Shock.

Have you ever been so bewildered, so unbelievably stupefied, that nothing even made sense anymore? Have you ever had the urge to slap yourself repeatedly in the face to check if you're dreaming or not, because what you're faced with just cannot be physically possible? Have you ever been stuck in a situation so complex, so confusing that all you wanted to do was run away from it all and hide under your blankets till the end of time?

That was how I was feeling right now.

Flabbergasted and discombobulated.

Because there was no way on Goddess' green earth that this was possible.

I meant, what in the ever-loving hell was I supposed to do with two freaking soulmates? Wasn't a soulmate supposed to be one person who had the other half of your soul or some bullshit like that? Did that mean I had only one-third of a soul?

'Shut up. It doesn't work that way. Our soulmates complete us. But they're not parts of us. We are a whole without them, but we are better with them.'

'I'm sorry, did I say you could talk!?' I yelled at my wolf, suddenly pissed beyond belief. 'YOU! You are the reason for all of this! Fix this now!'

'I can't!' He roared back, surprising me. 'They are our soulmates whether you like it or not. Now stop being a little shit and talk to them!' With that, he shut me out, that stupid bastard, leaving me with no choice but to finally face the reality of this twist of fate that had landed me here.

Goddess. Why? Why was this happening to me? Was this payback for all the virgin girls I had seduced and the threesomes I'd had?

"What's . . . the meaning of this?" The chocolate-haired goddess whispered as she came to a stop a couple of feet away from us, looking just as blown away as we did. Damn, her voice . . . I could just imagine her whispering sweet-nothings in my ear in that husky tone. "Both of you are feeling the bond as well. You're each other's mates, too."

"Yes." The green-eyed devil looked up, meeting my eyes. And for some reason, that smooth, yet slightly gravelly baritone of his had me swallowing involuntarily, the mate-bond forcing upon me a myriad of chemical reactions that I did not want to feel, that was completely new to me.

Well, not completely, because I wasn't exactly a virgin, but in this case, I might as well be.

"Yes." I cleared my throat and replied after a second, still too overcome with emotions and mind-maddening confusion to think clearly. "It seems like we're all each other's mates. How's this supposed to work? Are we supposed to reject one person?"

"No!" Two voices burst in shocked outrage, making all three of us spin in their direction. I rolled my eyes, knowing it was none other than my darling brother and over-protective best friend, who just had to poke their noses into this, too, didn't they?

"Sorry." Seneca was the first to compose herself and smile. "We know it's none of our beeswax and we'll be leaving right now, but uh, we just couldn't help ourselves." She looked to her Mate for guidance, and he nodded, pushing his black-rimmed glasses up his nose in a slightly nervous gesture I hadn't seen him do in a while. "Yeah, guys. Having two mates isn't completely unheard of. Admittedly, there have been instances when the boy has been forced to choose between the two girls and vice versa, but that's not how it's supposed to work. It's the same as having one mate. Your mate-bond is only complete with both of them."

We all stared at the two people who couldn't seem to take a hint, unmoving.

"Oookayyyy." Seneca nodded, pressing her lips together and nodding slowly. "We get it. We'll show ourselves out of this conversation, now. 'Bye."

With that, the Alphas waved and spun around, leaving us alone.

I coughed, licking my lips nervously. "Sorry about that. They're my best friends."

"And the infamous Alphas of the Mordecai Pack." The Alpha stated, no trace of a question in her tone, but I nodded anyway. "Yes. That was Alpha Seneca Mordecai and Aleph Micajah Rye. I'm their Beta, Ezra Harland."

Normally, I'd extend my hand for a shake, but so many things were messed up with this situation that I didn't know what I was supposed to do. For starters, did you even shake hands when you met your soulmate? Or in my case, when you had two of them, which one did you shake your hand with first?

Safe to say I just nodded and kept my hand to myself.

"Alpha Nyah Pineda." My girl-mate said, leaving it at that. But her last name explained to me everything she hadn't, and now I had an inkling of why she had seemed so aggressive earlier. Of course, anyone would do some hard ass-kicking if they were dealing with a rapist, but something about this Alpha had been particularly badass, as if she had erected a wall of toughness around her to keep haters at bay. Such kind of a tough shell was only present in people who had faced a lot of shit in life.

And from what I had heard, boy, had she faced a lot.

I gave her a small smile before we both turned our attention to my boy-mate—yes, I can call them that in my head—who met our gaze with a stoic expression. "Theon Berkeley. Not an Alpha, not a Beta. Just a regular pack member."

So many snide remarks jumped to the tip of my tongue at that, and I had to physically restrain myself from saying them out loud. Firstly, say what he may, he didn't even look like a regular pack member, what with all those ripped muscles and clearly six-pack abs—which I had to begrudgingly admit, were bigger than mine. Secondly, despite the position a human assumed in a pack, the inner-wolf was born with the gene he was supposed to have had in the hierarchical chain, and the power of the wolf was what gave off the aura that Alphas and other high-ranking wolves had. And his aura, despite not being anything like that of Nyah, was definitely something.

So what he was, was a filthy liar.

But I refrained from saying any of that, because the way he had said it, with such defiance and defensiveness like he was challenging us to mock his lack of title or something, made me realize he must've been through some shit, too. Contrary to popular belief, I was not in the habit of hunting wounded animals.

I know, I can be such a good guy at times.

My wolf scoffed at that.

"I would say it's nice to meet you," I crossed my arms across my chest, my lips tightening, "But seeing as you're my competition, not very much."

"Competition?" Nyah interrupted, but Theon beat her to it. "Please. None of your 'I'm-the-Beta' tricks are gonna work on her. Sooner or later, she's gonna see who the real man is."

"You little—" We took an angry step towards each other but Nyah put her hands on our chests, instantly making us freeze.

So the tingles everyone kept talking about was real.

Shit.

I quickly took a step back from her touch because that kind of effect was something completely new to me. I didn't know how to handle it, let alone how to keep my dick from getting hard if she touched me two seconds longer.

Talk about embarrassing first meetings.

"There is no competition." She snapped in a hard voice, the finality in her tone ringing loud and clear. Since we were her mates, her Alpha-tone that could compel normal wolves into submission didn't have an effect on us, but I sure as hell could feel the power emanating off of her.

Clearly, she was not happy with us.

I sighed, "I'm sorry."

Theon just looked away, not even bothering to half-ass an apology.

Fucking great. He was an emo. Thank Goddess without that whole dyed black hair and tie-dyed black shirts thing because then, I'd have gagged.

'Our mate would look hot as Hades even in that, shut up.'

Like I always did, I conveniently ignored my wolf.

"Now." Alpha-girl-mate heaved a sigh filled with so much exhaustion that I felt bad for her. "Let's move this to a more private place, shall we?"

~

"This is ridiculous," Theon muttered as we all received our drinks and sat around a corner table at George's, the only decent café on campus. No, I didn't want to scoff down a Big Belly burger in front of my mates and look like a caveman.

No one looked pretty while eating a mega-sized burger. Not even someone as hot as me.

'Our mates would.'

'Would you quit it already?' I snapped at my wolf because his mooning was getting annoying. I got it, these two were super hot, beautiful and all-around perfect. So hot that I was the awkward-looking oddball of the group. There was no need to remind me of that fact every five seconds.

'Aw, Ezra. Our mates will love you equally even if you're the ugly one. Don't you worry.'

Way to make a guy feel good, wolf. Keep it up.

"Not as ridiculous as you." I rolled my eyes at my boy-mate. What could I say? Juvenile retorts were a part of me.

"Quiet, you two." Nyah shot us a flat look, leaning back against her chair across from Theon and me. She had given us the stink eye when both of us had tried to take the chair near her, immediately making us back down and share the same side of the tiny table.

The waitress walked over to us with a polite smile. "Excuse me, guys, I'm sorry for the interruption, but—" She turned her gaze to me, looking apologetic, "—I'm gonna have to ask you to move your chair a bit. You're blocking the aisle and the other waiters are having a hard time."

"Oh." I looked around like I was just realizing my mistake, giving her a smile tinged with fake embarrassment as I scooted my chair back to its original place. Earlier, I may have pushed it as far, far away from him as possible in an attempt to avoid the accidental brush of our arms, because if the effect his voice seemed to have on me was anything to go by, who knew what a touch would do?

I shuddered to consider the possibilities. I was as straight as they came, and I was not planning on changing that status anytime soon.

"Sorry," I mumbled as the waitress left, still unwilling to put my chair as close as it once was. The table was tiny, and we were two six-foot-tall guys with not so thin statures.

Again, I didn't want to risk it.

"So." Nyah wrapped a hand around her mug, looking up. From such close proximity, I noted that the gold of her irises had flecks of green and blue in them, making her eyes all the more beautiful. "This might seem too personal considering we've just met—" She bit her bottom lip lightly, shrugging, "—but I'm hoping like hell you two identify as something other than straight?"

"No." We answered at the same time, then glared at each other because we did.

"I'm straight." I tried again, but Theon simultaneously proclaimed the same, making me glower at him again.

"Stop doing that!" We yelled at each other in unison for the third time, immediately setting the other person off. A growl matching his rumbled low in my chest, and we leaned closer, tempers flaring like a fire doused in gasoline and eyes burning bright with rage.

"Cut it out!" Alpha Nyah whispered fiercely, but we didn't pry our eyes away from each other. He looked hot as fuck like this, dirty blond hair rumpled in that effortlessly sexy way and thick, dark eyebrows slanted over pale-emerald eyes that glinted with emotion, unlike the bored expression he seemed to favor most of the time.

I could eat him for breakfast.

What!? What the fuck was I even thinking!?

'Stop forcing these thoughts on me, you stupid wolf!'

There was no reply, as if the animal couldn't even bother with me. Or maybe he was too enraptured by the sheer male perfection who was currently blasting down the heat of a volcano on me with his pretty eyes. If looks could kill, I'd be buried six feet under.

"Stop. It. Now." Nyah put a hand on both our shoulders, snapping us out of—what was it, actually? Because I could've sworn I had seen some semblance of the same heat reflected in the depths of his eyes. It was as if he hated that he didn't hate me, or maybe I was just being Ezra and projecting my emotions onto him.

I didn't know.

"Sorry." I looked away, grabbing my cup of hot chocolate and taking a sip just so I had something to do. Again, Theon didn't bother to apologize, just settling into his seat like he had done nothing.

'I told you he's an emo.'

'Shut. Up.' Since when did my wolf start acting so bossy?

"You're attracting way too much attention." Nyah sighed, her eyes flitting between the two of us as she spoke, "Come on. Why else would you be mates? There must be at least one bi-curious bone in your bodies."

"Nope."

"No." Theon.

"Right." She nodded, her expression clearly saying, 'Why me, Goddess? WHY!?' Same, my mate. Same. "What do we do then? And no, I am not rejecting one of you, okay? I can't live with myself if I do that. So you better stop considering it."

"Well." I exhaled, putting my half-empty cup down, "For the record, I was merely wondering out loud. I didn't think we were actually going to reject one person. That's just cruel."

"Pussy." Theon shook his head to himself, sipping his cold coffee.

"Excuse me?" What the heck was his problem?

"Afraid you'll be the one to get rejected?" He quirked one challenging eyebrow, his look one of sardonic amusement.

"Ha!" I sneered, "If anything, I said that because I didn't want your emo ass to be the one that gets ditched. I'm not heartless enough to do that."

"Who're you calling an emo, you—"

"Can we talk like mature adults for two seconds, please?" Nyah slammed her hands down on the table, not hard, but hard enough to shut us both up. We glared and crossed our arms, looking away in opposite directions.

The guy knew just the right buttons to push.

You'd like him to push some other buttons, wouldn't you—

"Shut up!" I yelled, realizing only after a second that I had done it out loud.

Fuck.

I squeezed my eyes shut and rubbed my palms across my face, feeling two pairs of eyes appraising me like I had completely lost it. "Sorry. I was just talking to my wolf."

"Maybe your mother didn't teach you this—" Theon started, his voice rich with laughter. I parted my fingers, still not pulling my hands away as I peeked through them at his genuine, humor-filled expression. Fuck, he better keep glowering if I planned on having any chance, at all, at resisting the mate-bond. "—but you don't have to answer out loud. Your wolf can hear your thoughts, dumbass."

"I know." I tried to maintain an indignant mask as I pulled my hands away, as if I hadn't just thoroughly embarrassed myself in front of my soulmates. "Keep talking, Nyah."

Her eyes darkened noticeably at my usage of her name, taking on a sheen of something dark and hot, but she swallowed and blinked it away, continuing. Good. That's proof that she's feeling the same as I am. "As I was saying, what do we do? We don't exactly have that many options to choose from. You have to be feeling the mate-bond effects for each other. Isn't that enough to work with?"

"No." Theon denied in a hard voice just as my mouth parted, his lips pressed in a thin line. "We don't necessarily have to be each other's mates. We can be only yours."

Her shapely eyebrows pulled together in thought. "What do you mean?"

"I think he means," My own eyebrows went up as realization dawned on me, "that we should share you. Only you."

"But—no, that's impossible. You're not just my mates. You're also each other's—"

"This could work." Theon interrupted her, turning to look at me. "We could give it a shot."

"No homo, whatsoever," I offered, liking the idea better.

"Guys, I absolutely don't like this—"

"Should we shake on it?"

My stomach dropped in fear of what might happen but outwardly, I shrugged, acting like I was not in the least bit fazed. "Sure."

And when his warm palm met mine, our fingers wrapping around each other's hands in a fit that felt absolutely perfect, and not to mention, the stupid sparks and the mother-effing tingles that shot up my arm and through my entire body, I knew that there was a huge chance our deal was about to be blown to hell.

At that very moment, I reluctantly allowed that Nyah wasn't one-hundred percent wrong.

It seemed impossible, but we would pull through, I told myself. We just needed to be prepared for anything.

Little did I know, the fates were laughing down at us from somewhere high above.

Because it was the mate-bond we were messing with, and when it came to mate-bonds, it was either all or nothing.

I'm back babyyyyyy. woo-hoo. AUSTRALIA IS THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLDDD. I seriously love you Aussies. So so polite. I wish my people were like that.

Lol. No offense to anyone. but I just my vacation. (sorry for being gone so long, really.)

Hope you enjoyed this update! I'll be back in 3-4 days again! if you liked this chapter, please do,