Chapter 44 - Secrets Never Last Long - Part 2

Rory looked taken aback by his suggestion for a moment but then nodded. "Okay." His voice still sounded strange, as if he still doubted whether it was true, or still hadn't woken up from his dream. Evan also had his own battle going on inside, so he wasn't helping.

Both were fully aware of the situation they were in, and neither of them wanted to address it directly. They circled each other, choosing their words carefully, and too often, there was a silence between them when they were both lost in their own thoughts.

Evan stood up first. Rory's surprised eyes looked up at him, but he followed suit without a word.

They stood next to each other just like in the morning, but this time, the silence between them was different. Evan tried to ignore it and unsurprisingly succeeded as he had to figure out where to take him so it wouldn't be weird and at the same time so no one else could see them. He didn't have many options, so the bathroom had to do.

He walked in and couldn't help but notice Rory's hesitation. But before he could address him, Rory took a few quick steps towards him and slammed the door behind him. Then he leaned his back against them, and his gaze shifted to Evan. Determination was clear in his eyes and this time it was Evan who hesitated.

"Can you..." he cleared his throat and continued "Can you turn around?"

Rory was surprised by his request and immediately asked, "Why?"

Evan felt a blush rise to his cheeks and with another clearing of his throat and looking away, he quickly replied, "I have to strip naked."

"Oh." Rory's cheeks matched his. In a second, he was turned, and his gaze was directed toward the door. Evan didn't hesitate for a second and started shedding his clothes. His fingers trembled slightly as he did this, but he tried to ignore it and speed up his shift even more.

He felt his own body pulling him to the ground in an attempt to touch the floor with his hands, and he didn't protest. He could feel his face lengthening, his body covering in fur, and his bones cracking. It wasn't anything he wasn't used to, but he couldn't let go of the thought of what it must have looked like for an ordinary human. He had no doubt that Rory was peeking at least a little and hoped it wouldn't freak him out unnecessarily.

His transformation was complete in a few seconds, and a wolf stood in his place. He could no longer address Rory verbally, so he decided to communicate the way he was used to in this form. With his snout.

Rory froze for a moment when he felt a cold touch on his palm. It looked like he was convincing himself that he was going to be fine, and then he finally turned his whole body to face Evan.

The shock was evident on his face. His eyes locked on the wolf in front of him, and Evan tried not to make even the slightest move, lest he accidentally startled him. However, this was obviously unnecessary as Rory's reaction was the complete opposite. He burst out laughing. Evan didn't understand what was going on, but the fact that his friend wasn't panicking at least reassured him a little.

Laughing so hard that tears formed in the corner of his eyes, Rory's hand came up to his mouth to partially cover it, and he slid his back across the surface of the door to the ground, so he was at the same height as Evan. He cautiously started to extend his hand towards the wolf in front of him as if he wanted to touch him, but at the last moment, he changed his mind, and his hand remained hanging in the air somewhere in the middle. Evan decided to take a risky step and rubbed himself against it.

"Shit," Rory blurted out. Evan took this as a sign to pull away, but to his surprise, Rory reached out with his other hand and buried it in the fur on his back. He then proceeded to scratch behind his ear, and Evan would take offense saying he's not a dog if it wasn't so good.

"It's weird knowing it's you but you're so fluffy." Again, Evan would be offended, but he took it as Rory's first encounter with a wolf and probably his last.

"You understand me, right?" he asked hesitantly as if only now realizing that it might not have been that way. Otherwise, Evan would have barked in agreement, but not wanting to alert the girls to what was going on in the bathroom, he decided to wag his tail, hoping Rory would understand. According to his smile, he did.

"Thanks, E. I really needed this," he whispered, and it finally seemed that the weight he'd been carrying on his shoulders disappeared. Evan was more than happy to help and decided to express his joy in the only way he could in this form.

"Eww." Rory pulled his hands away from his fur to wipe the drool from his face. He clearly didn't share Evan's enthusiasm. Despite his reaction, Evan decided to do it again, but before he could, his hearing picked up on something. He remained still, turning his ear towards the door, and indeed. It looked like their supernatural moment was over. Without warning Rory (not that he could anyway), he took a few steps away from him and began to shift back.

Rory was apparently so mesmerized by this act that he decided to watch it, even though he must have known that he would end up seeing his friend naked. Just the pile of clothes at his feet hinted at it.

As soon as Rory's eyes rested on Evan's private parts, he quickly turned around, but Evan could still see the blush that flooded his face. He, on the other hand, didn't care, since he was used to it as a wolf.

"The girls are up," he clarified when he could speak again, and without waiting for Rory's reaction, he quickly started to get dressed again.

"Okay," he answered him, still facing the door.

"So they don't know?" Rory asked just to be sure, though the answer was clear to him from Evan's demeanour. The other boy hesitated. Angie's secret was hers, and he had no right to share it with anyone without her permission, but he didn't know if he could at least admit she knew about him. He had no doubt that it wouldn't surprise Rory as he knew that they had grown up together and were close.

"Angie does," he admitted. He had decided to trust him with his biggest secret, so it was ironic that he was debating whether or not to tell this one. And as he had assumed, Rory didn't seem surprised.

"Guys!" came a muffled voice from outside. The girls were obviously looking for them and when they didn't find them directly, they decided they had to find them.

"Bathroom!" Evan yelled back, and Rory quickly turned the key in the lock so they wouldn't have any unnecessary questions. He barely had time to retreat when the door burst open right next to his head.

"Hiding from us?" Lola asked with a big smile. Angie was peeking from behind her, but she didn't rush to the bathroom. She looked drained of energy, and Evan found it comical that the two of them looked the worst yet had the best healing.

"You guessed it," Rory replied without hesitation. His attention was fully on the girls, and Evan hoped it dawned on him that a secret was a secret, and he shouldn't even bring it up in front of Angie. He planned to remind him later just to be sure, as he had no doubt that their conversation was not over yet.

"We also made you waffles."

...

His conversation with Rory went smoothly. Now all that was left for him was the conversation with Angie that he had been dreading. He knew that his friend would be honest with him and even though honesty was what he needed most right now, he knew that he would be consumed by guilt again and he wasn't looking forward to it at all.

Fortunately, Lola and Rory understood that they needed some privacy, and Lola let them have her room while the two of them moved into the living room.

"So what happened?" Angie began the moment they sat down on the bed. She knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't just start talking on his own, so she decided to take matters into her own hands.

Evan lowered his head with a sigh, looking down at his lap. He knew that the moment he said it, he would see the disappointment in Angie's eyes.

"Ryan knows," he simply said. It may have sounded dramatic, but really, he was just preparing to say the rest. Even when he heard those words in his head, he felt terrible and so he tried to delay saying them out loud as long as possible.

"What does he know?" Of course, Angie couldn't guess the rest.

"He knows about Kieran," he explained. This did make Angie react as she punched him in the chest to make him look at her.

"Did you tell him, or did he see you?" she was investigating. Hearing it together like that, Evan thought that both options didn't sound good, but the true one was definitely worse.

"He saw us," he admitted, and Angie's look changed from surprised to serious.

"What did he do?"

The image from the night before flashed before Evan's eyes. The way Ryan calmed him down, even though it should have been the other way around. He hated it and had no idea how to make it up to him. Could he even make it up to him?

"I- I panicked," Evan admitted before he began to explain further, "he looked hurt, but then I started panicking, and he tried to calm me down." His gaze fell to the bed covers again as he was embarrassed by his own words. His fingernails ran over his hands, and he barely kept himself from letting them turn into claws and hurting himself.

"Fuck," was Angie's only response. Apparently, it was too much for her, too. And if she couldn't advise Evan, then no one could.

"What do you want to do?" she asked him, her tone still serious but not accusatory. Evan looked up at her again, and just like her tone, her face didn't show what she was really thinking. She was leaving the decision up to him, and Evan was wallowing in guilt even more. Maybe it was her plan, and if so, it was working.

"I don't know," he admitted honestly. He knew he had to apologize to Ryan, but that didn't solve his problem. In fact, it was bizarre to call their situation a problem, since in reality, only Evan thought of it that way. Ryan was always happy to see him, happy to spend time with him, and listen to him whenever he needed it. Hell, he even sacrificed his life at home to spend time with his mate.

"I think you do," Angie objected, and of course, she was right.

"I do," he admitted almost inaudibly. There was only one correct solution, and he had known about it for a very long time. It was always lurking somewhere in the back of his mind, but he hid from it whenever it got closer. It was a game of hide-and-seek that Evan should have known was already lost.

"I want you to be happy, E," Angie said, placing her palm on top of his. Her tone was gentle, which further indicated the seriousness of the situation. She didn't tease him, she didn't command him, she just comforted him and guided him to the right solution.

"But I shouldn't be the only one happy," he added, and she nodded.

"You're forgetting one thing." He looked confused, so she added, "You're not going to end up unhappy either way. They both care about you. Like a lot." She even rolled her eyes dramatically, which made Evan smile. As always, she was right.

"I know." A small smile played on both of their faces. However, Evan's didn't last long.

"But someone will end up unhappy." It didn't matter who he chose. Someone had to be left heartbroken at the end, and the decision was up to Evan.

"Not for long if you choose right," Angie protested, hinting at her opinion. She didn't say the name out loud, but her answer only applied to one of them.

"I wish it wasn't so complicated," Evan sighed. He knew he was the one who made it complicated, but still. He had no idea that his mate would appear in his life so soon, let alone that they would understand each other. Ryan was like a slap in the face that disrupted his entire life so far.

"When you think about it, it's not. You've already given one of them a chance," she left her sentence open, and Evan knew exactly how to continue. But this time Angie was forgetting one thing.

"I can't love them both. It's unfair." He would never have believed that one could have feelings for two people at once, but he did. His feelings for Kieran were stronger in human terms at the moment, but he couldn't deny that he was drawn to Ryan, and if he went blindly in any direction, he had no doubt he would end up right in front of him. Maybe it was wolf instinct, maybe it was human feelings, and maybe, it was his soul yearning for its other half. Either way, he couldn't ignore it, though he tried. And he did try.

"Then don't. Be alone for a while. No one is telling you to get married." Angie shrugged like it was easy.

"You're telling me to break my own heart," he protested feebly. He was hurting Kieran, he was hurting Ryan, and apparently, his moment had finally come. It was only fair.

"Maybe it needs to be broken." She shrugged again but then thought, and Evan waited impatiently for her next words.

"I think the real question is what's worse. A broken heart or a broken soul?"