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"My parents would never-"

"Your parents are gone," I harshly cut off his protests. "And your sister already knows."

Shock passes over his face. "You told Mel?"

I cautiously step towards him, approaching him as one might a rabid dog or aggressive animal. I keep my hands open, fingers spread and palms facing him in a sign of surrender.

"Yes and she doesn't have a problem with it, just as you shouldn't. You can ask her if you like, but she knows that the Moon Goddess chose us to be together for a reason."

His crazed eyes flick back and forth, watching me as I approach him.

"I cannot be mated to a man," he mumbles. "Nor to two different people. It is not right."

"There are no rules on what is right or not in the eyes of the Moon Goddess," I remind him. "There is only her will. She has fated us together and you cannot ignore that."

Our eyes meet and I stop two feet in front of him. I quote our pack maxim, "Una dea, una lex, Altus."

One God, One Law.

The words we live by. The maxim of the pack.

"Una dea, una lex," Altus mutters, repeating it back to me.

I grab the back of his neck, press my forehead to his and close my eyes. Altus takes a moment to respond, but he grabs the back of my neck and exhales deeply. We share a moment.

"Una dea, una lex," I remind him and open my eyes.

He keeps his closed. "Una dea, una lex."

Something passes between us. I cannot describe it, nor put my finger on it, but we both feel it. Altus opens his eyes and looks intently at me. His eyes drop to my lips, and I take over. I kiss him.

He doesn't react at first, too shocked to respond. He is unmoving for a few seconds before snapping out of it and kissing me back. I keep my hand on the back of his neck, holding him in place as I move my lips over his.

His response is hesitant at first, but eventually, he warms up to me and kisses me back with equal fervour. His hand loosens from the back of my neck before sliding down off my body completely. He breaks the kiss and staggers backwards, his expression one of confusion.

He turns away from me and I reach out for him, freezing when I see his shoulders shaking up and down. The first sob reaches me, and I rush to his side. I wrap my arms around him, and he buries his face in my chest. He cries against me, great sobs that wrack his chest and produce hot tears that roll down my skin.

A caramel-coloured wolf that I don't recognise enters the space. I take one look at the eyes and recognise the wolf to be Felicity. She shifts back slowly and comes over to hug us both. Our naked bodies are pressed together but there is nothing sexual about the moment. The three of us hold each other, Altus' sobs the only sound.

"My boys," Felicity murmurs.

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After the healing session in the forest, Asper brings both Altus and I back to his house. Altus goes up to Asper's bed and falls asleep instantly, leaving Asper and I downstairs to mull over what just happened.

"Before you arrived, we fought," Asper fills me in on everything that was said. "Then...I kissed him."

"And that's what made him cry?"

He gives me a sharp look. "No! He kissed me back first...and then he started crying. It was the overwhelming emotion he was feeling, I believe."

"Or your terrible kissing."

My mate narrows his eyes at me. "This is not the time for jokes, Felicity. Besides, you have experienced my kissing and I don't think by any means it can be described as 'terrible'."

I laugh at his response and nod. "That's true."

Upstairs, we both hear Altus get up from the bed.

"We should go check on him." I get to my feet.

Asper follows me up the stairs. We step into the bedroom just as Altus is coming out of the bathroom. His locs have come out of their tie and are in disarray. However, the tousled look really suits him. He is wearing some of Asper's clothes, a t-shirt, and joggers. He looks between us sheepishly.

"Thank you for bringing me here," he says and clears his throat awkwardly. "I, uh, would like to apologise for my behaviour to both of you. I was rude and a dick and I'm sorry, I was trying to keep you away."

"It's okay," I reassure him, Asper nods next to me.

He stretches awkwardly and won't meet our eyes properly. "It's going to take some time for me to get used to the, uh, idea of having two mates," he confesses. "Just...be patient with me, please."

"Take all the time you need, Al," Asper says. "If you want, I could drive you home?"

He nods stiffly. "Yeah, please. I think I should see my sister; I haven't caught up with her yet and apparently, we have a lot to talk about now that she knows about...us."

It pains me that he feels so uncomfortable with all this. It is clear that he is struggling to get used to the idea. He can barely look at us and keeps shifting from one foot to the other. He doesn't strike me as someone who is usually this unsure of himself. As future alpha, I cannot imagine sheepishness being a desirable trait.

"Come on, I'll take you back." Asper turns to me. "Do you wanna stay here or should I drop you home?"

"You know what, I might walk home, actually," I tell them, liking the idea more now that I've said it aloud. "I could use the exercise and thinking time."

One corner of Asper's mouth turns up in a smile. "Why don't you run?"

At the thought of shifting again, I feel excited. "Good idea."

I go out into Asper's back yard and enter the forest. When I'm certain that I'm alone, I strip down until I'm naked and shift into my wolf. It's the quickest and less painful shift I've done so far. Satura was right; practice makes perfect.

I gingerly pick up my clothes in my mouth and pray they won't be soaked with saliva by the time I arrive back at my aunt's house.

I enjoy the run. My ears flatten back against my head and my tail remains bolt-straight as I dash through the trees, testing how fast I can go when I really push myself. I burst into the garden triumphantly and pad up the steps to the porch. I make sure I'm alone again before shifting back and hurriedly getting dressed.

I use the hide-a-key to get back into the house. I check my phone and I have a missed call from one of my agents. The voicemail they've left informs me that there is a new buyer who is interested in my work. They want to commission me for a piece. I call them back and agree to it.

After ending the call, I decide to get the creative juices flowing by drawing and painting for the rest of the day.

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"You're quiet, brother."

At my sister's observation, I look up and force a smile. "I have a lot to think about. My life changed completely today...I wasn't ready for it."

"I'm not sure what you thought was going to happen when you started having the prophecy dreams and then they both arrived in town. Did you honestly think you could still mate with Mare?"

I don't like the judgemental tone in her voice, but I grit my teeth and remain quiet. Of course, I thought that. Of course, I was going to go through with it. I was raised as a man of my word. I promised Mare something and I wasn't going to back out on her and leave her high and dry.

Plus, the other option, to accept two mates...it seemed an impossible task at the time. The revelation that dawned on me in the forest with Asper this morning has put things in a new perspective.

With Mare no longer an issue, the next hurdle is getting over my own self-loathing for being attracted to Asper. It's not something that I can just fix overnight, but for now, I've made the first step by admitting that they are my mates. I have verbally accepted it; I just need time to get my body to accept it down to its core.

It's not going to be a quick fix. I need to do some work on myself, I know that. I've been ignoring it for years, praying that my feelings would go away, that I could just carry on pretending. It's not like I've ever been attracted to any other guys, it has only ever been Asper. But him coming back into town like that brought it all to the surface. To find out he is my mate was the end of the world for me a week ago.

Yeah, I'm really fucked up.

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