John frowned and put his towel down, then grabbed the top of the mound. It was a boxer brief. A dirty one at that.
John yelped and let it fall on the bed, but he realized he recognized the T-shirt just under it. It was Isaiah’s, and when he brought it closer to his face he realized it was dirty, too. He could still smell Isaiah on it, even if he wasn’t a shifter. He could smell sweat and the licorice scent he associated with his mate. Isaiah always ate so much of it that he smelled like he’d been drenched in it.
John eyed the small mound of clothes and left it there. He slid under the sheets and grabbed his cell phone.
You’re missing something.
It took no more than thirty seconds for Isaiah to text back.
You?
That was obvious, but no. Something else.
What?
Clothes.
I can’t find my favorite T-shirt. Did I forget it there?
No, but someone stole it and left it for me.
Huh?
The terrible twins.
Isaiah didn’t text back but John’s phone started ringing. “Yeah?”
“You’re going to have to explain that.”
“Nysys and Keenan, the terrible twins. They’re dead set on us getting together, and they’re doing everything they can to convince me to come and get you.”
“Why?”
“I think Keenan said something about destiny and how shifters in general are stubborn assholes who don’t even deserve having mates most of the time because they whine and don’t fight for the love of their lives.”
“Really?”
“Believe me, I’ve had to hear that particular tirade at least four times.”
“You know I would—”
“I know. So, when’s the big day?” Why was he asking that again? The last thing he wanted was to know exactly when he’d lose Isaiah forever, but he couldn’t seem to help himself.
“Next week. Mom... organized everything. First I’ll be sworn as alpha, then... you know.”
“You’ll get married.”
“Yeah.”
“Have you met her?” Why was he doing this again?
“Yeah. She’s... I don’t know. I want to think she’s nice, but I’m not even sure of that.”
“Did you talk to her?”
“I tried, but it was awkward to say the least.”
“What about your sisters? What do they think?”
“Talia is still angry at me. Jules is just happy to have me back. She doesn’t seem to care about this entire mess.”
“She’s young.”
“Yeah.”
“Isa...”
“No. I-I have to go, okay? I’ll call you again sometime.”
Isaiah had hung up before John could protest.
John was trying to watch TV when the terrible twins cornered him. He groaned and let his head fall backward against the back of the couch. “What do you want?”
Nysys flopped down on his right side, Keenan on his left one. Great, now John was surrounded by crazy.
“We want to know why you’re not already in Idaho,” Nysys said
“Because Isaiah doesn’t want me there?”
“You know that’s bullshit,” Keenan pointed out.
“It might be, but it’s not like I can force him to leave his family and mate with me.”
The smile Keenan gave him was devilish. “So you do want to mate with him?”
John raked a hand through his hair and sighed. “I don’t know—maybe. I’ve never even thought about getting married, and I didn’t really like shifters before.”
“But you like the idea of being with Isaiah? Maybe naked, in bed...” Nysys said.
That made images John could’ve done without pop in his head. He’d tried his hardest not to think about Isaiah and beds, or any flat surfaces really, in the same thought, and the terrible twins had ruined that.
“Can you, just, not talk about sex? I don’t want to hear you even say that word. You look too young to actually have sex.” John didn’t know how old Nysys was, but he couldn’t be much older than nineteen, maybe twenty.
Nysys snorted. “I’m pretty sure I have more sex than you, old man.”
“But we can fix that,” Keenan added. And now John was really scared.
“What do you mean?”
Nysys smiled a toothy smile and grabbed John’s wrist. John felt Keenan do the same thing on his other one, then the living room freaking disappeared around him. He felt himself land on a soft surface, the twin holds on his wrists disappeared, and Keenan said, “Have fun!”
John jumped from the bed he’d landed on, but the damn troublemakers were already gone. He looked around the room and briefly wondered where the fuck he was, but the realization hit him like a punch to the gut.
He recognized the T-shirt thrown on the chair in front of the desk. He recognized the computer on said desk, and the chicken scratch on the piece of paper next to it. “Fuck!”
He was going to kill those two. He was going to kill them slowly and painfully, and he didn’t care about their mates. Really, he didn’t.
John remembered he had his cell phone in his jeans pocket and quickly took it out. He called the only Nix he knew he could trust.
“Hello?”
“Ani, it’s John. I need you to come and get me right now.”
“What happened? Where are you? Are you hurt?”
“No, no, but Nysys and Keenan dumped me in Isaiah’s room.”
“In Boise?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re lucky I’ve been there.”
John wanted to ask when and why, but Ani was already there, in front of him and putting his cell phone away. “You want to go right away?”
John nodded. “Yeah.” He looked around the room again, his heart squeezing painfully at the thought that this was the place where Isaiah slept now. He reached out and grabbed the T-shirt from the chair, then held his hand out to Ani without looking at him. “We can go.”
Chapter Five
Isaiah wanted to groan and hide his face in his hands. No, he wanted to run away and hide in his room until this whole mess was gone and he could finally get back to his life.
He didn’t do any of those things, though, because his mother was watching him like a hawk. Her focus had barely left him since they’d entered the room where Isaiah’s Russian mail-order bride was.
Not that the girl was Russian. She wasn’t blonde, didn’t have blue eyes, and she certainly didn’t have a Russian accent. Isaiah would know—she hadn’t stopped talking since he’d entered the room, and she was even starting to become handsy.
It made him highly uncomfortable, but he was trying not to let it show because his mom would kill him if he did anything to hint he wasn’t as happy about the wedding as the bride obviously was.
“—and I know your mother organized everything, so I’m sure it’s going to be fabulous. I just wished I could have helped her, but I know how important this is for both our skulks, and I’d have been scared to mess things up, you know.”
The girl’s hand—what was her name again? Charlotte? Carlie? Something with a C—landed on Isaiah’s knee. She giggled and snatched it back right away and Isaiah suppressed a heavy sigh. His mother was nodding slightly and looking at them with satisfaction gleaming in her eyes, and it made Isaiah’s chest hurt. How could something that made him so unhappy make his mother so happy?
She cleared her throat and rose from the love seat she’d been sitting in. “I’m going to go and check if we have everything for tomorrow’s breakfast. It’s not every day you meet your future in-laws.” She smiled at Isaiah and Isaiah weakly smiled back.
He watched as she walked to the door and paused just before exiting the room. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell the two of you that any inappropriate touching isn’t allowed until you’re married.”
Isaiah’s brows rose on his forehead. His mothe
r knew he was gay, so why... oh, right. He guessed Cora didn’t know about that. “Of course, mom. That’s one thing you don’t have to worry about.”
Isaiah’s mom glared at him and left the room. Isaiah let himself sag just a bit against the back of the couch he was sharing with Carla and took a deep breath before looking at her again. She was watching him, the giggly girl from seconds ago gone and replaced by a much more serious one.
Isaiah sat straighter. “Umm, sorry about this.” He frantically thought about something to say, but nothing came to mind. Carol just looked at him, and Isaiah really had to ask her what her name was. “So...”
“I’m going to take a wild guess and say you’re as uncomfortable as me about this whole thing.”
Isaiah gaped. “Where are the giggles?” She just arched a brow at him. “I mean... you’ve been giggling since you stepped in the room!”
“That’s called acting.”
“Ac—why are you acting?”
“Because I had as much choice as you did in this.”
“You don’t want to marry me?”
The girl looked at Isaiah up and down. “God, no. I don’t want to offend you, but I like my men to be less girly than I am.”
“I’m not girly!” Isaiah spluttered.
“You kind of are. Anyway, even if you weren’t, I already have someone in my life.”
“You do?”
“My mate.”
“But... why aren’t you with him, then?”
“Because mating with him wouldn’t bring anything to my family.”
“But I do?” That still baffled Isaiah, because he honestly didn’t understand what someone would find in him. He had the family, sure, and they had money and could even been looked at as some kind of nobility, but all that wasn’t him.
Carol—Isaiah was pretty sure that was her name—sighed. “Your family has power and money.”
“But we’re vulnerable. There’s that wolf pack that’s threatening us.”
“And we could solve that with the wedding. My skulk is quite a bit larger than yours, and we have a lot of fighters. We just don’t have much money.”
“Is that why you agreed?”
“In part. In part it’s also because I don’t want to be shunned. But let me tell you, I don’t think we’ll end up married.”
“No?”
“Look, you seem like a nice guy and everything, but I’m not going to let my parents decide what to do with my life. It’s mine to do what I want with it, and I’ve already planned my escape with my mate. I’m just playing along until the day of the wedding.”
“Why are you telling me this? I could tell my mother,” Isaiah pointed out.
“You want this as much as I do, and I don’t want it at all. I figured you’d be happy to know you won’t have to get shackled to me.”
Isaiah shook his head. “My mother will just find someone else for me.”
Carol narrowed her eyes. “Why are you going along with this?”
“Because she told me I wouldn’t be able to talk to my youngest sister if I didn’t do it. That she herself wouldn’t consider me part of this family anymore. She’s... not a bad alpha, but she was never meant to be one, and it’s wearing her out. Plus, there’s that wolf pack.”
“As if you could actually do something about all that.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re letting your mother push you around. It makes the fact that you’re not alpha material quite obvious.”
“I...” Isaiah had no idea what to say. “What do we do, then?”
“I’m going to giggle my way to the wedding day and disappear the night before it.” She grinned. “Don’t worry about me when you hear about it, though. I’ll probably already be mated.”
Isaiah nodded weakly. He kind of liked Carol. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad to be married with her. There was something else, though. She was stronger than him. She wasn’t afraid to leave her family to be with her mate.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“You said your family will probably shun you.”
“I’d say it’s more than a probability, yes.”
“Why are you doing it, then?”
Carol nibbled on her lower lip as she took her time to answer. “I love them, I do, but... I can’t live like they want me to forever. We live an awfully long time, but even if we didn’t, do you really want to spend the next fifty or sixty years living a life you can’t stand? You might have the luxury of being able to wait, but my mate won’t.”
Isaiah nodded, but he wasn’t paying attention to her anymore. John was his mate. He was also human, and he was already thirty-five. Not old even in human standards, but in five years he’d be forty. He’d probably start to have white hair. And if Isaiah waited even longer... He’d end up losing his mate. John would die while Isaiah would still be middle-aged for a shifter.
He could change that. He could gift John with a longer life, with a resistance to human illnesses, but only if he mated with him. Isaiah wanted that. He wanted his mate to live a long life, to live it with him. Could he really let his mother destroy it?
Talia was thirty and more than stubborn enough to send their mother to hell and call Isaiah anyway. Julie... maybe not. She might obey their mother, but like Carol had said, they did live a very long life. Hopefully Julie would get over it sooner or later.
Isaiah looked up and caught Carol looking at him. “What?”
“You changed your mind.”
“Yeah.”
“Can I ask you why?”
“It’s what you said about your mate. I don’t know if he’s a shifter or not, but mine is human, and I realized he’ll get old so much faster than I will, while my family will hopefully be there for a long time. I’ll have the time to fix things with them, but I won’t have time to fix them with him if I wait too long.”
“What about the alpha thing?”
“I know the head of the council. I’m sure we can organize something. Besides, my sister Talia would be perfect for the position.”
Carol gave Isaiah a bright smile. “I’m glad I could make you see the light.”
“Are we still waiting for the wedding day?”
“I have to. My mate is organizing things. It’s only a few days anyway.”
“Yeah.” Isaiah smiled back. “Thank you so much. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you, Carol.”
Carol frowned and tilted her head to the side. “My name’s Cassidy.”
* * * *
John kicked the guy who was trying to stab him and sent him toward a bear. He didn’t remember who the shifter was, but since they were fighting humans, he was pretty sure the bear was on his side.
John watched the shifter sink his claws in the human’s shoulder and winced for the guy. He was glad he was on the good side of things, because the shifters were making mincemeat out of the idiots who’d thought they could attack a flock of swan shifters so close to Whitedell. The flock’s alpha had called Dominic about five minutes after the attack had started and the enforcers had arrived on scene only five minutes after that.
They were kicking ass.
John gave the bear one last glance and turned. He noticed an armed-to-the-teeth human cornering a swan. He briefly wondered why the swan wasn’t flying away before noticing some of the feathers from its right wing were dark with blood.
John threw himself in front of the swan and bared his teeth at the attacking human. The man looked taken aback for a few seconds, and it was enough for John to land a punch square on his nose.
The guy howled, but he didn’t look away. He launched himself at John instead and they both fell on the ground. The air whooshed out of John’s lungs as he struggled to push the man on top of him away. Since that didn’t seem to work, he moved one of his hands to his side while grabbing the guy’s ear with the other.
“Why the fuck aren’t you shiftin
g?” the guy spat.
John wrapped his hand around the handle of the knife he kept strapped to his thigh and brought it up. He pressed the blade on the guy’s neck and the guy froze, but not before John had already spilled his blood. It trickled down the skin in a lazy drop and John gave him a toothy smile before pushing him away. He grabbed the plastic handcuffs they’d all been given and secured the guy to the railing that ran around the house the humans had attacked.
The guy was still ranting, and since the fights around John were all but over, he crouched next to his captive and took care of cleaning the blade he’d just dirtied with the guy’s blood right in front of his eyes.
“So, why did you attack swans?”
“They’re abominations!”
John faked a yawn. “I’ve heard that excuse more times than I cared for. Don’t you have anything else?”
“They killed my brother!”
“The swans?” John asked as he arched a brow. As far as he knew, swan shifters weren’t known for being aggressive, unless they were protecting their nests.
“Who cares if it was them? You’re all animals who shouldn’t be allowed to live.” Spittle flew at John’s face and he grimaced in disgust.
“Right now you seem like the worst animal here to me.”
John was aware the guy in front of him thought he was a shifter, and he wasn’t sure whether he should correct him or not. The fact that they were both human might push the guy to talk to him, but it could also make him hate John even more for fraternizing with the enemy.
“I don’t change into a frigging animal!”
“Well, neither do I,” John snapped. He’d had enough of the guy’s yelling.
The man’s eyes widened just before his expression hardened. “Are they forcing you to fight for them? Do they have your family?”
“What? No. I don’t even know why I’m arguing with you.”
John stood up and strode away after checking that the guy couldn’t move away from the railing. He was still yelling after John, although this time it sounded like he wanted to help him rather than kill him. “We’ll help you get them back! We’ll kill them all!”
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