Chapter 25 – Shiloh
Chapter Twenty-Five
Shiloh
T here’s a pounding that refuses to relent as I crack an eye open. I’m lying on my stomach, while Zale brushes his fingers up and down my spine leisurely.
“Are you awake?” His voice is low and husky, sending a shiver through me.
“Do I have to be?”
He places a kiss on the top of my shoulder, and I feel a wave of intense satisfaction roll through me. He’s pleased with the marks he’s left on my skin, a painting of his feelings for me he’d kept calling it each time he’d made a new one, adding to his ‘masterpiece’.
The knocking continues and I blink, my brain taking a little while to come online, especially with his hands and mouth on me. “What is that?”
“I think it’s the front door.” Zale chuckles, pulling me onto his chest. He’s all warm and smells like us. The pheromones have eased now the heat has ended. “We’ve been here a while.”
“Define a while…” I say, narrowing my gaze at him.
“Two or three days.”
My heat usually lasted at least five days, sometimes six. Shit, what if Zale had actually bred me? What if I was now pregnant?What would that mean? We were barely figuring this out ourselves.
“If…if we are…If I’m…”
He kisses me softly, calming the rising panic. “We’re in this together, Hedgehog. You and me.”
My heart races in my chest, hammering away like it’s trying to break free of my ribcage. I could feel the truth in his words, the quiet hope hiding there too.
He wanted me to be carrying his child, and wanted everyone to know exactly who I belonged to. I was safe with him. Even with the group project and the volunteering he never shirked his responsibilities, and granted, a child was different but that wasn’t who Zale Blackwood was. Why hadn’t I realized that sooner?
The corner of my mouth tugs up into a wry smile as I poke his hard chest. “If we are, then you’re the one dropping out of school to stay at home.”
He squeezes me tightly, and more waves of love and excitement course through me, dulling the trepidation. “Neither of us are dropping out, we graduate this summer. But if you are having our baby, I’ll gladly do whatever you need me to.”
Nodding, I bury my face in his neck and inhale deeply. His smokey scent is smoldering just beneath the surface and I love it. It’s a smell that screams ‘home’. “We can deal with whatever happens. Together.”
Zale strokes my hair and kisses me again. “We’ve got this, my omega.”
A few moments later I hear more voices before I recognize the sound of the front door being pummeled once again. What on earth was happening out there?
“I guess it’s time to go and face the music.” I sigh, not wanting to leave the coziness of my bed, or him but I know sooner or later I’ll have to. I can’t hide away in my room forever. And I needed a shower, badly. I had cum and slick drying in places that itched like fuck and needed more than a wet wipe.
“Oh shit. Rom.” Pushing myself into a sitting position, I rub my hands over my face as reality sinks in. I’d betrayed my twin in the worst way. How was I supposed to look at her, let alone try to explain that Zale was my Mate?
“We’ll deal with this. Together.” He pulls on a pair of sweatpants, while I grab a fresh pair of shorts and an oversized T-shirt, my skin still raw from my heat.
I almost jump out of my skin when we walk into my lounge, and I see my housemate on the sofa in their usual oversized jumper and knee-high socks, slurping noodles out of a bowl with their headphones on.
“Fucking hell!” Zale says as walks into the back of me, equally as startled. Glancing over my head, he stares at Bell with his eyes narrowed. “How long have they been there?”
“I don’t know,” I whisper back. I’d heard that sometimes after an intense heat, an omega could find it difficult to be around others, and that’s the only explanation I can think of for why I want Bell to stay on the other side of the room. Far away from me.
Finally noticing us, they slide off his headphones with a grin. “Everything okay?”
I don’t know what I’m supposed to say or do. We hadn’t actually discussed anything beyond looking to see who was at the door. I certainly wasn’t banking on my nosy roommate being home. “Yeah, um…Zale was just helping me with some homework. You know, the class project.”
“Ohhh, I see.” Bell nods, and I glance at Zale and we both begin nodding too. We’re like a bizarre trio of nodding dogs. “So, does being impaled on his knot earn you extra credits?”
Zale snorts, while I try to keep a straight face, but I’m mortified. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Tilting their head, Bell’s mouth lifts into a charming smile. “I’m not deaf and I also have to have a very keen sense of smell.”
Shame floods me, and I know I’m turning red because I can feel it. Picking up a cushion from the couch, I toss it at them. “Weren’t you supposed to be with your parents for the holidays?”
“A little birdie told me you were heading home, so I came back.”
“You tracked my phone again, didn’t you?”
The knocking continues, the noise echoing around the apartment, distracting us both.
“Huh,” Bell says, sounding surprised. “How long has someone been banging on our door?”
“You didn't hear them earlier?” Zale asks, crossing his arms. I can tell he’s not impressed with Bell tracking my phone, but that’s a conversation for another time.
“Not over the sounds of you two fucking.” Bell shrugs, slurping up another mouthful of noodles loudly. I watch my best friend carefully, wondering if they knew I was an omega. Not that they would care. Eventually, they give me a nod of approval. “You’re very vocal, Shiloh. I’m all here for it.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Zale growls, moving to stand in front of me. It wasn’t just my instincts that were heightened after the Claiming.
Bell tilts their head as they chew before getting to their feet and wandering over to the kitchen to put their bowl in the sink. “Well, it’s either going to be Shiloh's parents, your parents or Zion.
“What?” We both say, looking at one another, anxiety pulsing through our bond.
“Who’s Zion?” Zale asks, but I need a moment to think. Just what the fuck were we going to be dealing with on the other side of that door?
“I mean, they’ve all been calling you, so I just told them you were indisposed.”
“So, why are they here now?”
“That might have been like three days ago.” We all stand there, staring at the door that continues to rattle under the pressure of someone’s fist. “So, do you want me to get it?”
Taking Zale’s hand in mine, I nod. We might as well get this over with.
Two minutes later my normally beautiful, carefully put together twin storms into my apartment, looking distraught.
“Are you serious right now?” Romilly yells, standing in my lounge, anger radiating off her in waves as she glares at me like I’ve murdered someone. Her curls are wild, her eyes rimmed red and it looks like she’s been chewing on her bottom lip. The guilt knots in my stomach like an anchor, and I feel sick.
I did this to her.
I hurt her.
Her eyes land on my mark and widen, almost comically before her mouth twists into an angry sneer. “You Claimed him?”
“He’s my Fated Mate.” Zale replies simply and I can feel through our bond that he’s trying, but this whole situation isn’t easy. He doesn’t want to justify what we did, but we also can’t fight our nature. It’s almost impossible to resist the pull of the bond.
She grabs a mug from the kitchen counter and throws it at us, the ceramic shattering on the wall, showering us with shards. I flinch as I feel something cut my cheek and arm.
Grabbing her head, her fingers dig into her scalp as she cries out, “You were supposed to be mine!”
“What on earth is going on here?” A stern voice cuts into the awful atmosphere. My mother stands in the doorway with her arms crossed. “Romilly Vos. Sit your ass down and stop destroying your brother's mugs.”
My mother never hesitated to put us in our places when we were children and it felt very much like that, as Rom sat on one sofa and Zale and I sat on the other. Zale places his hand on my thigh, shooting Millie an apologetic look as he wipes a napkin over the blood on my cheek.
A few moments later my parents joined us, my mother sitting in the armchair with my father standing by her side. He squeezes my shoulder with a tight smile as he walks past to take his place.
“I was expecting to visit with my son after his heat and a distressing phone call a few days ago. Not my daughter throwing a tantrum, while her boyfriend seems to be caught up in the middle. Now, what on earth is going on here?” My mother’s words are hard and sharp as she looks between us pointedly.
My father clears his throat, and while he’s more placid and calmer than my mother, he is terrifying in his own way. “Someone had better explain.”
Romily leans back against the cushions, crossing her arms with a grunt as she starts crying again. “Shiloh stole my boyfriend. And now they’re bonded.”
My parents can’t help the way their eyes widen as they both turn to stare at Zale.
I rub my face, feeling like shit. The heat drained me, and the guilt weighed heavy on my heart but he was my Fated Mate. He was always meant to be mine.
“It wasn't my plan to steal him, it just happened.”
She snorts, before narrowing her eyes and glaring at me. “You have no friends and no love life so you just decided to take mine! And the worst part? You made yourself like this, Shiloh.”
We sit opposite one another almost like mirror images, the similarities still there, but an ugliness marring everything. Rom and I haven’t been close for years, but she’s never been this cruel. I never had to worry about what she would say to me or about me.
She waves her hand dismissively, continuing, her words laced with bitterness. “You just shrunk in on yourself. Started dressing differently. Taking the suppressants. Hiding away.”
My father inhales sharply, “Suppressants? Shiloh?”
I can’t bring myself to look at him, instead focusing on my hands as I pick at the skin around my nails. “I didn’t want to be an omega at school. I wanted some control over my life.”
The warm hand on my thigh tightens, and Zale sends waves of reassurance down our bond. I like that.
I like being connected to him on another level.
“I did what you wanted. I helped you hide. I ignored you until you were invisible. Got everyone else to do the same.” Romilly is pointing at me now, the anger bubbling back up as her voice gets louder and louder. “Except you weren’t invisible. Because I always knew where you were. Lingering on the edges like a ghost haunting me.”
We may be twins but right now, I don’t recognize her.
“Romilly! That’s your brother.” My mother is looking at my sister with a frown, her lips pursed together as my father reaches out and takes her hand.
It was strange. After all these years of knowing she didn’t want me around, hearing her say it. Hearing her say that she did it for me…I never asked for that.
My chest aches because a part of me understands the need to be separate. We were siblings, but we weren’t the same. We weren’t a package deal. I was not her and she was not me.
Her anger drains away, leaving her to whisper “Zale always knew too. And…I was jealous.”
“I don’t understand,” I glance at Zale but his brows have pulled together and I can feel his unease leaking into the bond.
“He thought my scent was yours.” Romilly swallows, before looking up at me tearfully. “He was only ever interested in me, because he was looking for you.”
I blink, not sure I’ve heard her right. “What?”
We all sit for a few minutes in silence. My parents are watching her, clearly trying not to take sides while we air out all the dirty laundry. My father comforts my mother with little touches and glances.
“The party with the one-night stand. The reason everyone thinks you’re some big slut…” She laughs bitterly with a small shrug, “That was Zale.”
She’s almost mirroring me in the way she’s playing with her nails anxiously. Playing on our parents' empathy. “I found you together, and Zale was drunk so I took him home. Took care of him.”
Avoiding my parents' gaze, I stare down at where my hand is now entwined with Zale’s. I hate that they were hearing all of this about me. About how everyone at school viewed me as some reckless beta who slept around.
Her words sink in slowly, and it takes me a moment to wrap my head around what I’m hearing.
She left me, drunk, vulnerable and alone at a party?
Her own twin?
And then she’d inserted herself in between us.
While I was humiliated and bullied, she got to run off into the sunset with the hot jock?
Exhaling, I choke out, “You left me there to take him home? And what? Just crawled into his bed and pretended you were the one he’d tried to drunkenly bond with?”
Biting her lip she avoids my stare. “Something like that.”
“Oh, Romilly…” My father sighs and there’s a sadness in his eyes that I hate seeing there.
She slaps her hand against the coffee table, making Bell flinch from where they’re sitting on the rug. “You don’t understand.”
Anger simmers down the bond, tinged with the bitterness of guilt. Combined with my own emotions, I’m raging. Furious at how twisted the whole situation has become.
Romilly was the shining star in our family, Miss Perfect. The whole universe revolved around her. And yet, she still had to claim ownership over my drunken hook-up and steal my Mate? She still needed to help herself to it all.
“No, you don’t.” I hiss, through my welling tears. “You have everything. EVERYTHING. And you even tried to take this too.”
My parents look shocked as I meet Romilly’s glare, refusing to back down. The guilt I’d been carrying fades away, because while what I did was horrible…what she did was malicious. There was intent behind her actions. She planned it. And dragged it out for months just so she could get her greedy little paws on what was mine. Fuck that.
“You don’t want it, Shiloh!” She protests, getting to her feet like she had any right to stand over me. “You don’t want this life, the babies, the Mate, the bonding. You hate everything about being an omega.”
She had it wrong.
What I hated were the expectations placed on me. The idea that I would give up everything for an alpha. That my needs came second because of my secondary gender.
I scoff at her, she really knows nothing about me or what I want. “I don’t hate it, I just wanted to choose Romilly! I wanted my life choices to be mine .”
She opens her mouth before closing it again. It’s always been so easy for her because she always accepted what we were. She loved being an omega, submitting and charming those around her came naturally, but for me it was like a rock, lodged in my throat.
“He only fucked you because of your heat!” She snaps, clearly running out of things to hurl at me from across the room.
“Romilly!” My mother scolds. “Maybe we should all take a deep breath, and calm down.”
“No, I didn’t.” Zale growls, letting some of his alpha pheromones leak into the air and she freezes.
“What?”
My cheeks heat as Zale links his hand with mine. “It started before the heat.”
“You have got to be fucking kidding.” Romilly looks around in disbelief, gesturing to me and then my parents as if to say ‘ See, look what he’s done. ’
“Fucking, fuck you, Shiloh!”
“I choose him, Rom.” I reach up and run my fingers over the mating mark. I guess the reason the original mark hadn’t faded was because we were Fated Mates, and he was always nearby. In a strange way, my body recognized my alpha all along, it had just taken me accepting him for the bond to fully click into place.
“I want the bond, the babies, the life because it’s with him.”
“You don’t even know him,” she spits, still clinging to her wrath, her righteous indignation that I’m the only problem here.
“I know there’s so much more to him than meets the eye. He’s afraid of the dark, he gets drunk easily and football means more to him than partying. His studies are important, so he works hard but his real passion is tied up with the Riverview Community Center. If he wasn’t the heir to Blackwood Tech, he’d go into sports management and work with teenagers and young people. He has a secret romantic side, a filthy mouth and a giant fucking knot.” I turn to Zale, and lift out entwined hands to my mouth, placing a kiss on his fingers. “I know that he looks at me like I’m his entire world, and being an omega has nothing to do with it.”
“You tried to deny me my Mate,” he says quietly, looking at Romilly with pity in his eyes but his mouth is drawn into a tight line. “You lied to me, repeatedly.”
I shake my head at her. “And you made me the bad guy when it all started unravelling.”
She starts pacing, her anger keeping her from staying still. “You stole my boyfriend and fucked him on my birthday Shiloh, so don’t act like you’re above it all. You humiliated me. On. My. Birthday.”
Just like that…I get it.
It’s not that she loves him, or even likes him. She just doesn’t want to be seen as losing to me. Her pathetic, loser brother stole her boyfriend and that’s what has her so enraged. It’s like a kind of clarity settles in my mind and I know Zale can feel it too as he sits back in his chair with his arms crossed and a small smile.
Stabby hedgehog? He hasn’t seen anything yet.
Standing, I walk over to her calmly. I can see my parents shift out of the corner of my eye, ready to intervene.
Romilly blinks, and stops her pacing to look up at me nervously.
“It was my fucking birthday too.” I lean in, keeping my voice low and level. “That’s another thing we always do your way, Romilly. Every fucking year. But I’m done with all of this. And I am done with you.”
“No. Wait, Lo-Lo…” She falters like I’ve taken all the wind from her sails, grabbing for my wrist but I shrug her off.
“I didn’t…I didn’t realize. I didn’t think. I just wanted him. It hurt that that no matter what I did, he never wanted me. Everyone said we were perfect together. I just wanted to be perfect.” Once again, it’s all about her.
Not about her lies, not about how she’d stolen him from me first.
Or how she let him believe they’d had a drunken hook-up, and that she was possibly his Mate. She’d tried to gaslight and make me the bad person, when she was pulling the strings behind the scenes all along.
“Me. Me. Me. You are so fucking petty and self-absorbed, Rom.” Why hadn’t I ever noticed this side of her before? Why had I placed her on a pedestal?
“Me? What about you?”
My hands ball up into fists as I try to stay calm. “Get out of my apartment. You’re not welcome in my home.”
The room goes silent. I think I hear Bell quietly gasp.
This wasn’t like me. Not with her.
I’d always given her everything.
“Shiloh…” My mother whispers quietly, but my father places his hand on her shoulder. He steps towards my sister and wraps an arm around her shoulder as she breaks down into sobs.
“Come on, Romilly. I think I should take you home, love.” As he passes me, he reaches out and gives my hand a squeeze.
Once the door clicks shut behind them, my mother leans forward with a sigh, her head in her hands. “I have no words for what just happened.”
“I don’t need you to try and make it better, Mom. I just need you to understand that I need some space from Romilly. I need to focus on my Mate, my degree and my life.”
Getting to her feet she inhales, straightening her shoulders in a gesture I recognize well. “I guess I have some parenting to do.”
Reaching out, she strokes my cheek gently before pulling me into a tight hug. “I love you, Lo. And we’re happy for you. You deserve the world.”