Chapter 24
YVAINE
Iwasn’t in the mood to argue, or worse, give any explanation when I noticed my three friends, all their eyes set on me. I didn’t even know if my tongue would work after the way it had been put to use just a few moments ago.
My heartbeat was pounding in my ears as my feet, with a conscience of their own, dragged me toward my roommates.
“Well, well, well!” Tiziano began, scowl in place. Makena sided with him, both with their arms crossed like two parents ready to scold, hips tilted to one side. “Who was the blond hunk? Huh?”
I moved just in time, because the scoff was so nefarious it sent flecks of spittle flying.
My shoulders sagged with relief. They hadn’t realized that the hunk in question was the Terminator himself.
Although Amaia had a certain glint in her eye.
“I smell Dark Diamond, Yvaine,” Tiziano accused before folding me in his arms. First comfort your friend, then scold them—that was his motto. His face crumpled. “My elephantine memory won’t forget this.”
With his pink shirt lifted halfway to his abs, a few buttons missing, and a tie around his forehead, he looked like a prince who had abdicated his throne to join a wild pack of bandits.
“You rolled with one of the DDs, too. Give her a break, Tizzy,” Makena said, grabbing him in a headlock.
Though she had lipstick smeared around her lips, I couldn’t sense anyone on her. Considering that Gaius was somewhere nearby with my brother, she must have done it on purpose.
“I was drunk, okay? Intoxicated!” Tiziano protested. Both had nearly-empty glasses in their hands and smelled of artificial cherries.
“Werewolves don’t get drunk.” Makena pinched his cheek.
“This werewolf does!” He slammed his hand onto his chest, his glass dropping onto his foot. He kicked it away.
“Just admit that everyone falls for the dark side once in a while. We all have now.”
“Not me,” Amaia piped in.
“Because you only like the high-quality sausage from the Highlands—”
Tiziano was cut off abruptly as Amaia covered his mouth with both hands.
Thank Stephen they were drunk, or there would’ve been no way to fend off their questions about the mysterious boy.
The boy that had abandoned me.
“Can I steal my other half?” came a deep voice.
“And here’s the sausa—”
Amaia jumped onto Tiziano’s back as he protested like a bull at a rodeo.
He didn’t wait for their agreement. My twin clasped my hand and tugged me straight onto the dance floor.
The tears threatening to fall halted, the gorgeous blond Alpha mate locked away in a mental drawer under piles and piles of stubborn denial.
Lachlan danced in front of me, with exaggerated and ridiculous moves.
He started flailing like a malfunctioning robot, arms curling left and right, bending at the waist. People actually stared.
“Lachlan…” I groaned between giggles, but my body joined. Soon, we were a mess of elbows and bad choreography, shaking off the world like we used to as kids, barefoot and carefree.
He held up two fingers in a promise. “I won’t ask why I smell Dark Diamond on you.” He twirled me out and back. “But if you want me to take care of him, just say the word. I’ll hunt him down like the animal he is. Hell, I’ll go to jail for you.”
“Nothing I can’t solve alone, Lachy.”
“That’s my sister!” he shouted—then, without warning, bent and scooped me up, one arm under my knees, the other around my back.
“Lachy! No—”
Too late. He spun me around in circles.
The world blurred. Laughter exploded out of me as I clung to his neck, hair flying everywhere, head lolled back. “Put me down, or I swear I’ll puke on you!”
He only spun faster.
By the time he set me down, my legs were jelly, my cheeks hurt from laughing, and I was pretty sure half the club was filming us.
That was Lachlan.
The cane I could always lean on. We’d landed in this life together, our hearts beating in sync according to the doctors. I didn’t need a mate complicating my life. I had my family and friends.
For a little while, I forgot about him completely. Forgot the magnetic pull, the sting of being left behind. Enjoyed myself like I was just any other girl, not the one shaped for him.
“You okay up there, little sis?”
“I’m literally five seconds younger than you.” I rolled my eyes. “And yes, just a little tired.”
To confirm my statement, I yawned.
We were all walking home together, under the eye of a full moon.
My means of transportation was my twin’s back: He carried me like an average backpack, his hands clasped around my ankles.
Amaia walked beside us. Makena and Gaius were up front holding hands, their heads close.
She was focused exclusively on him. The interesting thing was that he had the exact same expression as her. Eyes for nothing else…
Before my mind could jump to certain hurtful thoughts, another conversation grasped my attention.
“I can’t believe the Hymanakan pack was disqualified.”
The team we were supposed to play against in the next game.
“They deserve it,” said another friend of Lachlan’s.
Amaia nibbled on her falafel wrap. “Why?”
“They hired the Matenapper,” Sillas said, sipping his cola. He’d been avoiding me since I’d been seen with the mysterious hooded man from Dark Diamond.
“What did he do this time?” asked Henrietta, a girl from our pack, from her place at Sillas’s side. She clasped his arm, and I smiled at them every time they looked my way. He didn’t seem happy with my encouragement.
“He kidnapped the mate of the Golden Furs’ captain to distract him during the game against Hymanakan.” There was a solemn pause. “They got destroyed.”
I shoved more fries into Lachlan’s mouth. “But is she okay? Did they find her?”
“She’s alive,” Lachlan said while munching, “but I really hope they catch this Matenapper and give him what he deserves. Hey, these fries didn’t come with extra salt!”
“Extra salt is bad for you.” Extra meant buckets of salt to him.
The Matenapper. That was the nickname the media gave him.
At first, everyone thought it was just an urban legend.
Drunk werewolves swapping ghost stories.
Lock your mate up before the Matenapper comes!
But then a pattern emerged—same method, same timing, same signature—and the authorities finally admitted it was real.
Turned out, the Matenapper was like a hitman for hire, only instead of ending lives, he temporarily ‘borrowed’ soulmates to turn the tide of wereball games.
All for the right price. The victims were always returned alive, shaken but intact… except for one. Broken neck.
After the wereball committee threatened to ban entire teams for four years if they were found to be involved with the Matenapper, slapping them with fines big enough to bankrupt the whole pack, the kidnappings stopped. Everyone relaxed, assuming the creep had retired.
No one ever found out who they were. No witnesses, no scent trails, no digital traces.
“This time, she’d been abused. Cigarette burns on her arms. But she was returned a few weeks after the game.”
“Horrible,” Amaia scoffed. “But you know what that means, don’t you?”
She nudged me in the hip, and I answered, “What?”
She pierced me with a look.
“We’ll play the Dark Diamonds instead. Next game.” My brother shrugged.
Oh, Stephen.
My heart leapt.
“Yva? I’m waiting!” Lachlan pinched my under-trained calf as a reminder.
I was holding a container of garlic cheese fries and wings while he carried me, for I was his feeder. Distracted by the news, however, I ended up stuffing too many French fries in his mouth, and he almost choked.
My twin was going to play against my mate.
The most feared game in the history of wereball was happening too soon for my mental preparation.
“Thank the goddess that I don’t have a mate for the Matenapper to get his dirty hands on!” someone exclaimed.
“Too bad the Terminator doesn’t have one. We could pay the guy to get her,” Gaius said, sipping from the bottle of mineral water in his hand.
If they hadn’t laughed at his joke, they would have heard my heartbeat stop. Amaia glanced at me, brows pinching.
“I don’t need his involvement to win against some Dark Diamond buffoons,” my twin grunted before taking a bite of the burger I placed next to his mouth, basically eating half of it in one go.
When I slid into my bed that night, my exhausted mind was too worried to sleep. Instead, I took out my phone, logged onto Instagram, and checked a specific profile.
After some time, I finally managed to fall asleep with my mate smiling at me from a photo showing off his big grin.
The last thought before darkness enveloped me was wondering if he, too, had a picture of me.