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“Non-negotiable, remember?”
“Yes, but I don’t think he wants anything to do with me.”
“Have you tried to talk to him?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest. I swear, no one told me having four mates was going to be like this.
“No, but—”
“Exactly,” I say, not letting him finish. “Zeke’s life hasn’t been easy, and you being here has brought up some old wounds.”
“Why would he be upset?” he scoffs. “He got to stay with our family. He got to be part of a pack.”
I take a deep breath, my lips turning down at how much these two don’t know about each other.
“It’s not my place to tell you, but you don’t exactly have the full story,” I sigh, scrubbing a hand over my face.
My heart wars with my head. I wish I could tell him and clear this up right now, but just like when Zeke told me his past, he’d left the other guys’ stories out of it. It’s not my story to tell, and I can’t break Zeke’s trust like that.
“I’m guessing there are old wounds that have been brought up for you too, though,” I prompt, pushing aside the voice in the back of my head that screams not to open up, not to let him get too close when I might have to push him away for his safety. But if he listens, that might not have to happen.
“I was adopted into a kind and caring family, but we lived in the human world,” he explains, a small smile playing on his lips as he recounts his memories. “My mom is an eagle shifter, and my dad is an otter—strange combination, I know, and because of that, they were shunned by their families.”
“I grew up with a few other misfit families of shifters, each not welcomed by whatever group they were born from. I had a loving childhood, but I knew from a young age that I was adopted. I always wondered what it would be like to be in a pack, to be surrounded by others who shared that connection. I was an alpha among betas and omegas, and because of that, I never really fit in.” He lets loose a long breath, some of the rigid posture of his shoulders dissipating with the confession. “Only to find out one of us was wanted, one of us was welcomed into a pack, and now he too wants nothing to do with me.”
“I promise it’s not you, Zayn.” I trail my fingers lightly over his cheek, and he leans into the comforting touch. “It’s this life; it’s his past. I know we can clear all this up if you both tell each other your truths.”
“I found you, and I found a brother, yet you’re both pushing me away.” He sighs, pulling back to look at me. His grey eyes are tinged with sorrow, the look slicing through me sharper than any blade. “You’ve accepted him as your mate while you’re trying to push me away, and that kills me more than anything.”
I suck in a staggered breath, his words a knife to my gut.
“I’m sorry, Zayn,” I say, truly meaning it. “That compulsion you feel to keep me safe works the other way too. You’re not used to how brutal pack life can be, and besides that, our lives would be dangerous even if we were humans.”
“I know,” he says, his soft fingers clutching mine, like he’s scared I might just slip away. “But I know the goddess brought me to your bar for a reason that night. My shifter friends and I were on vacation—we wanted to see what the town without humans was truly like. And if I hadn’t come here, if I hadn’t gone out that night, I would’ve never found my mate. Fate has to count for something.”
“It does,” I admit, a hesitant smile curling on my lips. “But you may or may not have noticed, I’m stubborn, even towards the will of the goddess.”
“I’ve noticed.” He chuckles, eliciting a low growl from my lips. “What are the other conditions?”
“You have to let Zeke train you to fight both in wolf and human form,” I say and swallow thickly. “We can’t have something like today happen again. If we say down, you get down. You could have died today, and you very nearly got Jasper shot.”
His brows knit together as realization lights in those grey eyes—finally he’s seeing today from our perspective.
“You’ve been on an adrenaline rush since then, but if you don’t take this seriously. I don’t—”
“I promise,” he whispers, brushing his other thumb over my cheek, his soft hands yet another reminder of how unprepared he is for all this.
“I know you’re new to all this. You don’t know our history yet, but my mother died in a car crash when I was a teenager,” I explain, my heart aching at the reminder. “She was my father’s mate, and it broke him when he lost her. That fear of turning into him if I ever lost a mate nearly made me turn my back on the others when I first met them.”
His throat bobs, his eyes shining with unshed tears.
It wasn’t as hard as I thought, bearing my scars for him to see. The weight on my chest lightens, the heavy clouds of grief no longer shrouding me like they used to.
“I promise, Sky, I won’t ever leave you, and I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that never happens,” he declares, his eyes shining with pride as he looks back at me, seeing more of me than he ever had before.
He leans forward, his hand moving to cup the back of my head, tilting my lips up for him. I inch forward, ready for his mouth to consume mine when the sound of footsteps crashes through the haze.
We snap apart as Zeke opens the door, my pulse pounding in my ears.
“I hope you both like cheeseburgers.” He smiles as he holds up a few paper bags, completely oblivious to what was just about to happen.
