Fated for Two

In the living room, Brenton still held Everard close, running his hands through his hair in a comforting manner. They talked softly, just as they had when they were kids telling each other their deepest secrets.

They had done everything together growing up, from learning to crawl, to walk, to tie their shoes as children, to learning to play football, and learning to drive as teenagers. Their moms had laughingly said they were attached at the hip and woe to the girls who became their mates if they tried to separate them. Their dads had laughed and said they had seen twins whose bond wasn’t as strong as Everard’s and Brenton’s.

The boys hadn’t cared, they were brothers of the heart, friends, confidantes. That was just the way it was, and they liked it that way. As they’d gotten older, they’d teased each other about girls, but they soon found they agreed on most things. They both liked dark-haired, brown-eyed girls. Although Brenton tended to stare at the chest whereas Everard tended to stare at the butt. Everything else about a girl they agreed on though.

When they were fourteen, they’d snooped through Warren’s, Everard’s older brother’s room, and found his dirty magazines. Taking one back to Brenton’s house, they’d looked through it and gotten quite worked up at the pictures.

Brenton snorted at the memory of those magazines, and Everard looked up to ask, “What?”

“Remember your brother’s girly magazine we snitched?”

Everard’s face turned red, but he nodded and whispered, “Yeah. I was so embarrassed when the pictures of those girls made me excited. That was the first time it had ever happened, and I was in a room with you.”

Brenton shrugged unconcernedly as he said, “It didn’t bother me. We had shared everything else, why not that part of growing up too?”

“But that’s different, private,” Everard told him in disagreement.

Brenton sighed and looked straight into Everard’s eyes as he said, “Everard, we now share a mate. Is it going to embarrass you to get excited around Farrah if I’m in the room? Are you going to hide if she and I start doing intimate things? Will you expect me to be somewhere else besides our bed if you want to make love to her?”

Everard looked away, swallowing hard as he said, “I don’t know Brenton. It’s strange because as a shifter, I have no problems with walking around in the nude. We’ve seen each other naked, and I’ve never thought anything of it, and yet the thought of being aroused and naked in the same room as you? That just scares me a bit.”

Brenton laughed and teased, “Everard is a closet prude.”

“I am not!” Everard exclaimed with a huff. “I’m just innocent and mostly untouched.”

“I am too, but you don’t see me getting worked up over it,” Brenton said before he leaned his head back and roared in laughter at the look on poor Everard’s face. He hadn’t laughed so hard in years, and it felt so good.

Everard forgot his embarrassment at Brenton’s laughter and grinned at his brother wolf. He was happy to see Brenton happy, even if it was at his expense.

Brenton wiped the tears of laughter away and said, “Seriously though, you are going to have to get over it, my wolf brother. I think we have a hot one and I will not let your prudishness keep me from her.”

Everard sighed and glanced at the kitchen doorway where Farrah now stood with a puzzled look on her face. She had probably wondered what all the laughter was about. He shook his head as he watched her turn and leave them to it instead of asking what it was all about. Returning his gaze to Brenton he said, “I think it might be a bit different with her being our mate. I did get a bit more comfortable after that if you remember since it wasn’t the only time, we snitched a magazine.”

“Hm… that is true,” Brenton agreed. “Although, you still wouldn’t let me find relief with you in the room with me. You always made me go into the bathroom.”

Everard snorted and asked, “Did you really want to explain to our parents why our rooms smelled like our man fluids?

Brenton snorted. “Man fluids.”

Everard smacked his shoulder, but continued, “I didn’t. At least in the bathroom, it was easy to clean up Mr. OCD about cleanliness.”

Brenton laughed again as he stood up and stretched. “Let me go give our mate a kiss, then we’ll get to doing those things she asked us to do.”

Everard stood up also and headed for the door as he said, “Okay. I’ll be outside seeing what all we need for the porch.”

Brenton walked into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around Farrah. Running his nose through her hair, he murmured, “We’re going to leave now. Is there anything else you need while we’re out?”

Turning her head, she accepted his kiss before she told him, “No, I think I’ve got everything we needed. If something is missing, I’ll start a list.”

Giving her one more kiss, Brenton turned to leave as he said, “All right. I don’t know how long we’ll be gone but it shouldn’t be more than a couple of hours.”

“Okay, I’ll be right here, cleaning,” Farrah told him as she watched him leave. She then turned and got to work.

Farrah was able to get a lot done in two hours. The first thing she’d done was crank up Everard’s old stereo to the rafters and rocked out to some oldies station she’d found. Next, she’d cleaned the second bathroom within an inch of its life because she knew with three of them, they were going to need that second bathroom. Then, she’d pulled out the vacuum and tried to clean the upstairs carpets after dragging down all the drapes and opening the windows wide to air out all the rooms. Last, she’d stood back and contemplated knocking down one of the walls between two of the small bedrooms to make one big one.

She was thinking about maybe cleaning the second upstairs bathroom when she heard Brenton’s truck pull up outside. Practically running down the stairs she made for the front door just as they climbed out of the cab. Stopping in the doorway, she asked, “So, how did everything go?”

“The roof is now complete and there is enough daylight for at least a couple of the families to begin moving in,” Everard answered with a grin. “We also had enough lumber left over to at least start on the porch.”

“We also talked to Everard’s beta Mason and my beta Owen,” Brenton said as he and Everard began to unload lumber from the truck. “They will get ahold of the pack and let them know there will be a pack meeting in the morning at nine in the clearing.”

“The clearing?” Farrah asked as she pulled a bucket of tools out of the truck.

“Yeah, it’s where the two packs used to meet when we were younger,” Everard said.

“With our dads being good friends, we had a lot of get-togethers there,” Brenton added. “Parties, barbeques, weddings, graduation parties, all sorts of things.”

“Back then both packs were huge and none of the buildings were big enough for both,” Everard told her.

“Hm… sounds like fun,” Farrah said as she stood back and watched them finish. “So, are either of you hungry? I have stuff for sandwiches if you are.”

“I’m always hungry,” Brenton said with a smile, “and Everard needs to start eating more anyway.”

Everard turned with a frown, saying, “I’m not hungry.”

“Hungry or not you need to get your appetite built back up,” Brenton informed him. “The more you start eating, the bigger your appetite will get and soon your wolf will be able to go hunt some deer with me.”

Everard’s eyes widened and he licked his lips before asking, “Deer?”

“Yes, that’s what I said, a deer,” Brenton agreed with a chuckle.

“I love, well, my wolf loves deer,” Everard mentioned. “It’s been so long I’ve almost forgotten what it even feels like to run as my wolf, much less hunt as one.”

“Then that is what you will strive for, Sweetie,” Farrah said as she walked over and hugged Everard. “You will work on getting your strength back so you can hunt with your brother wolf. I bet he would love that.”

Brenton walked over and wrapped his arms around them both as he softly said, “Yeah, he would, and so would I.”

Farrah cleared her throat and then said, “So, while I was cleaning, I was thinking.”

The two men stepped back to look at her, waiting.

“I was thinking that with there being three of us we need a bigger bedroom,” she finished.

“Bigger? The master bedroom isn’t big enough for you?” Everard asked, confused while Brenton just looked amused.

“Well, with three people you need more than one dresser, a much bigger closet than you have, and I’m thinking a king-sized bed at least.

Brenton laughed before he said, “Darlin’, I don’t think we need a bigger bed since you seem to think you should lay on top of the two of us.”

Farrah squinted at him as she asked, “Oh, really? Well, then don’t get upset if you end up on the floor one night. I’ve never slept with anyone, until the two of you, and I tend to be all over the bed. I never know where I’ll wake up and have been known to be at the end of the bed with my feet and head hanging off.”

Everard laughed and said, “I’d like to see that.”

“Hm… I believe the two of you may be in trouble,” Brenton mentioned. “Everard tends to hog the bed too. I remember growing up he shoved me off more than once during our sleepovers… perhaps I should just have my own room and leave you two bunking together. Seems to me it might be safer for me in the long run.”

Farrah huffed at him and headed back inside to fix sandwiches. Behind her, the two men laughed, and she had to smile because she loved the sound of their laughter. She gave a quiet laugh of her own as she walked into the kitchen and began making sandwiches. She made them thick with a lot of meat because she knew both men needed it. Putting the sandwiches on the table, she added big bowls of chips and two different dips along with iced sweet tea and a slice of the chocolate cake she bought.

She hollered, “Foods ready!”

Brenton and Everard made their way inside, stopping at the sink to wash their hands before being seated.

In about four bites, Brenton had eaten his sandwich and was making his way through the second one when he realized Farrah was staring at the sandwich in her hand instead of eating it. Tilting his head questioningly, he asked, “Is something wrong with your sandwich, Darlin’?”

Farrah looked up, giving him a shake of her head, she said, “I was just thinking about something.”

“What are you thinking about now?” Brenton asked before taking another bite of his sandwich.

“This mess with the rogue alpha and Fiona, about how puzzling it all is, about the few things the two of you have said about it,” Farrah answered. Then, with a light huff, she put her sandwich down and asked, “I need a few facts, so I can get things straight in my head. How much older was Warren then you Everard?”

“Almost fourteen years,” Everard answered. “My parents had given up having another child when they had me.”

“Okay, so Brenton’s parents must have thought of the possibility of being childless also,” she murmured, thinking. “Most alphas, if that happens, have a backup plan. Brenton, what were your parents’ plans, do you know?”

Brenton frowned thoughtfully as he chewed, then swallowing he said, “Well, Warren was to be alpha here, but I think my dad said at one time that they considered the idea of joining the packs together.”

“So, there aren’t any uncles out there who could give your dad an heir by blood?” She asked then.

Brenton shook his head, “No. Mom and Dad were both the only child in their families. I think Everard’s dad had a brother though.”

“He did, but he and dad had a blowout after I was born and he was exiled,” Everard said. “Originally, the plan was for Uncle Joseph to be dad’s beta when Grandad stepped down. Something bad happened though at some point after dad had taken the pack and Uncle Joseph was exiled and told him never to return. Dad never would say what had happened. I also don’t know if he ever became dad’s beta or not.”

“Okay, so we have a rogue uncle, any idea whatever happened to him?” Farrah asked as she began to put the pieces together. Taking a bite of her sandwich, she waited.

Everard seemed to be thinking hard, then he answered, “I think I heard somewhere he had found a pack that would take him in, somewhere further upstate, I think.”

Brenton frowned at that news as he growled, “He found a pack? And the exiled wolf was accepted into another pack? All packs are told of the accused rogue’s crime. Most won’t let them within five miles of their packs if they know about them. So, to let them into the pack, that is unheard of, and just how stupid was that pack to take him in and not kill him?”

Everard shrugged, even as he frowned, saying, “I don’t know.”

Farrah tapped her chin in thought, then murmured, “Okay, so here is what we know. If Alpha Phillips had produced no heir, the Phillips pack would have gone to the Alpha of the Steward pack. Fiona talks of a plan; this plan includes killing all of the Phillips… this tells me that someone wanted the Steward pack.”

“What? How do you get that? I mean, both packs have an heir,” Everard said, sounding skeptical.

“Bear with me and I’ll explain,” Farrah said. “Okay, so at first Phillips had no heir but Steward did. Steward also has a brother that by werewolf law would become alpha should anything happen to his brother before the alpha heir is of age. If nothing happened to Steward, then the pack goes to his firstborn. Still, if something happens to the alpha heir, the brother could still inherit. However, we have an allied pack that has no heir, perhaps talks took place about putting the Steward heir in as alpha of the Phillips pack and the brother in as alpha of the Steward pack. Now, something happens, and the brother is kicked out, putting an end to those kinds of talks. The brother though, he finds a pack of his own and for all, we know him, or his heir is now alpha. Are you with me so far?”

The men both nod as they continue to eat.

“All right. Now because Phillips still has no heir, they make a new plan. This plan is to merge the packs, but then low and behold both alphas have a child giving Phillips an heir. Now both packs are good to go,” Farrah continues. “Everard, had your brother taken over by the time the pack wars happened?”

“Yes, but he’d only been alpha for three years. Usually, the heir takes over at twenty-one, but he wanted to wait until he met his mate,” Everard told her.

Farrah nodded, once more thinking. “He would have been thirty-one, almost thirty-two, by that time and you would have been eighteen. You were old enough to step in if something happened to Warren.”

“Yes, but I was going to be Brenton’s beta,” Everard reminded her.

“I know, and I also know that Brenton said the rogue alpha always seems to be one step ahead of him. Now you know why it’s because someone has betrayed you. Now whether it is someone in just one pack or both I don’t know. Sadly, I’m leaning toward two people, one in each pack keeping tabs on both of you,” Farrah suggested.