9. Khalil
Khalil
My Thursday evening run didn’t do a damn thing.
I took the long way through the trees behind the house and still came back with my pulse too high and my wolf looking through every room for three people who aren’t here, five days later, when I had already told myself the need to get them back in my bed would have burned off by now.
It hasn’t and now the moon’s close enough that the air feels tighter on my skin, the burning desire to mate with humans bristling under the surface. I shift back and step through my back door, grimacing when I see Amos sitting on a stool by my kitchen counter.
The elder tosses the sweatpants at my chest without looking up from his coffee and I catch them, shoving one leg in while I try to talk my animal down before I do something stupid like get in the truck.
“Amos, look—”
He shakes his head, holding up a hand. I wait and then realize he’s waiting for that slam of my front door.
The house seems to rattle with the effort, my son stomping into the kitchen with a folder clutched against his chest. He chucks it on the table, papers of what look like good searches spreading across the surface.
“They’re asking questions, Dad,” Dax growls out, his wolf flashing in his eyes. “They’re researching every symptom they can think of and half the internet is giving them answers I didn’t want them to find. What did you do to them?”
I get the other leg in my pants and drag the waistband up because I’m not doing this naked.
“I didn’t do anything.” Moving closer, I peer down at some of the searches, picking up the words werewolf, Omega, Alpha, knot, and a few others that most humans believe are fake.
“Slow down for a minute. Wait, what’s going on? Who’s researching this?”
Dax throws his hands up in defeat, a bitter laugh pulling from his throat. “Seriously? My friends from college, the three guys you fucked at that party last Saturday? They’re starting to exhibit symptoms of a newly turned wolf.
Amos pulls the top page toward himself, arching an eyebrow in amusement. “That’s impossible. How do they even know about werewolves?”
“I didn’t say shit.” Dax plants both hands on the table and leans in. “Milo has a hard-on for everything supernatural, so he mentioned it as a joke but everything is lining up. They won’t leave each other alone and the can smell and hear way better than they did last week. Did you mate with them?”
I tilt my head to the side, unconvinced. “Dax, those three are always connected. That means nothing.”
Dax lets out an exaggerated sigh. “So, the panic attack Elio had when the other two disappeared to the bathroom yesterday isn’t part of it?
I know how wolves work and they pack up.
If they are turning and they’re yours, it would make a hell of a lot of sense why they can’t seem to be without each other. ”
I drag a hand down my face, trying to find the right words. My wolf is pushing against my control, yelling me to go claim the three men I’ve been denying all week. I pull a shirt off the back of the chair and shove my arms through it so I don’t answer with that.
“I slept with them,” I say. “That isn’t the same thing as mating them.”
“It is when they start growing claws in a lecture hall and my friends are looking at me like I know why.”
Amos sets the page down carefully. “We have to wait it out. We cannot force a transformation. As far as we know, these are still residual effects from spending time with a pack Alpha.”
Dax’s head snaps toward him. “Cut that shit out. Stop leaning on prophecies that don’t work anymore. They’re exhibiting all the same symptoms as wolves from hundreds of years ago. The ones in the books. When we could still turn them. What did you do? Why didn’t they turn last time?”
I work through the night I shared with Elio and Zaire, the hours I spent taking them apart over and over again. My wolf rumbles with appreciation just as I realize what’s missing.
Amos doesn’t look surprised. He looks like he’s been waiting for that question since Dax came through the door.
“Alpha, you mentioned that you had only had two out of three,” he says.
“That would explain everything. A mating bond doesn’t usually click unless you’ve had sex with the mate in question.
And if all three are yours, then it didn’t kick in until the third one was there. ”
Dax stares at the stack of paper, then at me, then drags a hand over his mouth and laughs under it. “Fuck. In some fucked up way, they probably all mated each other before you even got to them. They’re boyfriends.”
Amos nods once. “The only way this happens is if they have latent werewolf genes. Your Alpha must have activated those.”
My wolf likes that too much. I have to wrap my hands around the back of a chair so I don’t walk out of the kitchen, get in the truck, and bring them here the way my animal wants. Mine. All three. Now.
Dax laughs again. “Holy fuck, this is bullshit. My friends are going to be ruling my pack.”
“You’ll also have three men who can share the burden of your secret,” Amos offers, no doubt trying to be helpful.
“Sure. Except that if they’re changing because my dad fucked them, then that means they’re Omegas.”
I blink at him, refusing to believe that. Never in the history of our pack has an Alpha ever had more than one Omega. The first stupid answer is out of my mouth before I can stop it. “They won’t all be omegas.”
Amos chuckles, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “It’s a rarity for Alphas to mate with other Alphas, Khalil. You know that.”
“Fuckkkk.”
Dax watches me for a second and then belts out with a heavier laugh than before. Some part of me wants to rip him a new one but I did get myself into this mess. “Good luck with that,” he snorts, shaking his head. “Let’s hope you didn’t get one of them pregnant.”
I refrain from saying that isn’t possible either. This is just some fucked up nightmare where Saturday comes and I mate that other Omega waiting for me. The boys will be fine and I’ll be able to walk away from one of the best nights of my life.
Amos starts gathering up the paperwork. “There’s only two more days before the full moon. If they really want answers, those boys will show up at the house looking for them. Until then, Alpha, stay put. Do not go looking for them.”
I almost ask why when Dax glares at me. “It’s like you forgot how territorial an Alpha can be when his Omegas are confused.
Remember when Jonah got lost in the woods?
It took us hours to get his Alpha to shift back because he kept thinking we were going to hurt his Omega.
If you go on that campus, you might as well announce to the world that werewolves exist.”
I plop onto one of the stools before heading to the back door again.
“Dad, where are you going?”
“Another run. I can’t just sit here with this restless energy running through me.” I shift the moment I get through the door and realize just how much worse I’ve made it. My wolf lets out a full-bellied growl.
Mine.