Chapter 10
ten
Jake
The amount of fury rising in my blood right now is indescribable.
As wolves, the most important lesson we ever learn from our elders is to cherish our mate above all else.
I don't understand how somebody could be so intentionally cruel to somebody as sweet as Morgan, and I wish I could leave this property so I could go teach whoever the idiot was a proper lesson.
I’m praying to whoever will listen it isn’t who I’m thinking it is, because it’s one thing for him to ruin our lives; another thing entirely for him to ruin Morgan’s in such a way.
It seems my brothers and I all have the same idea, because we crowd around her, on our knees so we’re not too intimidating, and silently agree to just push all our chips in.
“Feel free to say no, but can I hold you? It's going to stop me from going and punching something. I kind of like my hand in the shape it is.”
She looks down at me, amber eyes blinking wide. She has no clue what to do with us, and I kind of love that. “I don't understand how holding me would help you.”
“We're going to be a little over the top right now,” Wiley explains.
“Especially after what you just told us.
We want to be incredibly clear with our intentions.
We want you to be our mate. We know it's sudden, and it's fast, but there's something in you that calls to all of us, and the only reason we haven't been over the top touchy feely with you thus far, is because you've been in your wolf form.
“And just so you know, the frequency with which we found an excuse to touch you was far from over the top. We guessed you were trying to heal from some sort of traumatic event, but now that you're in your skin, we will hold you all the time. Let us fix this for you.”
She withdraws from us, and yes, we come on strong, but only because this situation needs us to. She wouldn't respond to gentle coaching. She needs to know upfront exactly what we want from her.
“I don't understand. Is this a joke to you? Because I don't find it very funny. I couldn't hold the attention of my one, true, fated mate, how the hell is somebody like me supposed to keep three whole-ass wolves happy?”
Troy risks a hand on her knee. “You've said that several times now. What do you mean by, ‘somebody like you’?”
She stands angrily, the chair screeching as it scoots across the tile floor suddenly.
“I'm a half-breed! Nobody wants me. Not my mate, not my mom, couldn't even get a damn job.
This is my lot in life. Don't... it's not fair to dangle nice things in front of me, especially when you know that I'm vulnerable.
Are you just trying to get me to open my legs?
Worked for the other guy, you think it'll work for you too?
Newsflash, I'm apparently a terrible lay. Not worth your time.”
She tries to stalk off, but I'm not having any of that. She will understand us now and not think so ill of herself for a second longer. “There wasn't actually any objection in there. Let me tell you, we'll bite you here and now and bind you to us forever. Don't think we won't.”
Okay, this should not make my brothers so excited. Their whole faces light up, clearly thinking this sudden plan is a wonderful idea.
Morgan throws her hands in the air and cackles. In a very deranged, unstable way. “Sure! Go ahead and make me your mate! Why the hell not? You’re crazier than me!”
She takes one step away and my wolf is on her. One arm wrapped around her stomach, the other around her shoulders as I place my mouth right on her neck. “Baby, you giving me permission?”
She opens her mouth, searching for words, so I lower my mouth, keeping my eyes on hers as much as I can in this angle. My canines are out and they're sharp, my mouth watering at just the thought of sinking into the muscle at the base of her neck.
I press them into her skin gently, trying to see how much she'll let me get away with. Then, her hand comes up to my head, her eyes close, and she presses me into her. I don't think. I act.
My teeth sink right through her skin like hot butter, connecting us in a way I've always needed.
Not to be outdone, my brothers are right there with me, yanking her to them and again, giving her plenty of chances to tell them to stop, but when she doesn't, they take full advantage.
Wiley sinks his teeth into the delicate skin on her wrist, and Troy on the other side of the neck.
Then we all sit there lapping at our marks like proper mates would, making sure they're clean and take properly.
Eventually she startles, her hand covering her mouth. “Oh my gods. Are you fucking crazy? You bit me? What the hell? Now you're stuck with me! Fuuuck. Unhinged, crazy-ass wolves!”
“I think you’ll find, mate, that we’re only as crazy as we need to be. Besides, who says you only get one fated mate?”
She whips her head to me, trying to get my meaning. “What the hell are you talking about? Of course we only get one fated mate.”
Troy shakes his head. “Not always. Our family has a tendency of mating together. Always has. Come here, I want to ask you something.”
Not waiting for permission, he grabs her hand while Wiley and I follow behind, because we all need to know for sure, just to be certain. It’s obviously not going to change a damn thing about who she is to us now, but it will change a hell of a lot for us as a pack.
“Where are we going? You going to suffocate me in the attic so no one ever finds my body? Really don’t think you need to go through all that effort. I guarantee you no one’s ever looking for me here. Or anywhere, really.”
Wiley stares down at her from the attic ladder, bug-eyed. “Who the hell do you normally hang out with? Why is that the first place your brain goes? No, I'm not taking you up here to kill you. You're my mate. Why the hell would I want to get rid of you so fast? I just got you.”
No sassy retort on her lips, she takes Wiley’s hand hesitantly as he helps her up into the attic.
They lead straight to the big trunk we have in the corner that we try to forget, the one with all the family mementos. It does us no good looking at them, because I think we'd all prefer that our other brother is forgotten.
“Crash course into your family? You know, this isn't typically what newly mated wolves do. There is a whole list of activities you could be trying to persuade me into right at this very moment. Instead of swimming in all this dust.”
She sneezes a few times to illustrate her point.
“We need to show you some pictures because you mentioned somebody named Alex. That him?” I ask as Wiley flips to a page in one of the albums.
“What is this, some kind of psychic power? Why do you have a picture of my mate in your attic?”
Wiley lets out a low growl. “I don't see his mark on you, sugar. You're gonna be calling anybody your mate, it best be one of us. And he's in this album because this is our brother that screwed us over.”
Morgan unfolds the photo, revealing the rest of us in a picture with Alex when we were teens. Just about before everything went to hell.
“I don't understand. How... how is this possible?” She looks at the album some more, like she needs more proof.
Troy sighs. “We can only assume you ended up here because something in us called to you. When you perceived a rejection from Alex, your wolf automatically sought out the only other wolves in the world that could make it better.
“And that caveat we mentioned? The only person who could have gotten through our boundaries? A potential mate. This is going to sound... probably incredible in a bad way, but you know that witches exist, correct?”
“I may not have a formal education, but I'm not stupid. Of course I know witches exist. I’ve never been to one of their communities, but everyone knows about them.”
Troy puts his hands up in apology. “Didn't think you were stupid.
Just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.
When we were younger, our mom used to read fairy tales to us every night before bed.
She said she wanted her four boys to grow up loving stories, with a heart for romance.
She had two mates as well, though my father wouldn't agree to anyone else being a part of their relationship.
“Our uncle was more than willing to share his mate, but Dad met her first and already had his claws in her. Where do you think Alex perfected his powers of manipulation?
“Mom was terrified of losing Dad for a long time.
It wasn't always a happy home, but we always got a happy story at night.
Alex is the oldest of us. When it started to become clear that he would follow in my father's footsteps and take over the company, my father decided that he had his heir, and that his spares were superfluous.
“And it's not even like it's some big, multimillion dollar company or anything. Sure, dad started a successful company and I have no doubt that our brother has done well with it in our absence, but our father decided at some point that Alex was the only one deserving of being backed by him. Having all of us around was a risk he didn’t want to take.
“He'd already alienated his own brother, so it wasn't too much of a stretch for him to alienate some of his children also.
Mom ran off at some point, too messed up over missing her other mate.
By that point she understood what emotional abuse was and decided to get away.
Our father had no intention of being a single father of four.
We wanted our mom to leave though, so don't hold that against her; her happiness was more important.
“So, in an act of pettiness our dad was known for, he enlisted the help of some witches.
Since he's in the real estate business, it was nothing for him to acquire this cabin. Got a witch out here to set the spell and then talked Alex into getting us out here. It was under the guise of it being a weekend for us brothers to relax and bond, because things were a bit tumultuous, but as soon as we crossed the barrier they laid, Alex hung back, and we were trapped.”
“There was some bullshit note here,” I take over, trying to keep any emotion out of my voice because I really wish this didn't affect us anymore, “telling us the terms of the spell.
So at least there's that. I guess he could have just left us all blind.
But basically, once enacted, we couldn't leave for the first 72 hours.
After that, we'd be allowed to enter the closest town to get supplies.
He assured us we'd always have money in our account to purchase food with, as well as a little extra for clothing and what else we needed for the home, and yes, the allowance is generous, but we've been more or less trapped here for years.
“Because every magic has a cost, there had to be a way to undo it. Dad thought he was being clever I bet when he chose the cost of this spell. No doubt, he wanted to ensure Alex would meet his mate and not have to share with anybody else, namely us, and by keeping us away entirely, that was never going to be a risk he even had to worry about.”
Something sparks in Morgan's face. “But that doesn't mean your mate couldn't come here and find you, right? It's like that fairy tale where the princess is held captive. The one where they had to fall in love in order to break the spell on the prince? Did he mean to emulate that?”
Wiley shrugs. “Who knows. Probably though, because he knew how much we loved stories.
Wanted to take something our mother made us love and use it to hurt us.
So, the spell could be broken if our mate found us and decided to be with us.
But let me be clear right now; that has nothing to do with us biting you.
Yes, it's a perk, but we would have done it regardless of what we got out of it.
The truth is, we just wanted you, plain and simple.
“I speak for all of us when I say, we’ve felt the pull to you since the first time we laid eyes on you.
With all the wonkiness of the magic going on, we couldn't be sure until we bit you if you were really truly meant for us or not, but the second our bond snapped into place, it was very clear exactly who you are to us.
You truly are our mate as well, Morgan. I hate that you had to go through what Alex did to you, but I don't hate that you ended up here, with us.
We're going to take care of you. We're going to give you everything he should have but failed to do.
And we're going to do it all without his approval or input.”
It's exactly the future I’d always imagined before Dickface Alex went and squashed it with a big, ugly boot.
If I can put the picture back together though, like a puzzle, I find it’s almost exactly as I remembered— me and my brothers, surrounding our mate, obsessing over her until she’s annoyed and begs for space.
I bet Morgan would be so cute doing that.
Morgan’s so fucking adorable doing anything, though, in either form.
Did you see her eating those olives? Fucking perfect.
So yeah. Fuck Alex. We’re going to cultivate this daydream until it’s fully real. It’s a good one. However, the pretty, idealistic daydream is shattered by the shrill ring of the landline.
Wait. What? I don’t think I realized that thing still worked. Has it ever rung before?