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The two of them hold eye contact for a second, and I’m pretty sure they’re speaking across mind link and purposefully leaving me out. I use the distraction to grab my bag and sling it over my shoulder. I’m so exhausted, I’m pretty sure I could fall over at any moment.
“So, uhm…” I nervously scuff my feet across the grass. “Thank you for helping me out there, but I’m painfully tired. Is it possible to get a cabin for the night here or something?”
Mason and Ian turn to me, taking me in more fully as I nervously shuffle my feet and wring my hands against the strap of my bag. Their attention is so intense it feels like an actual caress, and a wave of embarrassed panic crashes into me.
I’m in way over my head.
SIX
MASON
My wolf practically screams at me to turn around, to backtrack to mine and Ian’s cabin rather than walking toward the front of the campground where the rental booth is. We left Quinn at the small cabin we’ve been sharing, and every step away from her feels excruciating. Ian practically bounces on his toes as we walk, and I’m trying to figure out how to ask my twin if he feels the same.
It feels like the image of the woman is seared in my brain. She’s half a foot shorter than me and my twin, with bold pink hair that falls in waves over her shoulders and curious, matching pink eyes. And even after she yanked the flowy sundress over her head, her full, luscious curves were more than apparent. She has the kind of hips made for gripping and pulling against you as you dance in a nightclub, sweaty and lost in the beat and the body of your partner.
“So…” I clear my throat, turning my head to take in my twin as he runs a hand over his face, eyes wide like he’s trying to wrap his head around what just happened. Only a moment passes before the shock seems to pass and he’s right back to his happy-go-lucky default setting.
“She’s perfect, isn’t she?” Ian blurts out before I can finish a thought. “Have you ever seen a more beautiful woman? That hair—I thought I was imagining the pink fur, but it’s the dye, isn’t it? Stunning. And her eyes.”
“Ian,” I snap a little more forcefully than intended. He dips his head sheepishly. He’s not wrong—she’s fucking gorgeous, and my wolf knew on sight that she was mine.Ours,mine and my brother’s. Something is eating at me, though.
“Sorry, I just didn’t expect us to find our mate tonight. What are the odds, right? All those years we spent apart and neither of us stumbled across her, but we finally meet up again and here she is for both of us.” He sounds thrilled with the development, but I’m not sure I share the sentiment yet.
Ian halts when he realizes I’m not sharing in his excitement, but I keep walking past him. I rub at a bead of sweat developing at the back of my hairline. Any second now, I’m going to cave and turn back to Quinn. It feels impossible to walk away from her.
I lied anyway when I told her I could ask if there’s any free cabins for the night. Even if I expected the groundskeeper, Charles, to still be working the booth this time of night, there’s no chance in hell I would ask for a cabin for Quinn to stay in alone.
Those wolves could still come back, deciding to disregard the neutral ground rules.And I don’t want her to stay anywhere but with me, my wolf chimes in. Already I know there’s no way in hell I can be away from her for even a night.
“Mason?”
“What?” I ask, and even I can hear how dejected I sound as I pull to a stop.
Ian moves to stand in front of me, frowning deeply at me. “Are you not happy? Do you not think she’s as perfect as I do?” He already sounds fiercely protective of her. I rub uncomfortably at my chest, unused to the hollow ache that fills me just from being separated from my mate.
“We should go back.” I turn abruptly. I don’t even want to pretend to go talk to Charles.
“Uh, what? Where are you going?” Ian loses the bounce in his step and falls into step normally beside me. “Dude, what’s going on with you?”
I’m a nervous fucking wreck, that’s what’s going on. “I don’t think we should have left Quinn alone,” I grumble.
Ian’s spine straightens, and his head spins on a swivel. “Do you think she’s in trouble? Do you sense something?”
“No I’m just…” I trail off to avoid admitting that I’m just feeling neurotic over her. I don’t want her out of my sight.
“Stop for a second.” Ian jerks me by the shoulder and forces me to stop. Annoyance pinches between my brows, but I stop and face him, waiting impatiently to see what he wants.
He squints his eyes to look at me, a pair of warm brown eyes that look exactly like my own staring at me. “You told me back there when we first caught the scent of her that your wolf felt the mate bond too. Right? I didn’t imagine that, did I?”
“No.” I felt the bond loud and clear. It felt like being sucker-punched, and I damn near lost my feet out from under me to get to her.
“Then why are you being so weird? Isn’t it a good thing to find her here where we have all the freedom in the world to decide what to do next? We can figure out what she’s running from and how to help her, and then we can go anywhere we want and start over together.”
“All three of us?” Nervous hesitation leaks into my voice.
“Of course.” Ian’s upper lip curls, and he’s so far removed from his usual batshit, high-energy, optimism-pours-out-of-his-asshole self that I take half a step back in surprise. “You’re not taking her from me.”
I shake my head instantly. “I didn’t intend to, but you have to admit it’s weird. What are the odds that Fate gives us the same mate?”
