Changing His Reality

by Sophie Martin

  Tyler stumbled into the kitchen some ten or fifteen minutes later, Toby, right as rain, following close on his heels. Tyler zeroed in on a coffee machine and soon joined Jason and Jack at the table. Toby turned on the radio and started preparing himself some breakfast, humming under his breath to whatever song it was playing. Not another ten minutes has passed, and both fey twins along with Dominic entered the kitchen. Dominic went straight for the coffee while both fey looked at each other before Timiny asked with a smirk, “I see we’ve got ourselves a grumpy party. Aren’t you all just a bunch of sunshine in the morning?”

  He laughed, his brother and Toby joining him. All the coffee-drinkers shot them dirty looks before focusing on their coffee cups again. Tim and Jim only shook their heads and joined Toby at the counter, preparing some more food.

  Soon Jason and Jack both finished their drinks and pushed away their cups. Jason sat back in his chair, basking in the feeling of contentment filling him. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, he met Jack’s piercing gaze, focused on his new scar.

  “Wow,” the man said, astonished. “I didn’t know you guys were mated.”

  And just like that Jason felt his happy bubble bursting. He started to miss the whole no-feelings thing with the emotional roller coaster he was lately riding.

  “What do you mean mated?” he asked, though he already had an idea. He gazed at Ty, who looked mightily uncomfortable and stared at the black liquid he was swirling in his cup. “You’ve got something to tell us Tyler?”

  “Oh, crap.” Jack’s nervous voice turned Jason’s attention to their newest housemate. “You claimed him without telling or asking for permission? Isn’t that like a crime?”

  This time it was Tyler who looked surprised.

  “What do you mean, ‘crime?’ And I just bit him. It isn’t like he can now turn into a tiger, so what’s the big deal?”

  “You want to tell me you truly don’t know?” Jack was now looking really shocked. “What the hell do they teach you in that streak of yours?”

  “Not much, if you must know,” answered Ty defensively. “It’s only my family that forms the streak, and my parents weren’t all that forthcoming when it comes to being a shifter. They gave us some basics, but that’s all. I mean, they did tell me that shifters sometimes found their prospective mates, whom they could claim and form a bond with if they were compatible, but that’s all. So when I met Jason and Toby, I knew they were both my prospective mates. And yesterday when we were…” He paused and avoided everyone’s gaze. “You know, I felt this need to bite Jason, to mark him as mine, so I did. I wanted to do the same thing with Toby today. Now you tell me I committed a crime? What the hell, man?” Tyler became more and more agitated.

  “Oh, shit, man.” Jack groaned. “What a mess.” Jason felt something within him shift, his feelings starting to shut off, when a light touch on his shoulder brought him back to the present and reverted whatever was trying to happen within him.

  “So let me get this straight,” said Toby, pulling a chair next to Jason and sitting on it, his hand moving from Jason’s shoulder to his thigh. “Shifters have mates, which means?” he lifted his voice in question. Everybody turned to Jack as if he had all the answers. The man looked around and swallowed heavily visibly, not comfortable being the centre of attention.

  “Mates, which is short for soul mates. Every shifter group have some different names for them, but that’s the most commonly used one,” Jack started, as if giving a lecture. “Soul mates are basically people who we’re instantly attracted to. Nobody knows what causes it. Be it pheromones, fate, or magic, it is certain that as soon as the shifter meets his or her prospective mate, it is as if they were suddenly struck by lightning, the feeling is so strong.” He continued not noticing Jason, Toby, and Tyler’s flinch. Jack looked around, trying to explain in terms more understandable for humans. “So, you know you sometimes see someone on the street or on a bus and you are instantly attracted to them, trying not to watch them and yet not able to stop yourself?” There were nods of acknowledgement. “It’s kind of like that with shifters and their prospective mates, just a hundred times stronger. It’s not very often shifters meet their prospective mates, and not all of them are compatible, but if they are, they make the best couples there are.” Jack sighed and continued. “But the thing is, in order to form a bond with their prospective mate, a shifter needs to bite them, leaving a mark. The process is irreversible though, so they first need to get their mate’s agreement. The giving shifter’s mark starts the mating bond to form, thus connecting them with their mates forever. It is not to be taken lightly. Forcing a bond is one of the most horrible shifter crimes. I don’t understand how you could not be taught that,” said Jack in an obvious confusion. “It is sometimes compared to rape,” he added in a sombre voice.

  There was a sharp intake of breath from Tyler, and when Jason glanced at him, the man looked positively sick.

  “I didn’t know any of it,” he sputtered. “I swear to you I didn’t, Jay.” Jason watched him for several long seconds before he felt Toby’s hand squeezing his thigh muscle. He turned to the younger man and saw a small smile on his face. Jason smiled in turn and addressed the contrite-looking Ty.

  “Well then,” he finally said. “I guess we’re even for me zapping you two yesterday.”

  Tyler looked him in the eyes for a moment, and finally deciding that Jason was serious, he relaxed and said in a teasing voice, rubbing his shoulder, “Yeah man, that thing stung, all right.”

  There was another gasp, and Jason turned to Toby, who stared at Tyler’s neck open-mouthed, clapping his hand over his own shoulder. Jason had a momentary feeling of dread when he turned back to Tyler, slowly looking at the place Toby was staring at.

  There, in the exact same space Jason had his bite mark was a pearly-looking scar, covered until then by Tyler’s shirt. Jason stood up abruptly and circled the table, approaching Ty. He went straight to him and pulled his shirt down, uncovering the rest of the scar.

  It was pearly white, as if completely healed, though it seemed to shimmer with silver and gold when sunlight shone on it. What was more important though, was that the scar looked like a very intricately designed letters J and T entwined together. Jason turned his heard sharply and marched to Toby, pulling down his shirt as well. And sure enough, Toby wore a similar mark in the same spot.

  “JT,” said Toby quietly, “like ‘Jason Thorne.’” He then lifted his head and smiled a bright, happy smile at Jason, the happiest-looking expression he ever wore since Jason met him. “It looks like we two now belong to you, Jay,” he said in a voice filled with awe. Jason looked at him speechlessly for a moment. Suddenly he felt very dizzy. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but a sudden darkness claimed him. Then he knew nothing.

  * * * *

  Jason came to slowly. He heard muffled voices and felt that he was lying somewhere not very comfortable. It was cool where he was lying, and his legs were sticking out. He was lying on a sofa. On a sofa in his living room. The same sofa where Jack slept the night before. Jack, the cuberow shifter whom they rescued from the place they kept Timiny the fey in. The same Jack who explained all about shifter mates to them. All about shifter mates and their marks and Tyler looked shocked that he did something like…

  Jason sat up with a gasp. He left marks of his own on both his mates. He branded them with his initials. Branded, like a cattle. Branded them shooting some freaky lightning thingies from his fingers. Hell, he was enough of a freak without his emotions and having a power of being able to change reality with his words but now…now he was even bigger of a freak, he…

  Jason had no idea that he was hyperventilating until a hand rubbing his back and a soothing voice tore through the veil of panic surrounding him. Toby wanted him to calm down. He was talking to him. He needed Jason calm. Yeah, he could do it. He could do calm, he could…. Hell, who was he kidding? He had no idea how to calm down. He was going to go off the
deep end and now!

  A sudden jerk pulled him to his feet, and sharp teeth embedded in his marked shoulder. He was stunned, and tensed momentarily, but a low growl calmed him, and he felt himself relaxing into Tyler’s strong grip. Ty pulled his sharp feline teeth from his shoulder and licked the wound he made.

  “Better now?” he asked Jason, still hugging him tightly, Jason’s face hidden in his chest.

  “Yeah,” Jay answered. “Thank you.” He took another few calming breaths and then pulled gently from Ty’s embrace. He looked at everyone gathered around him in his living room. He refused to feel embarrassed for his outburst. It would be too much for everybody, even a reality-changing freak like himself. That didn’t mean he did not owe an apology to these people. “I’m sorry for freaking out on you all this way,” he said in a gruff voice. He hated apologising. “The whole shooting-lightning-from-your-fingers-during-sex-and-marking-your-partners-with-your-initials thing had me a bit…” He looked for a proper word but couldn’t find it. “Nervous,” he finished lamely.

  “Yeah.” To Jason’s astonishment, it was Dominic who answered him. “We all had several weird things happen to us in the last few days. You simply had one too many to deal with.”

  “Yeah,” was the only thing Jason said, even though in his mind he added, “especially since I’m not used to feeling all these emotions.” Well, at least it looked like there was one good outcome this whole mate-marking-slash-initial-branding thing. He didn’t need to worry about all of his doubts when it came to this relationship anymore. It looked like, for better or worse, he was bound to Tyler, and both Ty and Toby were bound to him.

  “So,” he said in much calmer voice after clearing his throat. “Are there any perks of being mated to a shifter?” he asked Jack, who was watching it all from the corner of the room. It was clear the man was feeling uncomfortable.

  “Yeah, are there any?” Toby smiled coyly. “‘Cause I’ve got to tell you, Ty, since I know I need to agree to the whole biting thing, you better have good arguments to convince me.” He smiled to show he was joking.

  “Umm.” Jack still looked uncomfortable but relaxed the tiniest bit. “It depends. It’s different for each kind of shifter. I heard that wolves get a ‘mating link.’ It’s a mind link allowing them to talk to each other in their heads. With foxes, it’s similar, though to a different extent. They can feel what the other one is feeling, but there is no thought-reading involved. And cuberows…” There was a hitch in his voice. “When we find a destined mate and they are not a shifter, we…” He looked around and said in a stronger voice, “Remember this is a secret I’m not supposed to reveal. We could be hunted if it got out.” He waited for assurances that everybody will keep whatever he says to themselves. “We can change them,” he said softly in a near whisper.

  “What?” Tyler didn’t understand.

  “We can change them. We can turn our prospective mate into a shifter.” Finished Jack in a slightly stronger voice. There was a sudden silence while everybody digested the news.

  “Well, that sucks!” said Toby crossing his arms over his chest and sitting back on a sofa. “Why couldn’t you be a cuberow, kitty?” He turned to Tyler. “I sure as hell don’t appreciate being the odd human out in our relationship,” he said, successfully relieving the tension.

  “Hey!” Jason pretended to be offended. “I’m human as well!”

  “Yeah, right!” There were snickers answering his statement. “A reality-changing, lightning-shooting human,” corrected Toby.

  “But a human nonetheless,” finished Tyler, trying hard not to laugh. He didn’t succeed and burst into laughter, soon followed by others.

  * * * *

  “So…” said Jason as they were finally left alone. The fey twins and Dominic went to plan their journey back home, and Jack took Ty’s laptop and a phone and went about having his stuff moved from the storage. He was a part of their pack or streak or whatever the hell it was they now formed.

  “So,” answered Tyler with a small smile.

  “You bit me,” said Jay unintelligently, but heck, who could expect intelligence in circumstances like this?

  “That I did.” Tyler kept right on smiling, and Jason couldn’t even be angry with him. “It sometimes works when kits—that’s our name for tiger-shifter kids—are panicking. It is some residual instinct or something. It calms them down. I thought with me marking you as my mate and beginning the bonding process, it could work. And it did.”

  “Yeah.” Jason couldn’t look his men in the eyes. And since when did he start calling them both “his men”? Wasn’t he supposed to be cautious about the whole three-way relationship thing?

  “So, we’re now bonded together, right?” Toby seemed to read his thoughts. “Since you marked Jason, Ty, and he kind of marked us? It means we’re an item, right?” There was a hint of hope in Toby’s voice, and Jason found out he couldn’t hold on to all his fears and doubts. The young man deserved better after all he’d gone through.

  “Only if the two of you are okay with it.” Tyler tried to hold on to his strong and composed front, but Jason could see right through it. The big, bad tiger was just as uncertain about the whole relationship thing as Jay and Toby were.

  “Hell, if you two don’t mind me branding you with some freaky magical-lightning marks, then who am I to disagree? I say let’s give it a fair shot, huh?” Toby beamed at Jason’s somewhat gruff answer. He should have strung something more romantic, but hey, he lived without emotions for so long that he’d probably not recognize romantic if it bit him in the ass.

  “I don’t mind,” Toby said, his smile lighting his entire face. Jason hadn’t seen him so happy since he met him.

  “If you don’t mind me biting you and starting the whole mating bond thing, then I say we’re even.” Tyler did not look comfortable. It was clear he still felt guilty for breaking the weird shifter law he had no idea even existed.

  “Nope, I don’t mind. Not one bit,” said Jason quickly.

  “Then we’re good.” Tyler was visibly relieved.

  “Yep, we’re fine.” Jason gave a small tentative smile.

  “Well,” interrupted Toby, “not exactly.”

  “What do you mean?” Tyler frowned.

  “What I mean is…” Toby said in a serious tone before grinning wickedly, “I seem to be missing a matching mark from you.”

  “Oh.” It was Tyler’s turn to utter unintelligent things.

  “Yes, oh!” Toby got up from where he was still sitting on a sofa and stalked towards them. “So should we move the whole thing to the bedroom or what?” A lustful gleam seemed to shine in his eyes as he spoke. Jason licked his lips and answered, his body tense with anticipation.

  “To the bedroom, definitely to the bedroom!”

  Chapter Eleven

  Unfortunately their trip to the bedroom had to wait. As soon as they left the living room, they were called to the kitchen by Jim.

  “So, listen guys, we were talking.” He started as soon as they were all seated. “I know you said that, thanks to your, mojo these creeps won’t be able to track us back down to where they kidnapped Tim from, but…”

  He hesitated as if unsure of how to continue. “It’s not that I doubt you.” He addressed Jason, and it seemed as if his hesitation was due to not wanting to insult the man. “I simply don’t feel safe in my old apartment anymore. We asked Jack, and it looks like he was kidnapped from the same town Tim was. It seems that it was one of their usual hunting grounds. Even if you closed the main operation with turning the vampire to ash, there might have been others. And we wouldn’t want to risk that they somehow learn about the rescue mission and come after either of us again.”

  Jason listened, not sure where the whole speech was going. Jiminy paused again, and Tim took over with a deep intake of breath.

  “What my brother is trying to ask is, wouldn’t you mind us moving closer to you? It appears that Dominic’s apartment is actually only one town over. He asked Ji
m to move in with him and was so kind to offer me his spare bedroom until I can find something for myself. So do you have anything against this idea?”

  Jason looked at the trio for a moment, dumbfounded. He had no idea what to say. Why did they even see it fit to ask him something like that? It wasn’t like he was the lord of the mansion or whatever and had to be asked for permission for such things. He voiced his surprise.

  “Why would you even ask me such thing? It’s a free country, you can do whatever you want.” They looked at him for a moment, surprise on their faces.

  “Well.” It looked like they didn’t have an answer for that. “It just seemed like a good idea to ask you first,” said Jim hesitantly.

  “That’s probably because you’re now an alpha of your own pack,” said Jack from the kitchen door. He apparently finished with organising his stuff moved. “And apparently you’re a strong alpha if your territory expands as far as next town over,” he said quietly, making his way to the table.

  Three simultaneous “whats” sounded in the room. Jason wasn’t the only one confused as to what was going on.

  “Man, you all are really not big on shifter history, customs, and laws are you?”

  “Well, seeing as only one of us is a shifter and he isn’t that well versed in all the above, that isn’t so strange, now, is it?” asked Toby gently.

  “Um, yeah, sorry for sounding so astonished. But I can feel the pack connection to the three of you.” He pointed at Toby, Ty, and Jason. “And it makes me forget that you’re not shifters like me. It can be confusing.” Jack actually blushed from embarrassment, explaining himself.

  “Yeah, let’s cut to the chase.” Jason wasn’t known for being the most polite of the bunch, and he proved it once again. “So what’s the whole alpha thing you’re talking about?” Jack took his time to collect his thoughts before he answered.

  “An alpha is the strongest paranormal of the area. He or she can be a shifter, a vampire, or a witch, it depends. There aren’t that many of us, so we have the tendency to gather in the same area to be closer to the ones of our own kind. Or at least the ones that are paranormals like us. Well, that’s except the lone wolves and other outcasts who actually prefer their loneliness, but that’s beside the point. Anyway, we shifters are also known for our need for pack structure or hierarchy. So the strongest, most suited are chosen to be alphas. How they choose their alphas differs according to shifter kind and the place they live. It looks that when you made me a part of your pack, you were at the same time made an alpha. Which isn’t surprising, as you’re evidently the strongest of us all.”