Chapter 53

Accepting My Twin Mates Chapter 53 Chapter 53 – Out Of Our Lives?

Badru I heaved for oxygen, resting my forehead against the back of Evie’s head. My high and euphoria steadily retreated and now that my heated skin cooled down, the frigid air burnt my lungs. We probably shouldn’t have let our basal instincts take such a hold, but I couldn’t regret it too much. The buzz from our mate’s first shift, mixed with the bond and her intoxicating scent, had driven Baniti and Aasim into a shared frenzy. Coupled with her rather savage dominant edge, my wolf was still beside himself with glee in a mushy puddle of satisfaction.

Many Alphas would probably be none too happy for their mate to challenge their own dominance. But men like that, I pitied.

‘They have no idea what they’re missing,’ Baniti sighed in contentment. ‘Why would we want a lamb when we’ve been gifted a ravenous lioness?’

Evie’s clammy figure began to grow limp in mine and my brother’s shared hold. Her body was shutting down, compensating for the huge expenditure of her shift. Whether it was exasperated by her being a lycan, I could only imagine. It was a common affliction that accompanied the first shift. Both Astennu and I had crashed after ours, too. The only problem was she was fighting against it, using the last shreds of energy she didn’t have to stay conscious.

“Don’t worry, ammar. You need this rest,” Astennu assured, cupping her cheek.

“We’re right here, my nour el-ain. This is normal after the shift. We’ll be with you the whole time,” I peppered kisses at her temple.

The tension coiled under her skin for staying awake, ebbed away at our words and she sagged against me. Call it petty sibling rivalry, but I was over the moon it was me she fell asleep against.

‘We get to carry her!’ My wolf happily wagged and I could practically see him sticking his tongue out at our brother. Baniti had always been an excitable spirit, but around Evie? He went into overdrive.

Evie’s slumped and dead weight reminded me that I was still deeply buried within her, as was Astennu.

And I was inappropriately getting another hard-on from being encased in her smooth buttermilk skin. I wiped the two of us off with a handful of snow as best I could, with my twin doing the same. The three of us needed a serious hot shower when we got back to the pack house; we were covered in everything possible: dirt, mud, leaves, sweat and a whole heap of s*x.

I picked her up bridal style, tucking her head under my chin and realising the trek we now had, in the snow, naked. Our higher natural body temperature gave us resistance to the cold, not immunity.

‘f**k, we really didn’t think any of this through,’ Astennu ran a worried hand through the top of his hair to swipe it out of his eyes.

‘You can’t say you didn’t enjoy it though,’ I grinned, sniggering at his irritated glare. Twin wolves could hide nothing from the other.

I found a kernel of humour in seeing my brother face the consequences of his newfound impulsive streak. I was a seasoned professional and rarely batted an eye at the results of my recklessness. But I was worried for Evie and her chill against the cold. An insane worry given her lycan blood. The one thing that was known about them was their homeland of Siberian Russia, where they had isolated themselves for centuries, a land famous for its harsh winters. With her wolf fully emerged, she would probably handle the cold better than any of us.

By the time we made it back to the pack house, my toes were starting to go numb. Our clothing was long gone, ripped to shreds at the site where Evie and Evva had run off.

‘Where are you going?’ Astennu stopped me as I headed to our Alpha wing door.

‘Home? To get her clean and put her to bed,’ I pointed with my finger from under Evie’s thigh.

‘Might be best for her to be in her own room,’ he inclined his head, pointing his chin down to the Omegas’ quarters. ‘Being around familiar scents, in her own space with us will help her wolf feel safer.

Plus, we can be there for Lucy’s protection if she needs it. That one will mean the most to Evie,’ he looked at her so tenderly, much like I did, threading his fingers through her hair.

‘I’ll meet you in her room and I’ll grab us some clothes too.’

This was why my twin was always the better planner, taking into account things I never did. We parted and I made my way to Evie’s room, ignoring the slack-jawed stares of the odd pack member wandering the building at this hour. As I braced my mate with a single hand against my chest, the door across from us rattled and opened.

Lucy squeaked in surprise when her wide eyes landed on me, blushing and turning her head in the same instant.

“I take it from that sound he’s bare ass?” Tamlyn appeared behind her and glanced in my rough direction, a tiny knowing smirk curled around her lips. “You actually get any running done? Or did you just dive balls deep into a threesome?”

‘You’re the one with the shit-hot sense of smell, you tell me,’ I flung back, knowing she could scent exactly what we got up to. Werewolf senses came with their pros and cons, just like with our various bonds.

“Is she ok?” Lucy peered over, trying not to look directly at me.

“Yeah…” my nose drifted along her hairline. “Her shift… you’re not gonna believe this, but she’s a lycan.”

“Get the f**k out!” Tamlyn’s arms hung slack at her sides.

The sleep momentarily vanished from Lucy’s face, “they’re really real? Do you think this is why she’s sooo… ‘Evie’?”

“What I think is, we all need to revisit this when we have the mental capacity for it,” Tamlyn wisely interjected and rubbed her tired eyes.

Like Lucy, her exhaustion was evident. The little she-wolf swayed slightly and released a huge yawn into the back of her hand.

“Get some sleep, Lucy. Me and Aste are staying here with her,” I indicated Evie clutched to my chest.

“We’ll look out for you too.”

She flashed me a grateful smile as she rubbed her eyes, shuffling back into her room for some much-

needed rest.

‘I’ll see you guys tomorrow,’ Tamlyn’s expression grew serious. ‘He is all healed, so I think it’s gonna go down, provided he wakes up.’

At least Finley would be one issue out of the way, although his departure would create more issues with it. All our security procedures, codes, and patrol timetables would need to be changed. Luckily, all of that could be done on a laptop at Evie’s side while she slept. Neither my twin nor I would want to leave her side till she woke.

Back in her room, my mate hadn’t joked about the size of her shower. It was one thing seeing it, but trying to actually manoeuvre her around, while unconscious? Suffice it to say, someone could have gotten hurt if anyone tried to get physical in here, and not in a good way.

‘No way could she throw our ass around in here,’ Baniti wrinkled his nose in displeasure.

I gazed down at her, sensing my excitement growing again. ‘All the more reason to get that home she wants, built, so she can throw us around to her heart’s content.’

I got the two of us as clean as possible without washing her hair. Going to bed with it wet wouldn’t do her any favours. Astennu made it back just as I was folding myself around her in bed and quickly ridded himself of his clothes. Skin-to-skin contact was the greatest form of bonding, between mates and our pups. I didn’t know if she or Evva could sense us, or if she could feel the kisses I planted on her shoulder, or the gentle finger my brother ran along her cheek, but it soothed my wolf enough that his whimpering died down.

Silly wolf. A little emotional silence from our mate and he turned into a forlorn pup.

*

*

*

I woke abruptly to a pillow colliding with the side of my head. I jerked at the sudden onslaught, rolling with momentum and straight off of the mattress, landing with a harsh thud on my chest. Groaning and blinking the opposing mix of sleep and adrenaline from my sandpaper eyes, I glowered at my attacker, biting back a hissing growl.

“Was that necessary?”

“No,” Astennu grinned without an ounce of remorse and didn’t even spare me the decency to hide his laughter. “But it was f*****g funny seeing you flail around.”

“You could have just shook me awake, ahbil (asshole),” I muttered, knowing I was pouting.

“I did,” he shoved a travel mug of coffee in front of me and it was the first time I realised that there were the smells of food whirling around. “I shouted you, shook you and thought about throwing a bucket of water over you. So it was either a pillow to the head or a cattle prod to the ribs and watch you piss yourself awake.”

“You’d do that to your akh saghir (baby brother)?” I faked a hurt tone.

I scooted closer to my nour el-ain and wrapped my free arm under her to drape her against my chest. I pressed a kiss to her forehead as she slept soundly, adoring how her features twitched in tiny movements.

My brother snorted, “baby? As you keep reminding me, you’re six minutes younger, not six years. Quit being a tifl (baby) and get ready. We have a fuck-ton to get through,” he waved a stack of files, a tablet and pointed to the laptops on the floor… just how long had he been up?

Astennu “I’ve been awake close to an hour,” I answered his silent question, taking a bite of the bacon, egg and cheese bagel I had grabbed from the kitchens. ‘Are you moving or do I need that cattle prod?’

He hugged Evie a little closer, thinking that would save him. It wouldn’t. And if my ammar was awake, she’d be with me on tormenting my moron.

Badru took a brief swig of his coffee and made his way to the bathroom to freshen up. I looked over one of the security files I had grabbed last night with our tablets and laptops so that we could work easily from Evie’s side.

‘Do you think we should confront dad about Evie while she’s asleep?’ My brother mind-linked as I heard him brushing his teeth. ‘She’d probably be more comfortable hearing it from us than him.’

This was tricky to answer. It was our mate’s past, not ours. If it was going to be told to anyone, it should be told to Evie first. But who knew how long she would be out of it? One thing I knew for certain: her mother was no ordinary rogue. She had to be running from someone or something. The question was, who or what?

“I say, let’s talk to dad,” Badru strode out of the bathroom, zipping up his pants, and grabbed one of the shirts I brought last night. “The curiosity is gonna kill me otherwise. Evie might not wake for another day or even two, like I did when I shifted.”

‘The sheer audacity that he would lie to our face,’ my wolf huffled.

“You were unconscious for a day and milked it for another. Don’t bullshit me.”

“I was!” His tone ascended, a clear indicator he was lying. “Fine. I faked it a day to get out of school.”

“As you can see, the shock is clear on my face,” I muttered flatly, motioning my hand in an invisible circle.

He frowned, “you look pretty certain to me.”

‘For the love of…’ Aasim rubbed his paw down his face. ‘Has anyone seen our sarcasm sign? If you find it, please slap him with it.’

‘We’re 25 years in, he ain’t changing,’ and neither would I want him to.

He may never realise it, but even when it was frustrating at times, his innocence over sarcasm always made me smile.

“I know you’re impatient, but we should wait for her to wake up. Plus, who knows how long that conversation will go on for and we need to prioritise the pack’s security first,” I tossed the tablet at him, which he caught with ease and offered him his bagel. “Her past has been hidden for 23 years, it can wait another day.”

We had barely cracked open the perimeter runs rota spreadsheet when a bird sound chimed with a whistle.

“Did someone set a loon loose in here?” Badru zeroed in on the source of the sound. It did seem similar to the loon birds we heard on the lakes in the evening.

The source was Evie’s phone, pinging with a message or rather messages. A group chat that appeared to be between her, Lucy, Catalina, Tamlyn and Suzanna… and, of course, the topic was Evie’s shift.

“We should call her, Catalina,” I spotted the excitement raging in the messages. “She’s become a good friend to our mate. Evie would tell her.”

Badru unlocked the phone with Evie’s fingerprint and handed it to me, expecting me to dial the number.

“You do it,” I pushed it back at him. “You need to learn how to play nice with her.”

While I wasn’t exactly her greatest fan, I held no real animosity towards Catalina either, not like my brother did. She truly grated on him. I could tell my twin was biting back an argument, only to smirk as some wicked idea took shape in his mind.

“Ok,” he drew out the word. “You can call her other friend.”

“What other friend?”

“…Adrian.”

“The f**k I will! I’m not talking to that guy,” a thinly veiled snarl accompanied my pissed-off tone.

‘I’d sooner claw that chelb! (Dog!)’ My wolf’s hackles raised.

‘Cool it, it’s bad enough Ru uses that word. Don’t you start.’

“Ya ‘iilahat, ‘ant munafiq (Goddess, you’re such a hypocrite),” he muttered and lifted the phone to his ear.

To his credit, Badru kept his tone relatively civil, though his overly dramatic annoyance was painted clearly on his face. Catalina already knew that Evie had shifted from the group chat, but we had managed to beat the messages to the revelation of the specific race of werewolf she was.

“I can’t tell with you whether you’re joking or not,” I heard her say over the receiver.

“I’m being serious,” his face twisted in irritation. “That’s literally all we know for now. We can trust you with this?”

“Well, I’m not about to sky paint it if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Why would you sky paint it?” He c****d his head.

Both Catalina and I sighed in synchronicity. Maybe I should have done the talking.

“How does Evie do this?” She huffed. “No Badru. I won’t say anything.”

My brother glanced at me, narrowing his eyes. “Can you tell Adrian? I know he and Evie are still friends.”

You owe me, he mouthed.

‘Consider your desserts returned,’ I grinned. He really had done me a solid.

‘Astennu? Badru?’ Our father’s voice cut through. ‘Come to my office. Finley will be formally charged and expelled soon.’

We looked at each other, all levity falling away.

“Catalina? We need to go.”