Chapter 12
I WAS IN BED BUT NOTasleep when David finally arrived home. I’d tried to rest, but my brain just wouldn’t stop spinning. I heard the front door open, and I got up, sliding on a pair of flannelette pants. Within a minute, there was a knock on my bedroom door. “Coming,” I said, opening the door to my brother’s back.
He was already walking away toward the kitchen.
So I followed, glad he wanted to talk in a common area.
David was standing with two glasses and our favorite bottle of whiskey in the dining room, his expression a mix of fleeting emotions. “We need to talk,” he said.
I reached out and accepted the half-filled tumbler from him gratefully. I needed a stiff drink for what was coming, I could feel it. Something was up, and things were about to get serious. “Yeah. We do,” I agreed.
David tossed back his entire drink, sculling the whiskey, and wincing as the alcohol burned down his throat. “I want Stacey too,” he managed in the aftermath, his gaze intense as fuck.
My eyebrows flicked upwards.
Holy shit!
That wasn’t what I’d expected him to say. “Ah... yeah, of course. I assumed you would when you came to your senses.” My gut twisted with the thought, even though I should have been ready for him to feel this way. I’d always known we’d share our mate, but I couldn’t deny the secret joy that had sprung from Stacey being all mine, even just for a little while.
“It fucking hurt that you found her and slept with her without me,” my brother admitted. “I don’t want to sound like a damn pussy, but it did. I hated the idea that you just stormed ahead into your new life without me. We were meant to be a family. You and me and our mate. It was always supposed to be something we did together, not separately.”
I swallowed hard, very conscious that I could not screw up this moment. My twin was being real, and he needed my reassurance, not my petty jealousy. “I didn’t know at the time, David. I swear it. If I had known, or had any inkling? I would have put her on a plane with me and brought her straight home—for both of us. I know I should have recognized the signs, but I was wasted. The zing all of it just went over my head. Back at the conference, she was just another woman. The most beautiful one I’d ever been with, but no different than any other.”
I’d never wanted to get married or have a life different from the one David and I had always planned. “It wasn’t intentional, I swear,” I said. “You have to believe me. Not meeting her, sleeping with her, or getting her pregnant. And if I’d known she was destined to be mine, I would never have let her go in the first place.”
“She’s not just yours,” my twin corrected. “She’s my mate too, so we should all bond together,” David said, his tone terse and annoyed at my misstep.
“I agree.”
There was a heavy beat of silence that fell between us.
Where is this conversation headed now?
“I went to see Stacey tonight. At Wade and Tanner’s new place,” my brother said, shattering the awkward silence like a hammer through glass.
My jaw tightened as my teeth clenched. I couldn’t help the way my body reacted. “When?” I prompted.
David shrugged. “I don’t know, an hour or two ago, maybe? It doesn’t matter.”
“What did you do with her?” I asked, inhaling deeply. My brother smelled of sweat and soap, and the normal level of kitchen grease he brought home with him each night. I couldn’t smell my—our— mate... but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.
David shrugged again, his gaze sliding to the floor. “Does it really matter?”
I inhaled sharply again. “It shouldn’t,” I answered. My brother had every right to sleep with Stacey, and I shouldn’t care. But I did, which was fucking stupid! How I felt went against everything I knew about how this was supposed to work. It made no sense.
David chuckled, breaking the tension between us. “We suck at this, you know? Why did we ever think that we could share a woman?” he asked, shaking his head.
My ribs squeezed tightly, making my heart pound a little harder. “Because we’re a perfect pair! This is our fate, brother,” I emphasized. “It always has been.”
David poured himself another generous serving of whiskey and took another sip with a grimace. “And yet, here we are, both jealous assholes. Like toddlers unable to share a toy.”
I took another slug of my own whiskey, and it burned hotly down my throat, proving a great distraction from the strange trembling in my heart. “You believe me, don’t you? That I didn’t know Stacey was my mate when I met her, right?”
David stared at me. “How is that even possible? I mean, I know you say you were wasted, but...”
I groaned, annoyed at my own weakness and stupidity. “I was blind drunk. It’s a miracle I remember any of the conference at all after how much I had, honestly. And Stacey and I fell into bed within minutes of meeting each other. All I could think at the time was that she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. But that was it, at the time. Then, the next morning, she was gone.”
David grabbed the bottle, clearly ready to drown his sorrows, and lumbered over to the small couch area, then flopped down with a sigh. “Yeah, I’d wondered about that part. You know, you missing all the signs. You must have been really fucked up, brother. I only wish I’d been there to meet her too. Maybe I might have realized for the both of us.”
I followed after him and sat in the black leather armchair, throwing the rest of my whiskey back and hissing at the sting. “Yeah, me too. That would have been a hell of a lot easier than all of this.”
We sat there for a moment in a quiet state of tentative peace. But I had to know what had happened between Stacey and David. Even though it made no sense for me to continue to feel jealous... I’d already not only had sex with Stacey, but gotten her pregnant to boot, so if David had sealed the deal tonight, so to speak, how could I even dare complain?
I want us to be a throuple, don’t I?
“I didn’t mate with her tonight,” David said suddenly as if reading my mind. “I wanted to, but I didn’t.”
Well, he’d evidently done something with her, that much was obvious. But now, the “what” wasn’t the question I wanted to ask anymore. What I really needed to know was— “Why not?” I asked, my brow furrowed.
David sighed deeply and leaned back against the couch cushions. “Because it felt wrong. We’re meant to be a family, Tommy, and you might not have known she was our mate when you met her, but I do now. She’s mine, she’s yours, she’s ours. And that should be celebrated, together. We need to do this right for our girls and for our future moving forward.”
I smiled as I leaned forward and grabbed the bottle he was nursing, sloshing more amber liquid into our glasses. “I couldn’t have said it better myself, brother.”
David stared at me for a long, intense minute. “We found her, Tommy. We’ve got her. Finally. Now. Already, and I... can’t believe it. We’ve been wanting this woman our whole lives and suddenly, she’s just here.” He shook his head in wonder.
I couldn’t help but smile. It was a truly astounding time in our lives.
We continued to drink in silence for a while, enjoying the comfort of knowing that we’d found the woman we’d waited decades for. That needed to be celebrated. My brother was right. Hell, if I had my way I’d shout it from the rooftops. But there was more to deal with here than just the normal mating rituals. We had a baby on the way, and that would create a whole new dynamic and set of obstacles to overcome.
“I want to buy a bigger house,” I said, needing to voice my concerns for the future. “Closer to Mom and Dad, maybe?”
Though, I didn’t want to be too close to them. Everywhere in town was practically ten minutes away from everything else, anyway, so we didn’t need to be living on their doorstep, but a bit closer for the sake of support and babysitting assistance would be amazing.
David nodded slowly, the cogs of his mind starting to spin, and he thought of something. “You know, I noticed there’s one for sale a few doors down from Wade and Tanner’s new place,” he suggested casually.
I grinned. “Not too close to Mom and Dad then.”
David grinned, an amused glint in his dark eyes. “But close enough for babysitting, huh?”
I groaned. “Yeah, God. Babysitting. We’re going to need it. I can’t believe I’m going to be a father.”
David made a wounded sound upon hearing my words.
It had me instantly regretting my turn of phrase. “Shit. Sorry, man. I didn’t mean...”
“Yes, you did,” he corrected. “I get it. And I don’t want you to think that I’m trying to steal your thunder or anything, but if we’re going to try and make this family thing work...”
“Then Stacey’s baby is ours,” I said, feeling more resolute in my words now. “That’s how it is with perfect pairs. It has to be or there are going to be issues.”
David nodded, his jaw tight. “I’m not saying I won’t be jealous that this baby’s genetically yours, but if you and Stacey still want me to join the family...?”
“We do!” I said. “Well, I know I do. And from what you’ve said, Stacey wants you too.” I was damn certain that David and I wouldn’t even be having this discussion if he wasn’t more solid about Stacey’s feelings than a maybe.
David nodded. “Yeah, she doesn’t quite understand it yet, and we still haven’t told her that we’re shifters, and that’s a bridge we’re going to have to cross at some point—but I believe she wants me too.”
I stared at him for a moment, then shook my head as my eyes widened. “Fuck. I didn’t even think of that.”
He coughed out half a laugh. “That’s because we don’t view it as weird. It’s just our life. But humans do. Tanner told me some time ago that Nancy freaked out when she finally found out.”
Damn... more potential unrest. Crap.
“Well, we have to tell her. She’s going to see us shift or something soon enough.”
“Yep, she is. And our relationship will be better without us keeping secrets from her,” David said, refilling our glasses again.
I was beginning to feel the warm and fuzzy feeling you got when alcohol began to saturate your veins. It was relaxing after such a tumultuous start to our throuple relationship. “So, what’s the plan, then? Get a house, tell her we’re wolves, then fuck her brains out until we’re well and truly mated, so she never wants to leave us?”
David held up his glass in a silent toast. “Not necessarily in that order, but yes,” he agreed heartily.
I laughed and threw my head back against the headrest, closing my eyes. “A week ago, I thought our mate would never find us. Now, we’ve got a baby due in three months, a new car, and a house to buy. We’re running late, and we didn’t even know we were in the race!”
David stood up, drawing my attention.
I opened my eyes and looked up to meet his glassy gaze.
“I’m going to bed,” he announced with a yawn.
I nodded. “No problem. Are we good, bro?”
David smiled. “Yeah, brother. We’re good. We always will be. But you owe me, you know that? When we take Stacey to bed next, I get to make love to her first.”
I didn’t like that idea, and neither did my wolf.
Ugh. Stupid fucking jealousy!
But I nodded. I had to. It was only fair. “Okay,” I agreed. I’d already been inside Stacey’s incredible body, and it wouldn’t be long before I felt the velvety clasp of her pussy around my cock once more. I just had to be patient.
“Night,” David said, saluting me as he walked past me and back toward the stairs again.
I stayed downstairs for a while, mulling over the next steps we needed to take. We had more than enough money between us, but we both worked way too much. That would have to change. Could I scale back my hours or could David perhaps hire another head chef to take his shifts some nights? How was this going to work in a practical, real way. Our current place was modern and minimalist. Not good for a baby or a woman with a heart like sunshine.
We absolutely needed a new house and we had to be honest with our mate about who and what we were. David was right yet again. A secret like that could prove toxic to our chances of a future together if we didn’t get upfront about it real soon.
It can’t go too badly, surely?
She’d taken everything in stride so far, and Nancy and Lexie had gotten over the shifter issue successfully as far as I knew. No doubt Stacey would be good with our true identities in no time.
Right? She has to be...