21. Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-One
Milo
“You’re coming home?!” I squealed, waking poor Darius before I could reign in my excitement. We were still in bed as it was early morning.
“I am!” Nathalia confirmed, her tone just as excited. “I can’t wait to see you!”
“Me neither!” I grinned. “But I thought you were gone for good? Is your brother not what you imagined?” That had been her only reason for leaving, and partly her career.
Once she learned she had a half-brother she seemed to only focus on getting to him.
I truly believed the career thing was simply a bonus.
“Well, Julian is exactly the same in real life as he was when we talked and texted over the phone. It’s his pack that’s the issue. Which is why I’m bringing him home with me.”
“I can’t wait to meet him,” I said, thinking of where they could be housed. Nathalia had given up her father’s old house for good when she left. His death was the only reason she learned of her brother’s existence.
“I need to talk to you about Julian before he meets everyone,” she whispered, likely afraid Julian would overhear.
“Anything wrong?” I asked, my eyes finding Darius’ who listened intently to the conversation, too.
“He’s um, he’s a cat shifter,” Nathalia whispered.
“And?” I asked, waiting for the reason she was whispering.
“And? That was it, Milo. He’s grown up in a wolf pack his entire life and it shows. He’s…guarded.”
“Well, we’ll stick Mary on him and he’ll open up real quick after that.”
She laughed. “Gods, I’ve missed you! Living out here with the pack has been torture! They rarely even have signal and their internet access is horrible!”
“But I thought you’d be closer to the big city, for work?”
“Yeah, I was told as much from the pack alpha, bunch of lies. This is even further out in the countryside than Groove Vale is.”
“Seriously?” I gaped, not even able to picture what life had been like for her since she left.
“Yeah, but the alpha is leaving in a months’ time for a week or so, then we’ll finally have the chance to leave.”
“Wait, you aren’t able to just leave?”
“Oh, no, they keep everyone close as if we’re prisoners, but I’ll tell you more when I’m home. Then you can tell me all your troubles regarding Darius.”
I groaned, making Darius laugh.
“He can hear you,” I admitted.
Nathalia laughed. “Good! Then I imagine things have worked themselves out. Good for you, Milo. Go get that tight ass!” and then she hung up, her cackling laughter enough to lighten my mood.
“She’s coming home soon?”
“It sounds like it,” I said, placing my phone back on my nightstand. “Sorry for waking you.”
He waved it off. “Waking up to hear you squeal like a happy pig is always worth it.”
“Hey!” I exclaimed, batting his chest. “I do not sound like a pig!”
He nodded, “A squealing pig.”
“You take that back!” I demanded, straddling his waist.
He grabbed my nape, pulling my face to his. “Never.” And then he kissed me.
“Silas just texted that Rowan is interested in my old house,” I informed Darius, sitting on the carpet that still had my dried blood on it.
“Really?” he said, coming into the room with the freshly delivered pizzas. “Are you okay with him living there?”
I shrugged. “I don’t care much either way. Rowan still feels like a stranger to me, but he’s one of Silas’ best friends so I trust he’ll take good care of it.”
Darius joined me on the carpet, handing me my box as we both got comfortable in front of the fire. I preferred this over sitting in front of the TV. Conversations were easier and we didn’t have much background noise to pull our attention from one another.
“With Silas living in Cass’ old house and Rowan moving into your old one, our town will soon be filled with new residents,” I stated, feeling excited by it. “Loren and Loretta will love having more people to feed.”
He chuckled. “And Cass seems to love having his friends closer. We just need Greg to move here, too.”
“I don’t think it’ll take him long to move. Honestly, I’m still confused why Silas, Rowan, and Greg weren’t roommates but each had their own home.”
Darius nodded. “Silas told me they’d each inherited their parent’s homes.
When Silas’ father left the pack, some of his packmates left with him.
Silas didn’t say much about his father, but my theory on his quick escape as alpha was that he wanted to start over as the alpha of a new pack, picking out a select few shifters to go with him, leaving Silas to deal with being alpha of the pack he brought to near ruin. ”
“So that’s why they each had a house? They were abandoned just like that?” Lousy parents if you asked me.
“Yeah, Silas didn’t say much else as we worked. But that might explain their wish to move,” Darius said, taking a huge bite of his pizza, the cheese stringing along, not ready to give up.
“I love how our pack is growing and bringing us all these amazing people.” I also loved that I wasn’t so in my own head anymore. It was easier to feel a part of the pack now that I didn’t wonder if I should leave or stay. I was staying for good.
“Me too,” he smiled, holding out his pizza for me to taste.
“Mmm,” I hummed, savoring the taste of cheese and sausage. “Try mine,” I offered, holding out a piece of my chicken and jalapeno pizza.
“Mm, spicy,” he said, licking his lips before claiming mine, both of us holding a slice of pizza while kissing messily. I loved every second of it.
Breaking apart, both of us grinning with happiness, I handed him another bite of my pizza.
“Do you think we can keep this carpet a while longer? I like that we don’t have to worry about staining it.”
“If it means we can keep eating pizza like this in front of the fire, then I’m all for keeping it,” he declared, placing his pizza back into the box before grabbing my slice and doing the same.
I was about to ask what he was doing. But then I found myself tackled onto my back, Darius leaning over me, his hard length rubbing against my rising dick.
“We can make a mess of each other here as much as we like,” he rasped, then claimed my lips, igniting every fiber of my body.
I was a big fan of messes.
I was pacing in my wolf form waiting for Jeremy. It was time we spoke just the two of us and being in my wolf form helped my nerves a little. It truly was like wearing armor that shielded me from showing too much of my emotions.
The days were shorter now and it showed as the darkness slowly took over the cloudless sky. The trees were bare of leaves, a true sign winter was here.
Sitting, in an effort to stop my pacing, I closed my eyes and listened to my surroundings.
I missed the sound of chirping birds and the lingering scent of forest animals, but when the snow covered the ground and peace took over, it was mesmerizing.
I wouldn’t focus too hard on what was missing for now. It would return. It always did.
Jeremy’s scent reached me as did the sound of crunching leaves. It was time. Opening my eyes, I scanned my surroundings, waiting for Jeremy to come into view and once his red wolf stood before me, I rose.
“Hi,” I greeted, feeling awkward.
“Hey.”
“Do you have a specific place you want us to talk or?” I really wanted us to be far from our pack, not wanting anyone to overhear, especially not Dad.
“Yeah, follow me.”
We ran together, side by side, until a clearing came into view. This was the place Darius picked his flowers each year for his parent’s graves, but I hadn’t been here often myself.
“This is the best place I could think of,” Jeremy said, sitting down where the forest met the clearing.
I sat next to him, watching the brown grass in front of me that held colorful flowers just weeks ago.
“I like it here. Perfect for what we’re about to talk about,” I said, getting right into it.
“Do you still feel guilty?”
“I don’t think that feeling will ever go away, not truly,” I admitted. “Especially with how I kissed Darius, knowing you liked him as more than just a friend.”
It hurt to admit that to his face. I’d hinted at knowing while teasing him, but this was different.
He was silent for a moment before asking, “How did you know?”
“That you liked Darius?”
“Yeah.”
“It was pretty obvious. Even Dad knew. I remember him talking about your future one day. He mentioned Darius as if it was already set in stone that the two of you would end up as mates.”
“Really?”
I nodded.
“He never talked to me about it, only that he hoped we would stay friends for life. That what Darius and I had was rare and should be cherished.”
I winced at that. “Not gonna lie, but hearing you speak of my mate like that makes me want to bite you.”
He laughed, the sound weird in his wolf form. “I get it. I still get possessive over Cass whenever Greg and Rowan hug him, even though I know they don’t like him as more than a friend.”
“Wolf instincts,” I agreed. “They suck sometimes.”
“They really do. But back to your guilt over you kissing Darius. You two are fated. I doubt I would be able to control myself enough to alert you if the roles had been reversed.”
If only that was the part I felt guilty over.
“My guilt isn’t because of not telling you, Jer.” I swallowed, hoping the truth wouldn’t break whatever progress we’d made so far. “I kissed Darius because I wanted to hurt you.”
“Hurt me? Why?”
Sighing, I admitted, “Because once again you were given something that I desperately wanted. You always were. It just took me a while to realize that Dad was at fault for that and not you. I still kissed Darius knowing it would hurt you. It wasn’t until we kissed that I knew he was my fated.
Darius had known since I was seventeen though.
That was the reason things between us started out so badly, because he felt hurt that I only kissed him to get back at you. ”
“Damn, Milo.”
“I know. I’m a shitty person.”
“No, not that. Yeah, it was a shitty thing to do, but why hadn’t you realized Darius was yours? I knew almost right away with Cass.”
“You know it becomes easier with age,” I reminded him. “And honestly, I saw Darius as yours already, no point in lusting after someone I couldn’t have.”
“Aha! But you did lust after him?”
Growling, I nodded. “I tried not to, but I honestly thought it was because he was forbidden or something. You know how you always want what you can’t have.”
“And I was the reason you stayed away from him?”
“That, and the age gap. I believed there was no chance in hell Darius would want me back, at least not until I was an adult, and he didn’t. It wasn’t until the day we kissed that he approached me.”
“You shouldn’t feel guilty over things with Darius,” he said, his tone serious. “You already went through enough pain with him because of it. No need to bring more into it with me.”
“But I still hurt you.”
“And that hurt brought me to Cass, literally.”
Wincing, I nodded. “I heard about how he hit you.”
“Yeah,” he chuffed. “His car came out of nowhere. But things happened as they should. You found your fated and I found mine. Now, I want my brother, too.”
“You have me,” I whispered, feeling choked up.
“Tell me about Dad,” he urged, knowing neither of us wanted to focus too hard on the emotional stuff before we’d talked through everything.
“Well, it’s hard to know when it all started, but he’s always favored you.
It just wasn’t as obvious until after you became an adult.
When you moved out things changed. I wasn’t invited to places with Dad, just left at home while he ate with you and his brothers.
He would come home late, seemingly having forgotten about my existence only to tell me how amazing you were and how you’d spent hours with him at the packhouse. ”
“He told me you preferred to stay at home.”
“He never once asked me if I wanted to join.”
“Fuck, even the others asked about you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I thought you just went through some teenage shit and once you turned sixteen you started showing up by yourself so I believed it to be just that, a phase or something.”
“I just decided to do things on my own to help the pack. I was determined to become alpha so I couldn’t very well hide away for eternity.”
“I’m sorry, Milo. I have no idea why Dad made those decisions. He didn’t just keep you away from the pack, but from me as well. I missed you those years.”
“You did?”
“Of course! But whenever we saw each other, you couldn’t get away from me fast enough.”
“Sorry,” I muttered, feeling foolish when I thought back to those instances.
“Don’t be sorry. I finally understand why you acted like that. But I also know we need to talk to Dad about this.”
I groaned. “I feared you’d say that.”
He nuzzled his head against mine. “We can wait a week or two. But we do need to talk to him.”
“Fine,” I relented.
We stayed silent for a few minutes, watching the clearing as it slowly got swallowed up by shadows.
“Let’s run back. Our mates are waiting,” Jeremy said, standing. And then we ran home, my chest feeling lighter than ever.
I had my brother back in my life and no one could take him away from me ever again.