"So can I call you Papa?"
When Aiden reached the cliff, he found Selena and Lorcan drenched in water. Lorcan was barely hanging on, trying to hold off his laughter while Selena was fuming.
"What the hell, Lorcan?!"
"What?!" Lorcan asked before he finally burst out in laughter, "It isn't my fault that you pronounced the word wrong!"
Aiden raised an eyebrow as he still stood a little bit away and stared at the two individuals. As much as he could tell that Lorcan was being his normal self, it was pretty clear that Selena was pissed.
"I did not pronounce it wrong," Selena seethed, making Aiden's eyes widen.
Lorcan seemed to be thoughtful for a while but then his eyes lit up, "Oops, I might have then given you the wrong spell."
"I am so not doing this right now."
Selena turned around and started walking away from Lorcan while the latter still stood there with a smile.
"Princess, relax. It isn't that easy. It will come to you with time."
"That's what I don't have, Lorcan!" She shouted turning around, her eyes bright purple. Aiden's eyes widened and Lorcan too stilled. "Time is the one thing I don't have. They have a witch, one who is far stronger than me. They have silver weapons. Damien and Adriana are god knows where and, and..."
Selena fell on her knees with her head in her hands. Lorcan was right beside her in the very next second, so was Aiden.
"Princess, c'mon... trust your gut. If they have one witch, we have two. You might be new to this but I have lived long as long as her. So trust me when I say that even if you can't do it now your instincts will react in time. Don't stress so much."
"How can I not?"
"Selena, we are all here, together. And we will fight, but we can't if you lose your shit."
"I know..." she sighed.
They all remained silent for a little while until Lorcan spoke up.
"Aiden, walk her to her room and make sure to inform Xavier as well. I have some work to do."
Saying this, and with a pat on Selena's back, Lorcan stood up and started walking.
A little distance away from the packhouse is an area from where the river flowed through the territory. As soon as Lorcan was close to the river, he felt the presence of Jayce.
Jayce was still exploring the pack and that day after training, he found himself beside the riverbank. The river wasn't too deep. Jayce found himself sitting there, enjoying the feel of the water flowing through his toes.
As he sat there, his mind went back to Nicholas, who he knew was just playing with the pack pups. He had left him there with the babysitters of the pack and the presence of Ileana there only reassured him more.
Now that he was relaxed about his son, his thoughts went back to his mate. The moment Aiden had accused him of not even being able to recognize his own mate his heart had shattered.
Jayce's thinking out loud alerted Lorcan of his thoughts. Now that the warlock had told Selena everything, it was time that he told Jayce the whole thing too.
"The witches wanted to get one of their puppets into the pack."
Jayce was startled and turned to look at Lorcan who just took a seat beside him, leaning on a tree.
"They needed someone close to the alphas but not them because they couldn't risk Marcella knowing. So they chose you."
Jayce just smiled sadly. His eyes still remained on the water.
"It wasn't fair to you. But they didn't care."
"Makes sense," Jayce nodded, "They just needed an entry. I was their closest link." He chuckled, "So I lost what my life could be because of some fight between two species... Nice."
"Jayce... you gotta talk to Aiden."
"He hates me. I'd rather not hear him saw how much of an incompetent wolf I am as a mate, again."
Lorcan observed Jayce as he sat still.
"Are you going down a guilt trip?" The warlock asked carefully.
Jayce scoffed, "No. I didn't do anything to feel guilty about. I was played, sure. I fell into a trap. I had no idea that something like this could even happen. I had no idea witches were so keen on my life."
Lorcan nodded but Jayce continued.
"I got played. They fucked up my life, killed my pack, and traumatized my kid..." he smiled, "You know, I regret saying that to Aiden. I have seen him these days, how close he is with Nic. There are no hard feelings between the two. Nic can't stop talking about Aiden and Aiden?" Jayce chuckled sadly, "He won't even look at me."
"You hurt him."
"I did..." Jayce sighed, "that is the only thing I am guilty of. I hurt him while trying to make sure I didn't hurt my son. And now it seems like I took away the opportunity for my son to have a normal life with both of his parents."
"Why not just talk to him, Jayce?"
Lorcan waited for the wolf to answer but he showed no sign of doing so. Finally, the warlock sighed and stood up.
"Because," Jayce started and turned his head to look at the man, "Somewhere in my mind, it isn't fair for him to be stuck with someone as incompetent as me as his mate. As a wolf with alpha blood, and even in general, he deserves better than me."
The sound of ruffling leaves cam very prominently from behind Jayce. The warlock showed no signs of turning back when he felt the new presence. He smirked when he heard the slight hitch in the breathing of the wolf beside him as the latter hurriedly stood up.
Aiden stood by the treeline as he looked at his mate with his lips pressed together tightly. Taking firm steps towards his mate, Aiden didn't stop until he was right in front of the slightly scared beta, guarding his view of the warlock, who looked more amused than he should.
Well, my work here is done, Lorcan thought as he vanished from the spot giving the two men the privacy they both needed.
"You stupid..."
Aiden pushed Jayce back slightly.
"Idiot!"
Slightly harder push.
"Borderline..."
Push.
"Boneheaded..."
Push.
"Moron!"
Another final push and Jayce was now leaning against a tree with his back against it as Aiden just slammed his lips against his mate.
Jayce melted under the touch of Aiden. Aiden was smaller in size than Jayce but only slightly. His hand's tightened on the beta's hair tugging on them, making him groan as Jayce too wrapped his arms around Aiden.
Aiden suddenly pulled back and pushed Jayce again. This time, Jayce held on to his hand and didn't let him move away. The two men stood there with their foreheads touching and their eyes closed, breathing heavily.
"You gotta stop making assumptions," Aiden sighed.
"Don't leave me..." Jayce whispered back.
Aiden's hold then tightened around him even more. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath in order to embed the scent of his mate in his mind.
After a while, they both let go of the embrace, quite hesitantly, and sat on the riverbank together, both of their hands close by but not touching.
"The first night I came here," Jayce begun and Aiden turned to look at him, "before I went to talk to you, I had a small talk with Lorcan."
"I know," Aiden nodded, "I saw you both."
"Did you hear us?"
"No," Aiden chuckled, "Lorcan always creates this invisible barrier while talking to someone so that no one can eavesdrop."
Jayce chuckled and nodded, "He is a smart man."
"He is too old to not be smart."
Both the men chuckled.
"Wait..." Jayce frowned, "How did you hear me now then?"
"He must have let it drop," Aiden shrugged, "He does that when he deems necessary."
Jayce nodded again, "That night, Lorcan told me that the coven he belonged to before, which I am assuming is the coven of Selena's grandmother, had interfered with my life..." he turned to look at Aiden who was giving the beta his complete attention.
Aiden remained quiet.
"He told me that a witch had spelt Lila before she came to our pack. It was all their plan to learn what was going on inside the pack. They needed someone close to the alpha's family. Lila wasn't my mate, but I felt everything a wolf is supposed to feel when they meet their mate when I met Lila."
Aiden's throat dried and he looked away. He felt the pain Jayce felt when he realized he was tricked into feeling things for the wrong person. But he had to stay quiet and let him finish.
"I felt the joy of finding my mate, it was so strong it felt real, of course I had nothing to compare it to back then. I felt the pain when everyone in my pack didn't like her. I felt the betrayal when I found out her to be the traitor. I felt the loss of rejection too when she voiced her rejection and hatred for me and ran away. But now..."
He took Aiden's hand and gave it a squeeze, making the other man look at him again.
"Now I know how it really feels."
Aiden was still quiet but then Jayce sighed, he turned around and he pulled the man close to him. The beta placed the other man's hand on his chest so that Aiden could feel his heartbeat.
"This is what you do to me." Aiden's heart skipped a beat. "You make my heart race like never before. You make me wanna do things that I'd rather not say right now."
Aiden blushed.
"It was extremely wrong of me to just assume that..." Jayce didn't finish yet, "You wouldn't make Nic's life harder. I was being a coward..."
"After what you have been through," Aiden said softly, "I think you have earned the right to be scared for a while." His hand moved from Jayce's chest to the back of his neck where he rubbed comfortingly, making the man close his eyes.
"I am sorry I called you incompetent," Aiden whispered with a regretful look on his face, "I shouldn't have commented like that when I didn't know the full story."
Jayce shrugged lightly, "Well, I shouldn't have tried to push you away either." Taking another moment, Jayce continued, "I want you in my life, in his life. I was stupid to think that it wasn't right, especially when my wolf goes crazy when anything related to you is concerned."
For a moment, they both stared at each other wondering if the other one has forgiven them.
"Truce?" Jayce asked first.
Aiden just smiled and pulled Jayce close, making the man fall on his hands. The alpha-born laughed aloud which was later joined in by Jayce before the beta kissed him.
"I think we already called a truce when you kissed me just a while ago," he said, making both of them look at each other with beaming smiles on their faces.
When their conversation was over, Jayce didn't want to waste a single more second to announce the news to his son. Thus, both of them started towards the packhouse to talk to Nic.
When they reached the house, Nic, Ileana and Ryan were sitting together in the lobby. Nic was telling them something animatedly as these two just sat and listened to the boy talk with wide smiles on their faces. Lorcan was there too, just listening to them. He, however, smiled at the couple as they entered.
"Daddy!" Nic announced and ran up to Jayce, hugging his legs. The man laughed and pulled the boy into his arms.
Ryan noticed the beaming smile on Aiden and the carefree laugh of Jayce. He had also seen the smirk playing on Lorcan's lips when they entered, which was enough clues to make him know that their problem was solved.
"Hey, Aiden!"
"Hey, little man!" Aiden smiled at the kid.
"Buddy, me and Aiden gotta talk to you," Jayce said with a soft smile.
"Is it about you two being mates?" the kid asked innocently, making Jayce's eyes widen and Aiden choked on his own spit.
"Where did you hear that from?" Jayce asked as he placed Nic down on his feet and kneeled in front of him.
"Sel told me," he shrugged.
"She said what exactly?" Aiden asked.
"That you two are mates, that I will have two daddies instead of a mom and a dad. She told me not to bring the topic up as it was our secret and you will tell me one day."
"Well, Nic, you did just blurt out the secret," Ileana chuckled.
Nic's eyes widened comically and he guarded his lips with his hands and mumbled, "Oops."
"Well, I am glad that part of the conversation is done." Aiden shook his head with a chuckle.
"So can I call you Papa?"
Aiden smiled at the boy and kneeled down too, "Well, do you want to?"
Nic nodded excitedly, "I really like you, and I want to call you Papa."
Everyone in the room melted at the cuteness of the boy. Aiden nodded too, with a smile, holding in his emotions and Nic jumped into his arms.
The very next second, Lorcan screamed like a girl and everyone turned towards him alarmed. However, the sight they saw only made them all burst out in laughter.
There stood the warlock, in the middle of the room, drenched completely from head to toe.
He looked around him rapidly until his eyes rested on Xavier and Selena standing near the stairs, the girl with a smirk on her face.
"Cheap shot, princess," he whispered dangerously, but everyone could tell that he was anything but angry.
"Just repaying a debt," she shrugged with an innocent smile and walked to Ileana.
"You deserved it," Xavier said with a smirk. The alpha then walked towards the couch, leaving the old warlock grumbling about how mistreated he was in this pack, only for the others to laugh.