Chapter 41

Accepting My Twin Mates Chapter 41 Chapter 41 – Supreme King?

Evie ‘For f**k’s sake, stop being an overthinking muffin and roll the collar down!’ Evva cried out in exasperation at my debating how to wear the collar of my sports fleece. ‘You know it’ll make the pup happy and I don’t need to clarify which one I’m talking about. Although the goober will probably swoon a little too.’

I had turned the collar up and down, repeatedly, unsure whether to display the hickies I had so generously been bestowed, or hide them. They had been wonderful to receive while I was drunk on an endorphin high, but now the moment had passed, there were tiny beads of regret forming. I most certainly wasn’t ready to receive any proper marks anytime soon. A mark solidified the bond, making it unbreakable. Only death would sever the bond afterwards. I still had no clue how the rest of the pack were going to accept me as their future Luna, and the current Luna was probably plotting ways to bump me off to look like an accident.

‘Goddess, you’re starting to sound like our drama llama of a mate,’ Evva knocked her head up against the mental walls of my mind. ‘She might be a raging b***h to us, but she actually loves her sons. She wouldn’t put them through that. Can you please start having these personal crises at more convenient times?’

‘Fine! I’ll roll down the damn collar!’ I caved to peer pressure from my own wolf. ‘May as well give the rumour mill some validation,’ because there was no way, on this plane of existence, that it hadn’t circulated through the farthest ends of the pack.

I gave one final spin in the mirror, uncharacteristically worrying over how I looked. I had unconsciously picked out a deep blue athletic set; a high-waisted pair of leggings and a long-sleeved cropped top.

There had better be no comments made by my mates because I wasn’t about to change what I wore for any man, just as I wouldn’t expect them to change their style for me and neither would I want them to.

I had expected them to be out waiting for me, but they were nowhere to be seen and didn’t feel far away. While I waited, I quickly checked my phone but had no reply yet to the text to Catalina asking about Lucy, which I had sent as soon as my mates had left my room. It was early and both may have still been sleeping.

As I was about to mind-link them, the door to the Alpha wing wrenched open, revealing Astennu first, his face twisted in annoyance and Badru behind him looking equally unamiable. Their bristling mood had thrummed through our bond, so I already knew they must have had a less than favourable exchange with their parents again.

The moment their eyes landed on me, their entire faces transformed, easing in an instant and zoning in on their hickies on my neck. Astennu’s clean-shaven face lifted in a sweet smile, and the stubble teetering on a short beard across Badru’s jaw didn’t hide the boyish grin on his face. Both with their hair tied back, I could see every chiselled feature of theirs to perfection.

The breakfast quesadilla was a welcome surprise. What wasn’t, was hearing they were getting the silent treatment from mother dearest. While I may have joked with my nugget about his shared melodramatic tendencies, I was secretly disappointed in her. I was used to the cold shoulder, from everyone. They weren’t.

“Uh, here,” Badru handed over a hoodie, the silver one I had borrowed and had wanted to keep. “You seemed kinda attached to it.”

I raised it to my nose, inhaling the deep scent of nutmeg and cinnamon that I could lose myself in for days and it would never be enough. I shoved my quesadilla in my mouth and swung the hoodie over my shoulders, admiring the sweet and proud look on Badru’s face. There was just one scent missing to complete the exotic forest aroma that made my insides fuzzy.

‘Don’t you worry. We’ll steal his s**t later,’ Evva eyed Astennu like he was her prey.

My nerves twinged as we approached the training centre. Tamlyn wouldn’t be in there. I had already asked and she would be out in the field, running drills with her trackers and a few warriors, as would her mate, Suzanna. The only people I would know would be my mates and the Beta, Kate, and ‘know’

with her was a loose term.

Entering the indoor sparring room, I felt the weight of everyone’s stares on me. I almost wanted to blanch backwards and hide behind my mates’ huge and broad physiques. There was one stare I noticed towards the back, aimed not at me but at the twins. And it wasn’t so much as a stare but a glare made to melt the skin off of its intended recipients.

Finley Jacobs.

Astennu I felt a nudge in my side, Evie’s pretty head subtly nodding over in the direction I had clocked instantly.

‘He looks like he’s imagining popping your head off.’

The guy looked like death warmed up, though it didn’t deter the venom in his eyes. He was once mine and Badru’s best friend. Now, my memories of him felt soured. How could I have ever counted someone like him as a friend? Was I truly so blinded before?

‘People change. We outgrew him. Sometimes, you just have to move on…’ Aasim spoke solemnly, almost mournfully.

“You sleep in this morning?” Kate, playfully teased, bumping our shoulders and breaking me out of my staredown.

Despite her outwardly playful demeanour, darker circles lined under her pale blue eyes and her naturally tanned skin appeared more sallow. I was about to ask if she was doing ok, with both dealing with Finley and her pregnancy, but I was beaten to it by my brother.

“Are you sure you should be doing this,” he circled a finger in the air. “When, you know,” he indicated her stomach. Trust Badru to ask with little tact.

“This may come as a shock, but pregnant she-wolves can still work. And I used to change your diapers, pup, don’t you forget. Had to clean your little winkle and everything,” she slapped the back of her hand against his chest, looking oh-so proud of herself.

I snorted in laughter at my twin’s bright red face, but I was silenced quickly by Kate’s smirk. “And yours mister, so don’t you start laughing.”

Our mate began cackling in laughter at what I was sure were our identical beat-red faces.

“One day, Evie,” Kate turned to her. “I’ll tell you all the embarrassing things these two did as kids.”

“Let’s get warm-ups started. We’re behind enough as it is,” Badru coughed, moving forward to shout at everyone to pair up for stretches and a few aerobic startups, pulling off his t-shirt to get ready to start.

I stripped out of my t-shirt too, as Evie unzipped her coat and the sight had me wanting to wrap her back up in it. Her outfit wasn’t revealing and neither was it different to what any of the other she-wolves present wore, but it left little to the imagination of her full and curvaceous figure. I didn’t care what other women wore or who looked at them. I did, however, care about wolf males looking at my mate.

‘Don’t even say a word,’ she cut off mine and my twin’s protests before they could even be formed. ‘Do you think there aren’t a few people looking at you two and your bare chests? I’m not intimidated or threatened and neither should you be.’

“I’m gonna try and find a partner,” she took a deep breath, switching to mind-link both of us. ‘I need to make an effort with pack members. Can’t hide behind you two all the time.’

I brushed the back of my knuckles against her cheek and Badru kissed her open palm, the pair of us loving that we could openly shower her with affection and not care about anyone seeing.

‘If this turns out to be like school all over again, and no one wants to be my friend, will one of you?’ She upturned her eyes to us.

‘Like you even need to ask,’ I kissed her forehead.

‘Even if you make friends, I better be getting some playtime later,’ my brother gently bit her palm, her breath hitching.

It was the first time I had witnessed her eyes swirl black, for the briefest of seconds. I could only hope, whatever it was her wolf required to shift, was soon approaching.

“She’s a sweet girl, in her own way,” Kate spoke softly while I watched Evie disappear into the small crowd, my eyes remaining fixed on her. “At least you honoured the mate bond, unlike my pup,” she glared her son’s way. ‘How is Lucy? She’s not suffering… is she? I know she’s gone to the heat facility in the mountains.’

‘I don’t think she is. I haven’t heard otherwise.’ Evie would have mentioned it straight away and would have gone to her regardless of the consequences.

Kate expelled a huge breath of relief as she gently corrected a young wolf warrior’s posture in her stretch. I felt the held-back growl from my twin, along with his irritation and his aura. I followed his line of sight to our mate who I had only turned my gaze from for a split second. She had partnered up with a man I couldn’t recognise with his back towards us, a sceptical and guarded look in her eyes. I was sure the twitch of rage in my eye was so strong, it could have been perceived as a wink.

‘Chill!’ Her voice boomed in my mind, already sensing our shift in mood. ‘I’ll tell you later, but this is something important. So cool your Alpha beans.’

It didn’t make my jaw tick any less, nevertheless, Badru and I fought our urges to storm over and snatch her away. I tried to focus elsewhere, my eyes settling on Finley, alone, doing a few half-hearted warm-ups.

‘I’m surprised he came,’ I mind-linked his mother. He barely looked able to function.

‘I made him,’ she frowned. ‘He hasn’t left the house since and stayed in his old bedroom.’

He had a small apartment in the pack house in the warrior wing. Even though it was on the opposite side to the Omega quarters, I was glad he had been as far away as possible.

‘Is he actually regretting it?’ Badru scoffed. I elbowed him for his poor tone. Fin may have been a d**k, but Kate was like extended family to us.

‘I don’t know. He… he won’t talk about anything,’ she sniffled, composing herself in the same second.

‘How’s your mom taking the news over Evie?’

‘We’re getting the silent treatment,’ my brother rolled his eyes.

‘She won’t stay like it for long,’ Kate tried to assure. I wished I could share her confidence.

‘It’s just not fair that she hates Evie for no other reason than that she was born a rogue,’ I argued.

‘She doesn’t hate Evie. I know she doesn’t,’ Kate gave Badru and me a pointed look. ‘The rogue thing has always been a touchy subject. I’ve tried working your dad around to letting rogues in, but he’s adamant about it. Said it stirs your mom’s nightmares up.’

That gained our attention.

She sighed heavily, the three of us taking our positions to begin the sparring and training session.

‘There’s a lot I don’t think your mother’s told you. And, you didn’t hear this from me, there’s a reason she won’t shift in front of anyone except your father, even me. She doesn’t want anyone to see her silver scars. The rogues that destroyed her pack in Egypt… they did things to her. That fear is still there and I guess from the outside it looks a little nutty, but what’s going on inside, I think, is a lot of turmoil.’

I knew our mother had nightmares, even now, but we thought it was about her pack and seeing others perish around her, not something so dark. I was still pissed about her behaviour. Treating our mate as though she was as bad as the monsters that had hurt her was ridiculous. While I disagreed wholeheartedly with my mother’s stance on rogues, I guess I could understand it somewhat better now.

Evie I felt my mates’ stare on my back with each step I took into the gathering. I heard the odd whisper as I passed by but it looked as though most had paired up already. This was going to be just like gym class all over again. A tap on my shoulder spun me around, to be met with a man who looked vaguely familiar.

‘You might not recognise him, but I sure as f**k do! Damian,’ Evva bristled, her hackles raised instantaneously.

The boy from when I was 14 years old and who had tried to force me into a kiss, the one Astennu had defended me against. A growl rippled in my throat and he held his hands up in placation. He stood around the same height as me, and I would admit he had grown to be fairly good-looking, not that I was attracted to him in the slightest. He wore a short beard and a few tattoos wrapped around his biceps, a mark stood out heavily on his neck.

“Hey, Evie. I guess you recognise me?” He grimaced in a strained half-smile. “I know this is a decade too late, but I really wanted to say how sorry I am for how I acted as a kid.”

My eyes narrowed in suspicion, wondering what his angle was. And my mates eye-murdering the back of his head didn’t help either.

“They aren’t about to kill me are they?” He said with some degree of humour and a hint of seriousness, obviously sensing their auras flicker.

“No,” I answered simply, glaring at my mates and mind-linking them to back off.

To my surprise, he asked to partner up with me, though still wary of keeping his distance.

“I’m sorry too, for not coming to you sooner,” he looked at me sheepishly, stretching his arm across his chest. “I was always kinda s**t scared to go anywhere near you after that day, in case Alpha Isaac made good on his threat.”

“Thank you, really. I know it can’t have been easy to come to me, with Alphas glaring at you.”

“Yeah, especially when Alpha Badru knocked me out in school the next day,” he chuckled nervously.

“I’m a guidance counsellor now in the high school on the west side of the pack. I do a lot of work with adolescents and teaching them about consent. Kinda putting my lessons learnt from mistakes into action.”

‘I guess he’s not a total douche. Colour me impressed,’ Evva almost whistled in my mind. It wasn’t often she sang anyone’s praises, so I knew Damian must have been telling the truth.

His work sounded as though it was something a few young men of the pack could do with learning.

Maybe if Finley had received something similar in his high school experience, he wouldn’t have been such a prick and my best friend wouldn’t have been left to pick up the pieces and pay the price for his bullshit ways. I would need to speak to mates about possibly implementing this into something more pack-wide.

‘My nour el-ain, I’m gonna have to insist on that playtime,’ Badru mind-linked as we finished up our stretches.

I rolled my eyes, internally. They lasted longer than I expected. I hoped they didn’t think I was going to spar with both of them at the same time. We were not repeating our romp through the snow.

“I think they’re getting lonely,” I glanced back at my mates to see them willing me to return with their best puppy eyes. Those damned sparkly sapphires at work again.

“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting to spar with you,” he offered his hand out to shake. “I don’t have a death wish.”

I took it, to show I harboured no grudge against him.

“I hope you know you’re doing some really good work. I’ll make sure they,” I inclined my head to my mates, still waiting for me, “know it too.”

Badru It had taken some time, but I finally realised who the guy was talking to my mate. And it had taken everything in me to not march over there and knock him the f**k out again. With the easy expression on Evie’s face, I couldn’t decide whether it calmed my fears, or inflamed them. While we had made great strides in earning her trust and I felt somewhat secure that we were no longer in ‘rejection territory’, there was still that tiny voice whispering that a better man may come along and turn her head. I could tolerate her doing warm-ups with another partner, but my stupid insecurities were demanding her attention.

“Uh… I’m not tussling around with two of you,” she glanced between Astennu and me when she rejoined us.

‘You tussled pretty well last night, and this morning,’ I tried to bite back my smirk.

‘I will hit you in front of people,’ she warned, thinking it was a deterrent threat.

‘You seriously think an audience would stop him?’ Astennu answered.

I would have loved all three of us to have sparred together, except, we had the habit of escalating things and I doubted that was the image Evie wanted in front of the pack.

“Ok, how about first one to land and keep a hold gets to spar with Evie and the loser has to lead the class?” I set the challenge with my twin.

“Is rock, paper, scissors a foreign concept for you? It’d be way quicker,” Evie threw her head back.

“I agree,” Astennu said flatly.

“Sounds like someone’s scared of losing to their little brother,” I dropped the gauntlet, knowing that would get me what I wanted. “If you were worried about saving face, you should’ve just said.”

That was the cincher. There wasn’t a chance he didn’t know what I was doing, and it was working in spite of it.

“Oh, it’s on.”

“This is the most pointless show of male pride,” Evie rubbed the bridge of her nose.

‘Don’t pretend like the two of us wrestling over you, isn’t turning you on,’ I grinned openly. Did she think I couldn’t sense her arousal?

“Good luck refereeing this,” Kate shook her head in some mild amusement. “Don’t you pups worry, I’ll start off the training as the only other adult here. Evie, if you get bored, you can always join me.”

I had learnt my lesson before. I knew she wasn’t a prize to be competed for and this wasn’t what it was about. I wanted to earn my time with Evie, not win it by chance or be handed it out of pity. And Astennu and I hadn’t sparred like this in a while. He was the only one that ever truly challenged me in a match.

“Go,” Evie said in a bored tone, yet her eyes never left either of us.

‘Our mate is loving this!’ Baniti slobbered, attempting to rein in his concentration to our brother. ‘We better win. There’s several thigh holds I want her to try on us.’

I kept that thought in mind as we circled each other slowly on the thin mat, keeping it as my motivation.

The rest of the class tried to concentrate on their own training and not watch us, but we were a difficult spectacle to ignore.

My brother launched first. Usually, he waited, standing back to assess the situation as always. He was trying to catch me off guard, determined to get the upper hand on me. Astennu was the quicker of the two of us and I was the stronger, equally but differently matched, one complementing the other as with everything between us.

His faster movements and his break from his normal routine succeeded in catching me off guard. He managed to pin me in a headlock, wrapping around the back of my neck with my head pointing downward. However, in this position, I could see he had left his footing open. I hooked my ankle around his, releasing his hold and sending us to the floor. I rolled under him to grab him around the neck, wrapping my legs around his torso and pinning his arms to his side.

‘Say it,’ I ordered, as he continued to struggle to get out of my hold. He wasn’t going anywhere without bowing to my demands.

‘Fine, you’re supreme king,’ he admitted his defeat. But I wanted a more audible reply.

‘Outloud,’ I reiterated.

“You’re supreme king!” He shouted as best he could.

I released him instantly, taking great delight in how he rubbed his neck and huffed to catch his breath.

We grasped each others’ wrists and quickly pressed our foreheads together, as we did after every match.

“Go lead your class, big Alpha,” I continued to dig, in good humour, slapping him on his back.

‘You’re the one who’s better at overseeing the training,’ he grumbled.

‘That’s why you need the practice,’ both I and my wolf felt the satisfaction of getting to use his own words against him.

“Shall we?” I inclined my head to Evie, dying for my chance to tumble around with her and, hopefully, this time I wouldn’t take a direct hit to my family jewels. And after, I would show her how we led a training class. Maybe one day she would feel confident enough to lead one herself.