Chapter 38 #2
After all, he can feel what our Alphas are feeling.
“We can talk about it in the living room,” Falcon says, when Shayne looks to him instead of answering Harper’s question. “I need to get out of this fucking suit.”
Yeah, his mood hasn’t improved one little bit.
Shayne nods slowly as he unbuttons his jacket and shrugs it off his shoulders.
“Give us a minute to change,” he tells us, before he starts to look vaguely suspicious. “Do I smell ice-cream?”
Harper laughs. “There was … an incident in the kitchen. So, we had to get sundaes from that place down the street.”
“An incident?” Shayne asks as Falcon slips past him and heads into the bedroom.
He barely glances at me as he steps into the room.
“It’s not as sexy as it sounds,” Harper admits.
Shayne’s eyebrows jump slightly, and he starts to look at Harper the way he usually does before he makes a move. It really doesn’t take much for Shayne to fall under our Omega’s spell.
I clear my throat before our Omega can distract our level-headed Alpha too much.
“Get over here, Harper. Let’s give them a minute to get changed.”
Shayne smiles wryly as Harper’s shoulder slump forward.
“I just want to hang this jacket up before it creases. I’ll be right out.”
“Okay, sure,” Harper practically whispers, before turning and shuffling toward me.
I put an arm around him when he reaches my side.
Shayne’s gaze meets mine as he gets to the bedroom doorway.
He’s usually an open book, but it’s impossible to read his expression before he leaves the hallway. I can’t help but wonder what the hell happened at that academy as I lead Harper back to the couch. I close the door, but I can hear it when our Alphas start to talk in the other room.
Their voices are too low to make out the words.
I guess, at least, Falcon’s talking.
He wasn’t doing much of that before.
We sit down and Harper rests his head against my shoulder.
I take his hand in mine. Then, I take a few deep breaths, as I try to mentally prepare for bad news. Whatever it is, we’ll survive. I’ve been Harper’s rock since we were teenagers. Nothing could ever change that.
A few minutes go by.
Harper pulls a cushion into his lap and starts to mess around with the zip using his free hand.
He quietly fiddles around with it while I hold his other hand in both of mine.
Shayne would never leave us.
It’s been a difficult month, but he’s shown us time and time again that he wants to be with us, that we’re his and he’s ours, and that nothing would ever change how he feels.
Falcon’s love is a lot less expressive. He has a hard time admitting his feelings.
Before he started to get moodier, I wouldn’t have doubted him.
Now? I don’t want to doubt him, but I don’t know what else to think.
So, I try not to let my thoughts wander. I clear my head, and I focus on my breathing.
It’s not long until I’m hearing all the sounds in the room as if they’re being amplified.
The ticking of the clock starts to seem hideously loud by the time the living room door finally creaks open.
Shayne steps into the room with his shirt sleeves rolled up, Falcon close behind now wearing his usual jeans and t-shirt combo. When Falcon closes the door, Harper pushes the cushion off his lap, and he pulls his hand away from mine.
“Well?” Harper asks, a hint of desperation in his tone.
He needs to know. We both do.
Whatever it is.
Shayne looks at Falcon, and our lead Alpha sighs softly.
“We have another true mate.”
We have another true mate?
I blink at him, the shock of his admission echoing through me.
“I thought … It felt like you were going to leave us,” I admit, frowning. “I don’t understand.”
Now, Falcon looks as shocked as I feel, at least until his shock melts into anger.
It’s a much more familiar expression for him.
Shayne touches his arm. “It’s fair for Jay to think that. You were isolating yourself from us, Falcon, and you weren’t acting like yourself. None of us knew what to think.”
Our lead Alpha closes his eyes, and we all know he’s silently counting to ten, trying to calm himself down.
When he opens them again, he looks calmer.
“I would never leave you. You’re my pack. I know I’ve been … Checked out lately. That’s because it felt like I was going crazy. When I’m like that, I don’t want any of you to be exposed to it. That’s all. I’m sorry if I made you think …” He shakes his head. “I’m just sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Harper tells him. “We get it.”
It’s not okay, at least, not completely, but I nod anyway.
What I need to say to our lead Alpha can wait.
There’s at least one more important thing to talk about tonight.
“So, this new true mate we have,” I start. “She’s the woman you helped the alliance rescue?”
Harper sucks in a breath as Falcon nods.
“Well, where is she?” Harper asks, looking like he’s ready to jump up and go looking for her, as if they somehow smuggled her into the apartment without us noticing.
“Not here,” I murmur, as I take his hand in mine.
He gives me a confused glance before he looks back at our Alphas.
“She doesn’t know.” Falcon looks down.
“Falcon didn’t know until tonight, either,” Shayne adds.
“But … How is that even possible?” Harper shakes his head.
He doesn’t get it because he knew every time, on first glance, only to have his perfume confirm it. I was sure when I met my mates, too, but I know when Falcon and Shayne first met things weren’t quite as clear.
“A lot of different things can impact true mate bonds,” Shayne says.
“It can be hard to identify a bond when there are other factors to consider. Look at me and Falcon. We knew each other for years before we saw what we were to each other. This woman … her name is Robin. She came from a bad situation. She’s doing well now, but she lives and works at the academy, and the woman who runs that place is protective of her, as she should be. ”
It makes sense that they wouldn’t recognize each other as mates under those circumstances and considering how terrible Falcon is at expressing his emotions, I get why he couldn’t figure out why he was so wound up while he was trying to get the alliance to let him visit her.
“Robin’s a Beta, right?” I ask, remembering that detail because Falcon was so obsessed with getting the chance to see her.
“Yes,” Shayne answers, when Falcon is slow to nod.
“So, she doesn’t know Falcon is her mate?”
“She felt something when I met her, but if she recognized either of us as her true mates, she didn’t mention it.” Shayne shrugs. “It can go that way with Betas.”
“Damn. Looks like we have a problem.”
Shayne nods. “It’s not insurmountable, but we have to be careful about how we approach the situation with the academy.”
“Can’t we just tell them?” Harper asks. “Surely, they’ll understand. It’s what they do, or what they’re supposed to do at those academies, isn’t it? Matching up mates?”
It’s a fair question, but, somehow, I doubt there’s a fair answer.
“It’s a little complicated,” Shayne admits.
“We’re going to have to be honest about our intentions,” Falcon says, sighing softly.
“Which is a problem why?” I ask.
“Robin might not be ready for a pack to declare her as their true mate.” Shayne shrugs again. “After everything she’s been through, she might refuse to see us if she knows that’s the reason we want to visit.”
“We can’t lie to her!” Harper says quickly.
“We have to tell her the truth,” I agree. “It’s going to be impossible to hide our feelings around her anyway. She’ll feel the connection we have soon, if she’s not starting to feel it already.”
Falcon nods as I’m speaking, and when I’m done, he adds his own agreement.
“She’s destined to be with us. No matter how we deal with this, that’s not going to change. I don’t want to lie to her, even if it might make things easier to begin with. However long it takes for her to accept a visit from us, we should be completely honest from the start.”
“Then, I guess that’s one decision made,” Shayne says, smiling.
I sit up straighter. “One decision? What’s the second?”
“How many nights should I book a hotel for in Cressidan City?”
Falcon has his phone in his hand when I look at him.
He’s already searching for a hotel.
Holy shit.
This is serious.
“Wait! What about Harper’s orchestra …”
“Fuck the orchestra!” Harper blurts before I can finish protesting.
He shrugs when I turn my stunned gaze on him.
“This is a true mate we’re talking about. I don’t need the practice sessions, and they’ll be happy to have me whenever we’re back, even if I miss performance nights. They can manage without me. This is way more important than that.”
“Well, I guess that’s one more decision made,” Shayne adds.
I blink at Harper, blown away by how easily he brushed off the orchestra.
“We can figure something out if you need to come back for it,” Falcon suggests, glancing up from his phone’s screen. “I don’t know how long we’ll be in the city, but …”
He shrugs, and Shayne gives us a wry smile.
“It’s not going to happen overnight. We need to get to know her and let her get to know us.”
That’s when it dawns on me that they’re not just talking about heading out to the city for a week or two. Three probably wouldn’t even cut it.
This is big. It’s life changing.
We all live here, in this tiny apartment in Silver Valley, and our new mate has a whole other life at the academy in Cressidan City.
Shayne’s talk about decisions hits a little harder now.
We’re going to have to make some important ones soon.
I nod slowly. “That’s why you’re not sure how long to book the hotel for.”
“Book it for a month,” Shayne suggests.
“I’m not sure that’ll be enough,” Falcon muses.
“We can book for longer if we need to as we go,” Shayne explains.
“A month!” Harper complains, slouching in his seat. “That sounds like forever.”
“Neither of us have met her yet,” I remind him. “We need to spend a lot of time with her.”
“Well, sure,” he murmurs, perking up slightly.
It’s probably still going to be hard on him.
Being around her and then coming back to a hotel at night without her …
It might be tough for all of us.
“Okay,” Falcon says. “I’m booking it now. We’ll drive out there tomorrow. Pack light. We can buy whatever we need while we’re out there.”
“Awesome!” Harper smiles. “We’re going on vacation, and we’ll be spending time with our new true mate.”
That part still feels surreal.
We have another true mate?
It happens, for sure, but I’d thought our pack was complete when we met Falcon and Shane.
We all felt that way. Why wouldn’t we? Our Omega has two Alphas as well as the Delta he always knew belonged to him. What more could we need?
There’s only one answer, and lately it’s been on my mind more and more.
We’re about to meet a woman who’s destined to be ours.
All the times we talked about having a family flood back through my thoughts.
It was always a fantasy scenario with kids we imagined having our traits.
We had no real way to fulfil that dream.
Falcon told us we could talk about the options in five-years’ time.
None of us were ready at that moment.
Five years felt reasonable.
It’s been a few years since he said that now.
We haven’t talked much about it recently, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t on my mind.
Finding out we were always meant to be mated to the woman Falcon helped rescue …
It’s like we’ve been gifted the perfect solution to our problem.
If Robin is our true mate, she’ll want a family as much as we do.
The thought stirs something inside me that’s hard to ignore.
I know this is exactly how I’ll feel when we meet.
Whatever she looks like, and whoever she is, she’s meant to be our mate and the mother of our children. I’m already magnetized by the thought of her. I don’t need to see her to know how desperate I’ll be to claim her.
Taking things slowly will be agonising.
I don’t know how I’ll deal with that, but I keep these thoughts to myself while my mates talk details of our impending trip to Cressidan City.
Harper’s more excitable than I’ve seen him in months.
Shayne is going into caretaker mode, thinking of all the things we’ll need while we’re gone.
Falcon is silent as he pre-programs the route for our trip into his phone.
The dark cloud that’s been following our lead Alpha around for months is fading, but it isn’t gone completely. We know why he was so agitated now, but until our new mate is claimed, I get the feeling he’ll still be on the irritable side.
I get it now. Completely.
Our destiny is out there waiting for us.
It’s going to feel like everything’s wrong until we’re fulfilling our fates.
Robin belongs with us.
I can’t wait to meet her.