Chapter 48

Accepting My Twin Mates Chapter 48 Chapter 48 – A Segment Of Advice?

Astennu I peppered kisses along her neck, soothing her as she fell asleep. Whether this was a dream or a reality, I couldn’t tell. All I knew was my world held a new burst of colour, everything seemed stronger.

Evie’s spicy vanilla scent, faintly mixed with ours, was all I ever wanted in this new world of mine.

…Goddess, I love her so much…

I wanted to shout it. I realised now the emotion that had been playing behind my mind recently was this: love.

‘You say something?’ Badru sleepily mind-linked me.

My eyes widened and a mild panic spread. ‘…No?’

s**t, did I say that through the mind-link? Did she hear?!

‘Maybe our twin just sensed it?’ Aasim was unconvincing at best. ‘Just play it cool in the morning and everything will be fine.’

…f**k.

I really hoped I hadn’t mind-linked that mistake. Evie wasn’t ready to hear it.

My brother and I were way further into this relationship than she was. We had admired her in secret for years. She had avoided us like the plague over the same period. And she seemed much more resistant to the bond’s effects than we were. It didn’t make her inebriated on it, as it did with us.

Where sleep was calling me before, now I was wired awake fretting. I had better not have just made a monumental fuck-up. That was Badru’s department.

*

*

*

Soft and light scratches across my stomach roused me into consciousness. A soft feminine hand slowly trailed its nails up and down my skin, shuddering a deep but quiet growl from my chest. Aasim’s mental form had melted into a mass of groans and leg kicks, like he was some pampered lap dog.

“Hmmm, that feels amazing. Any wolf who says otherwise, is lying,” I cracked open an eye to see my brother already awake and nuzzling into Evie’s neck. “Except maybe Badru,” I smirked at him as he abruptly stopped his affections with our mate to glare at me, warning me I had better not say it. “He’s ticklish.”

My twin made a face as though he had just received the worst betrayal imaginable. “Seriously?! Khayin (traitor).”

“Really?” A wicked smile carved across Evie’s face and she raised her hands in threat, wiggling her fingers.

“No! No, no,” he leapt out of bed, swishing the blanket back in one clean sweep.

“Oh, come on. I haven’t even done anything yet!” She laughed at him bolting for the door.

“Nope, I’m out,” he banged the door shut behind him, not caring he was leaving the room naked.

“He’s super ticklish. Right in the ribs,” I whispered in her ear, kissing the soft patch of flesh on her neck and sliding an arm around her bare waist.

“I’ll remember that one,” she hummed in amusement, turning in my grasp to sit in my lap.

Her nakedness wasn’t helping my morning situation in the slightest. Her bare ass cheeks sliding against my c**k was conjuring images from last night and distracting me from my current task, to nonchalantly probe whether she heard my unintentional mind-link.

“How are you feeling this morning?” Her soft lips brushed mine, deepening the kiss with a languid twist of her tongue.

“Like I’m still flying,” I chuckled, a note of nerves slipping through. And like I could fall at any second, I internally added, or prayed I had internally added. Because clearly, I had little control over my impulses around this woman anymore.

I felt an eternal silence stretch between us, a silence so loud it almost drowned out the thudding in my ears.

‘Words?’ Aasim reminded me. ‘Words would be good right now.’

“Uhhh,” I so eloquently stumbled.

‘Ok, I was thinking more wordy-type words, and less awkward white noise.’

“Aste, I heard you last night,” she said quietly.

I sighed heavily, “I’m sorry, I know you aren’t ready yet. I didn’t even know I was mind-linking it. It was just some random sleepy thought while I was still on a first-time s*x high…” I was rambling away by this point.

‘’Iilahat ‘aelah, ‘arsil almusaeada (goddess above, send help). Go back to the awkward white noise, please, for all of us,’ Aasim uttered, feeling some second-hand embarrassment.

“You’re blabbering, Aste,” Evie’s hands slid back and forth on my shoulders.

My wolf continued his snickering, ‘channel your inner possum.’

Did something crawl up my wolf’s ass this morning?

“It’s ok…” her hand trailed up to my jaw. “I… I’m gonna brush my teeth and then maybe we can get some breakfast?”

I nodded, pecking her lips and watched as she slipped into the bathroom, drooling over her bare ass’s movements.

She hadn’t said it back… dammit, I had been way too premature.

‘There’s worse ways to be premature,’ Aasim warned through his snuffling of laughter.

I groaned, wanting the earth to swallow me whole.

The door to my room opened to reveal my twin, now dressed in a deep red long-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of cotton shorts. Great, he would have felt my mental facepalming.

“I brought these for her,” he threw down a pair of sweatpants and went to my closet to grab one of my shirts.

He perched himself on the edge of my bed, half turned towards me. “Why are you so wound up again?”

My eyes flickered to the bathroom door, ‘I said something last night…’

‘…That was real?!’ He fully turned. ‘Look at you being impulsive. This feels like one of those things you’d call me a drama llama for.’

‘This is serious.’

‘Oh, when you do it, it’s serious. But when I do it, I’m a drama llama!’ He threw his hands in the air.

‘If this was you, you’d be in your pit of despair on the floor, faceplanting the carpet.’

“That’s it!” He lurched forward, grabbing me in a headlock.

“Ru! Get the f**k off,” I garbled, jabbing him in the ribs and making him jolt in the air, releasing me.

“That’s a low blow, Aste!”

‘Supreme king, b***h,’ I gloated.

“Am I interrupting?” Evie cleared her throat, leaning against the doorframe.

Evie I couldn’t have gotten into the bathroom quicker.

Evva seemed to find my reaction most amusing. ‘One little word and you go running into hiding.’

‘One word? Yes. Little? That’s a big fat no!’

Saying the word ‘love’ out loud… I never thought until now how scary the prospect was. I had never said it before, not like this, not in this meaning. I think I did, but saying it would make it all real. Along with it, the fear it would all disappear. By saying it, would I jinx it? All the things in my life usually came with a ‘but’. I could live in a pack but I would be shunned as a rogue. I could be a werewolf but I would ultimately be labelled as wolfless… I could have my Alpha mates but…

…What would that particular ‘but’ turn out to be?

Taking a deep breath, I moved to the sink and looked over my appearance. My light makeup hadn’t smeared much, just a small smudge of mascara under my eyes. Borrowing one of Astennu’s hair ties, I gathered my hair into a high messy bun and set to work washing my face clean, brushing my teeth and taking in all the littering of hickies. Several lined my breasts and a huge one decorated my neck which certainly couldn’t be hidden.

‘Poor mother-in-law, Qamar, will see how her angelic baby boys have been little devils with the local rogue,’ Evva snickered, thinking the huge dark red mark was hilarious.

‘Why are you so happy to poke the bear?’ And the mama bear at that.

‘Because I like to be a petty b***h, ok? There’s not much other entertainment in here,’ she huffed and finally growled in compliance. ‘Fine, I’ll promise not to growl at her or scream profanities in your head when she’s around. Happy?’

It would do.

I opened the bathroom door to the scene of both my mates tussling on the bed, Badru dressed and Astennu still in bed with the sheets pooled around his waist.

“Am I interrupting?” I cleared my throat, leaning my naked body against the doorframe.

I pushed myself off and sauntered over to the bed. Two sets of sapphires followed my every movement and sway.

“Not in the slightest,” Astennu flushed, his eyes sweeping the length of my figure.

“Got you some clothes,” Badru held the items in his hand impossibly close to his chest. “Wanna come get ‘em?”

My wolf fawned at the games she was eager to play. ‘He’s so cute when he thinks he has the upper hand. Please tell me you’re about to torment him, because if you don’t, I’ll be disappointed.’

I didn’t back down from his little challenge and, slowly, I crawled across the bed towards them. I could tell neither were anticipating me to play along and were, instead, expecting some smart-mouth response from me. I leaned in to kiss Astennu softly, and turned to Badru to go in for the kill.

“You know, it’s dangerous to play games,” my hands crept up his chest, my lips inching towards his. His grin threatened to cut his face in two, his dimple showing through his heavy stubble. Just like the oblivious nugget he was. “Especially, when I’ve just been told about your weakness.”

His smile faltered, but it was too late. My prey was within my grasp. My fingers dug into his ribs, squeezing up and down his sides.

“Ah! No!” He cried out and squirmed violently.

He flailed and fell backwards, trying to catch himself on thin air. He landed with a thud on the floor and his legs still propped up on the bed.

“Are his feet ticklish?”

He hid them immediately under the bed.

“That’s a yes,” I giggled.

“Our next training, Aste, I’m kicking your ass for this!” He glared up from his spot on the floor.

“She would have found out eventually,” Astennu was trying, hard, to rein in his laughter.

They were so involved in their little sibling throw down, they had failed to notice I had removed myself from the bed and had begun dressing.

‘Don’t say a thing,’ Evva sat intensely interested on the argument. ‘I wanna see if this descends into wrestling again. Our goober is naked and I wanna see his junk helicopter around.’

I snorted, and loudly, but they were so focused on their grudge match, they hadn’t paid any attention.

“Why do you always embarrass me?!” Badru frowned, scooting away from the bed and standing up.

“I’m your older brother, I’m meant to.”

“Older by six minutes!”

“Are you two finished in your lover’s quarrel?” I interjected, now fully dressed. “I’m hungry.”

Once Astennu had gotten his ass in gear and dressed, we took the big step in heading downstairs. I could sense Alpha Isaac’s aura, so I doubted Luna Qamar would be far and would probably be sitting in the kitchen too.

And she was, sipping her cup of coffee that her mate had just finished pouring. Both looked as though they had finished eating considering the empty plates at the side. She would have known her sons were approaching and yet she strained not to look up. Their father, though, folded the paper he was reading and gave each of his sons an encouraging smile, even me, too.

“Morning, mom,” my mates said in accidental unison.

The Luna took a sharp inhale of breath but remained silent, barely looking up. I noticed the way Alpha Isaac gave her a pointed look, how she side-eyed him in return, mind-linking.

“Morning my ahibbaa (darlings),” her face softened, her eyes taking in each of her sons. “…Good morning…Evie.”

“Good morning… Luna… Alpha,” I nodded my head a little, trying to act as naturally as possible.

Badru pulled out a stool in front of us at the kitchen island breakfast bar and Astennu ushered me to sit, standing behind me to trail his hands up and down my arms. My lungs felt about ready to explode in the awkward tension and I had only been in their parents’ presence for three seconds.

‘You want to tell her to f**k off again?’ My wolf commented.

‘That was a one-time thing, I was pissed off and it was said in the heat of the moment.’

‘I wasn’t being sarcastic,’ Evva said flatly. ‘I was offering my opinion, and that is to tell her to f**k off. We ain’t going anywhere.’

‘That promise with the profanities lasted,’ and I cut her off, knowing what she would say next. ‘Yes, you’re an animal, you’re fickle.’

‘I was going to say, I didn’t scream the profanities,’ she stuck her nose in the air with superiority.

“How about some coffee for everyone?” Alpha Isaac cut through the silence. “Evie, how do you take it?”

“Just as it is… thank you.”

“Would you like some breakfast?” Luna Qamar offered, looking more at her sons. “I can make some more beid bel basturma?”

Whatever it was, the twins sounded enthusiastic for it and if it was what she was cooking before we came down, it smelled heavenly.

‘It’s fried eggs cooked over basturma, a spiced cured beef that’s thinly sliced,’ Astennu mind-linked.

‘Mom usually serves it with flatbread.’

Luna Qamar began gathering a few things from the fridge and laying them out on the kitchen counter.

Just as she was about to click the burner into ignition, Badru decided this was the perfect time to announce our plans for the not-too-distant future. I understood his need to distract from the awkward tension, but maybe not in this particular way.

“We picked out a spot to build a home of our own.”

Astennu sighed behind me, his fingers tensing on my arms. The pan on the hob clanged out of his mother’s hand and both parents looked at the three of us with raised brows.

“You want to leave the pack house?” Luna Qamar repeated, as though she was hearing a scandal.

“This has been our family’s home in the pack since 1792,” Alpha Isaac frowned. With his facial expression, he looked remarkably like Badru when he pouted. Perhaps the overdramatic tendencies came from both sides. “Four generations of the Rolfe line have lived here and you want to end it?”

“Think of it as less of a hassle for you to move out. You can just stay put,” Badru muttered.

“Maybe the future generation will live here instead…” Luna Qamar spoke in a quiet voice that surprised me, and not just because of her tone.

“P-pups?” I spluttered. Oh goddess, I didn’t even know how to cross that bridge.

She took a deep breath to continue. “Whether you can have them or not…” she looked down at her mug, fiddling with the handle. “Don’t let anyone pressure you…”

She abruptly walked out, leaving everything out on the side and I distinctly heard sniffling as she elegantly but briskly walked out, her jade-green silk dress flowing behind her.

Her mate’s eyes followed her retreat with worry, sighing. “If you want your own home, that’s fine. You can build wherever you wish.”

And the Alpha rushed out to follow after his Luna.

‘I’m gonna say it, that was f*****g weird,’ Evva uttered, unsure of what else to say.

I didn’t disagree. The Luna almost sounded as though she was imparting a deep segment of advice to me.

“What was that all about?”

“Something Kate said to us in training,” Badru was still looking in the direction his mother had fled. “I think what our mom went through in her home pack was worse than anyone knows about. I just… I don’t know how to bring it up and ask so it doesn’t sound as though we’ve been told things. Especially, with how she’s handling stuff at the moment… and I’m not sure I want to hear what really happened.”

I knew from hearsay that Luna Qamar may have still had nightmares about her past, but aside from her originating from a destroyed pack, that was it. And I wasn’t surprised Astennu or Badru had little more knowledge than others in the pack. How would anyone want to hear that about a loved one?