun?” Warren asked, his Dole Whip soft-serve ice cream dripping down onto his hand. It was melting much faster than he’d expected.
Vivian shrugged. “We would have talked, played Heads-Up, and made up stories about the other people in line. It would have been cute, in like a nostalgic way.”
That was true, Warren supposed. He had very fond memories of playing Heads-Up with Vivian and their grandmother the last time they were in Disneyland.
“We’re still waiting in some lines,” Warren said. “We can still do all that.”
The Premier Pass didn’t let Warren and Vivian skip the entire line. There was usually a five-to-twenty-minute wait – at least that had been the case the day before in Hollywood Studios.
Vivian ate the last of her Mickey bar and reached for her phone. “You’re right. I’m going to download it.” She glanced at his messy hands and snorted. “Did you forget how to eat ice cream?”
“It’s melting really fast!”
“Sure,” Vivian said, judging him. “I’ll go get you a napkin.”
When she came back, Warren asked, “So is Disneyland living up to your expectations?”
Vivian hit him with her tote. The metal water bottle inside hit his arm hard enough that it actually hurt a little.
“I’m going to do that every time you call it Disneyland. We are in Disney World. The ‘land’ is in Anaheim.”
Warren didn’t see how that mattered. Their grandmother had always called it Disneyland, and he’d gotten in the habit from her.
“Whatever it’s called, are you having fun?”
Vivian grinned and sat down next to him on the bench. “I am. Thanks for coming with me.”
He gave her a one-armed hug. “Thanks for inviting me.”
After finishing their pre-lunch treat, Vivian checked the app to see what she wanted to do next. Warren was happy to let her take the lead, going along with whatever she wanted.
“Oh, fun! We can go meet Gaston.” Vivian jumped up. “Come on, we have to get in line before he gets there. We can play Heads-Up while we wait.”
Warren followed as she started speedwalking down the crowded path. “They have villain meet-and-greets?”
“For Gaston they do. If you’re lucky, he’ll roast you for being small and scrawny.”
Warren had a brief moment of panic that his sister somehow knew that he enjoyed being bullied in bed – which was something he hadn’t really known about until recently – but then he realized that she was just referring to a bit that the actor did.
He breathed a sigh of relief. Then he frowned, offended. “I’m not scrawny!”
Vivian laughed.
Gaston was played by a disturbingly hot guy who spent most of the meet-and-greet bragging to Vivian about how great he was.
It was fun, and Warren and Vivian got a nice picture of the two of them standing on either side of Gaston as he flexed.
Vivian laughed as they walked away. “He was so into you,” she said.
Warren shot her a confused look. “He barely talked to me.”
“He totally licked his lips when he was looking at you, and he checked out your ass when you bent over to pick up my tote.”
Warren scoffed. Vivian could be so ridiculous. “He was not. He was flirting with you the whole time.”
“That wasn’t flirting, that was him doing a character. Trust me. I can tell when a guy is flirting with me. He wanted to bend you over and-”
“Do not finish that sentence,” Warren interrupted.
“I’m just saying. I know when I’m being ignored in favor of the gay guy.”
Warren changed the subject. It didn’t matter if Gaston had flirted with him. He had something much better at home.
“Where to now?”
Vivian pulled out her phone and spent a moment looking at the app. “Do you want to get lunch? We can order it now and pick it up in twenty minutes.”
Warren wasn’t particularly hungry after his ice cream, but he wasn’t stuffed. He could eat.
“Sure.”
Vivian handed him her phone and let him pick out his food on the app. She then ordered for herself and put the phone back in her tote. “Great, that gives us just enough time to go ride It’s a Small World.”
The ride was right up ahead.
Warren scanned the pass on his phone that let him skip the line and walked down the ramp to the boats. They waited their turn and then climbed into one of the boats, taking a seat in the middle row, behind an old lady who needed help getting into the boat and who immediately closed her eyes.
She looked like she was preparing to take a nap.
The boat dipped, rocking as someone settled into the row behind them.
Warren didn’t pay the people any attention until he heard Max’s familiar voice grumble, “Why are we doing this? I want to ride Tron. This is such a fucking waste of time.”
Warren turned around and promptly froze. It was Max, but there were two of him. He stared, taking in the familiar features and wondering what the fuck was going on.
Max was adopted. Did he have two triplets he didn’t know about? If they had been separated at birth, then Warren had just stumbled onto something life-altering for his mate.
Had Max ever wondered if he had siblings? Warren didn’t know how much Max knew about his adoption. What if he’d spent his whole life wondering if he had a biological family, and now Warren had just stumbled across them?
The two guys looked at him, noses lifting as they scented the air. They had different haircuts than Max – military short, almost to the point of being a buzzcut – and one of them had a scar over his nose, but other than that, it could have been Max and his clone sitting behind him.
Warren had to say something. Max would have told him if he was a triplet, which meant that he didn’t know, which meant that Warren had found his long-lost brothers.
“Warren?” Vivian prompted, her voice low.
Warren realized that he was straight up staring at the two men.
“Why do you smell weird?” the one with the scar over his nose asked. He was leaning back a little, as though Warren’s very presence was pushing him away.
Before Warren could answer, the other guy wrinkled his nose in disgust. “I’m sorry, man, but you should not be out in public like that. That’s really rank.”
Warren blinked, subtly sniffing himself. He didn’t think he smelled bad. He’d showered, and his clothes were freshly laundered.
Were they talking about him being claimed?
Warren knew that werewolves could smell that.
If these guys had been adopted by humans like Max, then maybe they didn’t know about werewolf stuff.
Max had Harland to explain things to him, if these guys had muddled through on their own, they might not know what a claim even was.
“Excuse you?” Vivian said, shocked by the questions. She obviously recognized that the guys were werewolves, but she was fearless. “What did you just say to my brother?”
“I said he smells like shit,” the guy without the scar said. He leaned forward and enunciated. “S, H, I-”
“Okay, Dave, that’s enough,” the one with the scar interrupted.
“But, Brendan-”
“I said enough!”
Dave closed his mouth, but he kept shooting Warren an absolutely venomous glare. He looked rattled.
The guy with the scar, Brendan, stood up. “We’ll get the next one.”
Before Warren could object – he needed to figure out what was going on – an attendant rushed over.
“Sir, you need to sit down.”
“We’d like to ride the-”
“Sir, the boats are going to start moving. You need to sit down.”
Brendan sat down, glancing at Warren like he wished he was sitting anywhere but behind him,
Warren couldn’t believe he’d found Max’s brothers. His heart was racing.
The boats started moving, and as the attendant had warned, they set off onto the ride. The sound of the It’s a Small World song, a low hum in the background before, increased in volume.
Warren ignored the dancing dolls lining the floor on each side of the ride and kept staring at the two werewolves. Vivian, for her part, was looking at him with absolute confusion.
“You’re staring,” she hissed, trying to get him to turn away.
Warren couldn’t help it. Finally, he found his voice. “Do you know Max Major?”
“No,” Dave said. He narrowed his eyes. “That sounds like a pornstar.”
“Who’s Max Major?” Brendan asked, his expression pinched.
They really did not like being close to Warren. It had to be the claims Warren’s alphas had on him. Even if they didn’t know why they were reacting – which Warren was pretty sure they didn’t – they were picking up on the fact that Warren was off-limits loud and clear.
“He’s my mate,” Warren said. “You guys look exactly like him. Like – identical.”
“What?” Vivian said, as Dave and Brendan sat up with sudden focus.
“Your mate?” Brendan asked.
“Exactly like us?” Dave asked, skeptical.
Warren nodded yes to both questions.
“He’s a werewolf?” Brendan asked.
Seeing Max’s face looking at him without even a hint of lust or affection was bizarre.
“Yeah,” Warren said. He lowered his t-shirt to show off Max’s bite. “He claimed me.”
“He’s not the only one,” Dave said, wrinkling his nose and leaning back. “How much of a slut are you?”
Vivian hit him with her tote before Warren could reply. “You are so rude.”
Dave looked startled. He stared down at his arm where Vivian had hit him.