And Then There Were Four by Lilith Carrie

The hot cascading water felt amazing upon my skin. So much so that I groaned internally when I forced myself to shut it off. The water pressure from the jets was much better in Caleb’s guest shower than it was in my small cottage.

Throwing on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt from the draw he had mentioned, I made my way downstairs towards the kitchen. I wasn’t quite sure why a sense of safety filled me around Caleb, but something inside me told me I could trust him.

“Are you feeling refreshed after your shower?” He asked without looking up from the book he had been reading at the kitchen table. His eyes hesitated on the page before finally glancing at me with a smile on his face.

“Yes, I am.” I replied, “Thank you.”

“No need to thank me, Ivy,” he replied, closing the book and setting it on the table. “Why don’t you take a seat? Go ahead and start on your tea and biscuits and I will answer any questions that you have.”

For a moment, my situation seemed amazing. But then a longing inside of me opened up wishing it was Hale or someone else that was having this conversation with me.

Taking a deep breath, I moved toward the table and took my place in front of him. The tea hot and refreshing as I drank it lost in my thoughts before deciding what question it was I would ask him.

“How does someone become a werewolf? Is it like magic or something?”

A chuckle left his lips as he shook his head. “Uh—I guess you can call it that.”

“I’m sorry… I don’t even know how to go about asking these questions.” I replied shyly, almost embarrassed that I was talking to him about it.

“No, don’t feel bad, Ivy. It’s completely normal to have these questions when you don’t know something.” The smile he gave me did little to make me feel better, but he quickly stood to his feet and gestured for me to follow him.

Moving from the kitchen, Caleb brought me into a small den within his home and gestured towards an oversized sofa that I willingly accepted to get comfortable on. I had no doubt this conversation was going to belong.

“Alright… Let me see,” he replied as his fingers moved over a set of very old books on a large brown bookcase. “Yes, here it is.”

Turning towards me, he brought over a large brown book and opened it up to a page before laying it down on the coffee table in front of me. The old written words and photos depicted wolves and humans from what seemed to be another lifetime.

“You see while being a werewolf is magic related, it’s far more complicated than someone just saying a simple spell.” Caleb started as he took a seat next to me, and flipped through the pages. “We were blessed by the g o d s, and are protected by the moon goddess herself.”

“The moon goddess?” I asked with curiosity, “is she like the ultimate mother or something?”

“Uh—yeah I suppose you could say that yes. She is our deity.”

I was stunned by the recollection of what he was saying. Being a werewolf was definitely a more complex situation. “So she made wolves have mates?”

“Yes, and no… you see not all wolves get mates. But those of us who do are blessed by her to have a love for eternity with the wolf who completes the other half of our soul. It helps to balance out our wolf.”

“That makes sense.” I replied, “when I worked at the wolf sanctuary in Georgia, I learned that even they mate for life. A wolf who loses its mate becomes lost and depressed and if they don’t happen to get another, they often die.”

“In a sense, yes. See you may know more than you think.” Caleb replied, smiling at me as he turned the page again, “Over centuries, wolves got tired of having to search for their mate for fear that they had died, or perhaps weren’t just born yet. So they started taking chosen mates instead. Which in my opinion was wrong.”

“What? That’s horrible.”

“Yes, I know but as time grew on many stopped believing in her feeling that she had abandoned us so long ago.”

Staring at the pages before me, I saw the depicted photo of the moon goddess and couldn’t help but run my fingers against the page. “People are far too impatient.”

“Yes, there are many of the wolves that also felt that way. But to each their own, I guess you can say.” Caleb seemed to be quiet as if regarding the information that he had given me.

“Have you not found your mate yet?” The look in his eyes when I asked the question spoke volumes about the conflict he felt.

“Uh—well I did, but unfortunately, she rejected me and claimed another.”

“Oh, Caleb. I’m so sorry.” My heart broke from him, and before I knew it, I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a hug.

To be given a mate, and then rejected of their love must have been horrible. Especially considering the amount of love he obviously had to give.

I wouldn’t know how to act if that had happened to me, and I wasn’t a wolf.

Swirling thoughts made me take a look at the relationship I had with the guys. I hadn’t been with them long, and in all honesty, could I actually say I loved them?

Love was such a strong word.

I cared for them of course, but I wasn’t sure if love reflected how I felt.

“It’s okay. It was a long time ago.” He replied as I pulled away from him.

“Can I ask something?”

“Of course, Ivy.” He chuckled while staring at me, “you can ask me anything.”

Awkwardness filled me after he had just told me about his mate, but taking a deep breath I nodded. “I understand what you mean about the goddess giving each wolf a mate, but then why am I mated to all four of them?”

“All four of them?”

“Yes, James, Hale, Talon, and I have completed the bond. But Damian won’t and he is my mate too. Honestly, I don’t get it and don’t even know much about them.”

Caleb’s eyes widened in shock, his mouth slowly, slowly dropping open. “That’s impossible. I mean, I figured it was one of them, but not all four of them. That hasn’t happened in hundreds of years. Mates are technically typically one person with another one person or on rare occasions two and one.”

“Is it bad I am?” I asked a little taken back by his outburst. Was it bad to supposedly be mated to this many people? What if it’s a bad omen or something?

They had never really explained it when I slept with them, but at the same time, I never stopped them either. When in the act, I welcomed it or almost expected them to take their claim. It was like a powerful urge sweeping over me.

“I just… they never told you anything?” He asked again, looking absolutely dumbfounded.

“No, I mean Hale explained some things but not like you have.”

“I’m so sorry, Ivy. You’ve been brought into all of this with people who didn’t even take your own thoughts and opinions into consideration. They should have taken it more seriously. At least that’s what you typically do, especially with someone who’s human.” His eyes scanned over me with pity before going back to the book.

“It’s okay…” I murmured, finishing off my tea, and contemplating going to bed.

“I will try my best to explain some of the stuff that I know to you, but of course, I’m not part of a pack like the others and I’m what they call a lone wolf, someone who doesn’t belong to anybody and primarily keeps to themselves.”

Lone wolf was a new term that I hadn’t heard before. Of course, I had tried to do a little bit of reading on what I could find about stuff, but it was all fantasy and fiction, nothing that helped me in the real world.

“Anything that you could tell me would be wonderful. I really appreciate your help.”

Caleb nodded, his eyes going to the clock on the stove before looking back at me, “Damian is what they consider to be an alpha. The leader of a group of people, almost like a president would be to a country. But he is the leader of his pack, and his pack happens to be one of the largest on this side of the continent.”

I didn’t realize that Damian was in charge of so many different things. It did make a lot of sense, though. The reason why he was always stressed out and of course, the reason why Hale and the others had said that he had so many responsibilities.

He was in charge of so many different people.

“That explains a lot, I guess.”

An empty pit formed in the pit of my stomach as my mind wandered over to what the guys were probably doing right now. I had turned my phone off so that I could enjoy my peace and had no doubt that I would get nothing but s h i t from them when I went home in the morning.

“Did you want to continue for tonight?” Caleb asked me as he closed the book, and made his way back towards the bookshelf.

Exhaustion filled me as I yawned, and shook my head. “No, what you have told me already has my mind spinning. Perhaps, we can pick up tomorrow maybe?”

“Of course, Ivy. Go get some rest, and in the morning we can continue if you would like.”

Taking to my feet, I walked slowly back to my room and closed the door. The softness of the bed was a welcome feeling, and as I lay there I felt the darkness pulling me closer.

Sleep was overtaking me…

But the thoughts of Damian and their secrets would never st