Chapter 2 - Scary Fire Lady

"Woah, this place is so cool," Wren whispered beside me, glancing around.

"Yeah.." I agreed slowly, but I was focused on staying alert.

After a month of searching for Kit, we'd finally found a lead. This place wasn't "The Home" Kit had talked to us about before he was taken, but it was where his trail had ended. So, we all decided to give it a shot and see if we could get him back.

That, and it allowed us to attack the enemy. We didn't plan on just sitting by until we saw Kit. No, we were going to shut this place down.

The Eye had moved past just attacking us. Two weeks after Wren moved in with Joshua, we received a call from them saying the Eye had attacked their pack. The pack leaders - and subsequently their heirs - all gathered so we could discuss it. Apparently, the group had started attacking multiple packs, but they stayed within the werewolves.

Within a few days, word was spreading across the packs and a plan was quickly made. Wren and I weren't the only ones here. A few others from the packs in our state were milling about, but we had to pretend that we didn't know them. When the auction started, that's when we'd attack.

Yeah, auction. Disgusting creeps. We knew what was really going on here. We'd done our research. They were selling people. Not just any people, but people they'd kept in captivity for years, just like Kit. After digging into the Eye, we'd realized they were more than just a group of angry rogues. They were a full-on cult with a surprisingly large and expansive following. It still sent shivers down my spine knowing how powerful and dangerous our opponent is, but we weren't going to back down anytime soon.

Wren paused beside me and I turned to look at him. "What is it?" I asked.

"I know that voice," he whispered, looking over at a lady seated behind a table.

"From a vision?"

Wren nodded. So that lady was important. Good to know. I looped my arm with Wren's and turned us around. We'd arrived with only a few minutes before the auction on purpose. The crowds were still thick which allowed us to quietly slip past the lady and into the theater. No one paid us any mind, thankfully. Wren and I sat down towards the back of the large theater - who the hell needs an entire theater in their house? - and waited.

I was about to lean over and whisper to him when I suddenly straightened up in shock. It was faint, but the smell of coffee and something oddly metallic - seriously, coffee and metal? - drew my eyes down the rows of seats until they landed on a head of well-styled red hair. My breath caught before my heart began to beat erratically in my chest.

"Aaron?" Wren called, noticing my odd behavior.

No, no, no, no, no. Shit. This wasn't happening. Not now. Why now? Goddess, I hate my life sometimes. "It's... my mate."

Wren's quiet gasp beside me wasn't enough for me to look away from my mate. This had to be the absolute worst situation to meet my mate in. As if I didn't already have the worst luck on this planet. Who was this guy - I was assuming it was a male for now until I saw their face; their haircut was at least very masculine - and why was he here of all places? Was he a member of the Eye. Was my mate one of the enemy? Ugh, this was immediately twice as complicated as before.

"Where are they?" Wren asked me quietly and I subtly nodded to where he was. "The redhead."

"Oh."

A few minutes later, the theater was relatively packed and the lady from Wren's visions walked onto the stage. I ignored what she said, still keeping a close eye on my mate. Maybe if I stared hard enough, he'd turn around. I didn't even know if he was human or not. Was he a werewolf, like me? I mentally begged for him to be non-human. Things were already complicated and I didn't want to add explaining to a human that I was his mate on top of that.

Then again, if he was at one of these things, then even if he was human, he knew about non-humans. This auction was selling only non-human captives. If he was here then I at least didn't have to explain the existence of others aside from humans.

What a mercy the great Goddess has bestowed upon me.

My mind was still wandering when I noticed my mate tense up and try to stand. I straightened up a bit, watching carefully as he seemed to be talking with the person next to him. I couldn't tell what else was going on from where I was, but I could tell my mate was distressed, and that made me angry.

But, despite wanting to go down there and ease my mate's tension, I couldn't. I couldn't jeopardize the mission. It was going so smoothly. I remained in my seat and instead kept my focus on my mate until the lady announced the first auctioned "item."

And there he was.

I think my heart stopped when I saw the poor guy caged on the stage, but what made me completely freeze was the scent. My mate's scent, previously coffee and something metallic, was now accompanied by the smell of fresh-cut flowers and something uniquely warm and almost sugary. The metallic scent faded away and the coffee easily mingled with the other scents I was hit with.

What the actual hell is going on?

This...this wasn't happening, right? No way, right? I - Aaron Kingston, the person with the worst luck - had two mates? Was that even a good or bad thing? What did it even matter! Two mates?! I reached out to pat Wren's hand frantically. He turned to look at me with a questioning stare. "What?" He whispered.

The crowd suddenly laughed at a joke that completely escaped me. I was solely focused on the fact that I had two mates and one was being auctioned at that very moment. "Wren...I have two mates," I said, loud enough for him to hear over the laughs.

"What?!" He whisper-shouted. "Who?"

"The boy on the stage. We need to start phase-two before he's-"

"Aaron you know that's not our job," Wren warned.

"But he's my mate. I can't let him be sold," I argued.

Wren shook his head. "He won't be sold. Just stick to the plan, okay? And be ready to grab your mates if you can."

So, we sat there, Wren gripping my hand to comfort my nerves as I watched the price for my mate steadily increase. It made my stomach turn. Please, please, please, please, I silently begged, wishing for the plan to commence before he was rolled off the stage.

And maybe the Goddess had finally decided to smile upon me.

The theater shook intensely, followed by the screams of the crowd. All of the doors were blown off their hinges and the calvary finally arrived. Some of our pack members and others from the local packs flooded the aisles as chaos broke out. People scrambled to escape, but even if they got past the wolves in here, they'd be met outside by more.

Wren let go of my hand so I could stand up and rush down the aisles. Before anything, I'd see my first mate. I searched frantically for a head of red hair and when I found it, I grinned, but it quickly fell away when I noticed the man my mate was with. The man had a firm grip on my mate's arm and was shouting at him over the chaos. My wolf snapped in my head and I was quick to lunge over the seats to tackle the man to the ground. He shouted in pain and glared at me, flashing elongated canines. So he was a shifter, too. I returned the same courtesy, but before I could do anything else, I was thrown off of him. By the sparks that spread across my body, I knew it was my mate.

"This is all a misunderstanding," my mate protested.

I looked up from where I was on the floor to look at him. He was gorgeous. Great, both of my mates are like handsome gods, and here I am, average at best. Okay, that thought was a bit harsh - I wasn't that average - but I paled in comparison to them. I scrambled to stand up and explain to my mate what was going on, but then we heard another explosion that came from backstage.

Shit, the captives! I looked at my first mate one last time before running past him. The mission came first. We needed to free those captives. Kit...my second mate...

I quickly climbed onto the stage and ran behind the curtain, narrowly dodging a fireball. Shit. I rolled to the floor and popped back up, looking at who threw the attack. It was that lady. Around us, wolves were fighting with other cult members while a few - I saw Wren slinking by - started freeing the captives lined up backstage. I didn't have much time to search for my mate or Kit because the lady - who I was assuming was a witch given her fire attack - lunged at me with absolutely terrifying acrylic nails sharpened into claws. Her hand slashed across my face, momentarily knocking me off-balance before she shot another fireball at me. I stumbled backward into a crate, feeling the wood dig into my side as I fell into it. Wincing, I didn't have much time before she lunged again with a screech. I quickly grabbed a broken piece of wood and stabbed it into her leg. She cried out in pain and backed off for a moment, but it was enough for me to run past her towards the cages.

I could feel the blood dripping down my face from where she slashed me, but I ignored it for now. Kit, mate, Kit, mate. The mantra repeated over and over again in my head until I saw Wren, who was hugging a sobbing kitsune tightly. My shoulders relaxed when I saw that Kit was safe and so was Wren, but now my focus was entirely on finding that boy.

Goddess, I was so distracted I didn't even get to hear his name. It took me a bit to find him, especially with everything going on, but I finally found him, curled up in a ball as if to hide from everyone. I ran over, dropping down beside him. His head immediately shot up and our eyes locked. I was quickly drawn into their depths; he had heterochromia, but all I could think about was how beautiful it was, those green and brown eyes. His breath caught in his throat and now that I could fully smell him, his scent was intoxicating. I shakily reached a hand out to touch him and he let me, moving his cheek into the palm of my hand.

"Mate," he whispered, and my heart fluttered inside my chest.

"I am," I agreed, feeling my throat tighten.

Geez, get it together, Aaron. The mission isn't over yet. I glanced around, noticing the giant hole in the side of the theater that led outside. The captives were being guided through there while the cult members were fought off. I grabbed my mate's hand, pulling him up. My words quickly died in my throat when I realized he was naked aside from a ragged scrap wrapped around his waist. I could feel my cheeks reddening, but I quickly pushed my shock away to lead us outside.

"NO!"

That scream made both of us pause, and I turned around in time to see that lady plunge her hand through a wolf's chest, coming back out with a bloodied hand. A shiver went down my spine at the sight and I felt my mate freeze up beside me. The lady suddenly locked eyes with me. "Get back here, Aubrey! Father will never forgive you," she screamed, her eyes practically burning with the intense anger that radiated off her in waves of heat.

Aubrey - Goddess, what a beautiful name - whimpered from beside me, so I stepped in front of him, glaring at the lady. "He can do whatever he wants. You people are disgusting, selling people as if they're objects," I snarled, feeling my wolf on the edge of my conscience.

The lady paused, cocking her head at me. A sudden grin spread across her face. "Oh my! What's this? Does Aubrey dear have a mate?" She cooed, and I was momentarily shocked by her sudden change in demeanor.

The lady slowly walked over and I backed us up with every step she took, closer and closer to freedom. "Don't talk to him," I warned.

She scoffed. "I forget how annoying you wolves are." She suddenly hissed - I think this lady was going to get whiplash from all these mood changes - baring her teeth even if they weren't anything special. "I'll just have to take care of you before Father comes."

But before she could, she suddenly crumpled to the ground to reveal Wren standing behind her with a raised wooden board. He looked at us and ran over. "Come on! We're about to leave."

Aubrey pulled at my hand to go, but I remained where I was. "Wait, what about the other?" I called out to Wren "I can't leave my other mate."

"Other mate?" Aubrey echoed, tugging on my hand to get me to look at him.

"Yeah, our other mate."

Aubrey suddenly grinned. "The redheaded man, right?"

I nodded my head. So Aubrey must've recognized the man as his mate as well. We both turned to look at Wren. "Wren, we're going to go look for our mate. Give us three minutes and if we're not back, leave without us. We'll make it back to base."

Wren bit his lip in hesitation but nodded and left anyway. He trusted me. I breathed deeply, trying to pick up our mate's scent amongst the smoke from fires and the scents of hundreds of other people. I couldn't smell anything, so I pulled Aubrey along back to the theater.

Okay. One mate down, one more to go. In and out. Sounds easy enough.

~~~

I think I'm going to really enjoy writing in Aaron's p.o.v. XD Wren is so boring in comparison.

Also, you now know the three main boys! Aubrey is so adorable lol (but Aaron will always be my favorite).

I don't really have much else to say now so...

Stay tuned for more insanity and thank you so much for reading!

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