Fated for Two

Everard nodded and took a deep breath before saying, “Fiona came back, said that rogues had caught her just outside the pack lands and chased her some distance away. Since she wasn’t officially part of the pack, she had no way to notify me and had to hide until it was safe to come back. That was her excuse for being gone for three days. She also told me that she’d spotted more rogues when she returned but that patrol had stopped them, so it was all good. I wanted to believe her because I loved her, and she was my mate. I felt some doubt though, so I did follow up with patrol, and they verified her story,” he admitted, looking guilty that he had a moment of disbelief at Fiona’s words. Running his fingers through his hair, he sighed, then continued, “I noticed though that something seemed off about her when she returned that time though. My wolf didn’t perk up when she was around me as he had before, in fact, he was silent, and that scared me. She also had that same male wolf scent on her, but this time her scent was different also. Even stranger was the fact that I no longer felt drawn to her, it was as if the mate bond never was.

“The next thing I knew, one of the patrol wolves came running in from the trees all bloody, he dropped to the ground shifting as he yelled, “rogues!”, then he died. I barely had time to alert the warriors before the rogues poured in from all sides of the forest. I turned to tell Fiona to help secure the women and children only to realize she was missing. That’s when it dawned on me that she had brought the rogues with her.

“Looking around I knew there were too many for us to survive the attack on our own. It would have been a massacre, so I sent up a howl for help. I then followed Fiona’s scent because I figured she’d head straight for the rogue alpha. I caught sight of her and another wolf just inside the border just as Brenton’s dad and his warriors crossed it.

“Two rogues spotted me, and they tag teamed me, keeping me busy. Suddenly I heard a loud yelp and when I turned, I saw it was Brenton’s mom in her fur. Fiona was holding her in her, still in her skin, and screaming about how the Phillips alpha had to die. She told the other wolf to kill your dad quickly and I knew then he was the rogue alpha. I managed to slip by the rogues detaining me but by then four more had joined us and swiftly put an end to the Phillips pack beta and delta.

“I heard a howl and saw Alpha Phillips warriors quickly bearing down on us and I guess Fiona did too because she broke Lady Phillips’ neck just as the other wolf killed Alpha Phillips,” Everard stopped and whimpered before saying, “It was chaos, total chaos, but I knew I had to get to Fiona. I needed her alive so I could interrogate her, find out why. That’s when she yelled at the rogues telling them to find Brenton. She was screaming about how he had to die too for their plan to work.” He raised his eyes to look at Brenton, tears pouring down his face. “I couldn’t let you die; you were all I had left, my brother in every way but blood. I had to kill her, to avenge your family for you because it was my fault, they were dead.”

Everard reached up and wiped his face as he sniffled. He then continued, “A couple more rogues caught me, but I managed to get by them because they seemed distracted by her yelling. Just as she shifted into her wolf, I jumped her and ripped her throat out. She landed by Alpha Phillips and all the rogues suddenly went still as if unsure what to do. I had just backed up when you arrived with the rest of the warriors and the remaining rogues fled the scene. You assumed your dad had killed her and I let you think he had.” The silence after Everard finished his story was almost deafening. Everard’s face was pale and nervous.

Brenton’s face was red, his eyes angry as he growled.

Farrah waited to see what would happen. She hoped this was the beginning of good things, of the mending of a friendship.

“The rogue alpha though, he knew you killed her because he saw you do it,” Brenton murmured with a growl. He then spat angrily, “Why didn’t he say something, go after you right then for killing her if she was his mate? And if they wanted me dead so bad, why not go after me since I was right there within his reach? Why did he do nothing?”

“I don’t know,” Everard said with a soft sigh. “That has always puzzled me because you and I were both right there and he could have easily gotten to either one of us because everyone was standing completely stunned at what had just happened. Although he never even looked my way, he just yelled at you that he would be back to avenge her death and took off.”

“I’ve been hunting him since that day, but so far he stays just one step ahead of me,” Brenton told them.

“You have? Why? I mean, I know they killed your parents, but…?” Everard asked.

Brenton sighed, answering, “Because nothing about what happened that day makes sense to me. Fiona was to be your alpha female, why did they need to kill me and my parents? For that matter, why attack at all? Why not just wait until she was made alpha female, kill you, and then take over your pack if all they wanted was the pack or the land. Then they could have attacked us for ours if they wanted it to. What was their purpose, their plan? It made no sense to me then and it makes no sense to me now.”

“So, you figured if you found the rogue alpha, you could find the answers to your questions?” Farrah asked. “Perhaps even have closure?”

“That is my plan, but as I said, he’s always one step ahead of me,” Brenton agreed.

“Have you ever thought that there might be a mole in your pack warning him somehow?” She asked then.

Brenton nodded and said, “I have, and I believe I do. I also think that whoever it is had something to do with the reason my parents were killed but I haven’t figured out who it could be. As far as I know, everyone got on well with my parents, no bad blood anywhere. If there was bad blood, why stay in the pack, to begin with?”

“Hm… it is a puzzle, and I like to think I’m good at puzzles,” she said, then yawned. “However, I think it is a puzzle for tomorrow. For now, I need sleep and I’m afraid I have a bedroom to clean before I’ll want to sleep in it a second time.”

Everard’s cheeks turned pink, and he mumbled, “You could be right. I’ll just go and pick up the room a bit.”

Farrah stood up, shaking her head as she told him, “Nope, I cooked, you two clean the kitchen and talk. I’ll look at how bad the bedroom is before I shower, then do what needs to be done.”

“Towels are in the cabinet next to the sink,” Everard said as he and Brenton began clearing the table.

Farrah walked out of the kitchen and left them to it. She grabbed her suitcase from the front hall and drug it into the bedroom with her. Then, placing the suitcase on the bed, she pulled out a tank top, along with a pair of cotton shorts and panties. Next, she grabbed the toiletries she needed and took them to the bathroom with her. Stripping quickly, she stepped into the shower stall and turned on the water. She took a quick shower, knowing the boys would need showers also, and she didn’t want to use all the hot water no matter how badly she was tempted to linger. Once she was finished, she got out and quickly dried and dressed.

Stepping back into the bedroom, she found Everard had snuck in and picked up his dirty laundry, and smiled. Moving to the dresser, she cleaned off the top of it, dusting it down with the dirty t-shirt she’d taken off, then placed her suitcase on top of it.

Looking down at the floor, she found a few articles of clothing he’d missed, possibly because he feared being caught, strewn across the room, mostly socks. So, she picked them up and tossed them in the laundry basket with everything else. This made her think of her own dirty clothes in the trunk of her car, and she decided tomorrow would be laundry day.

Having done what she could, she left the bedroom, following the soft hum of male voices to the living room. The two men looked up when she entered. She gave them a smile and said, “Everard, since this is your home, you should go and take your shower next. I didn’t use much water, so it should still be hot.”

Everard gave her a nod and stood up. When he was even with her, she reached out and took his hand to stop him. She then gave him a kiss on his cheek before letting him go.

Once he’d left the room, she sat down next to Brenton, saying, “So, I was thinking, it makes no sense for the packs to be completely separated since we need to live together.”

“That’s true,” Brenton agreed. Although, he didn’t look happy about it and was once more frowning. “Both packs are located roughly in the center of pack lands though, away from the borders. This will make combining them difficult because they will be so spread out. This will also make it difficult to patrol and protect.”

Farrah nodded, laying her head on his shoulder as she thought about the situation. She had to wonder if it hadn’t been for Fiona if the two packs would have been joined long ago, despite the hardship of it. Figuring that now wasn’t the time to get into that discussion, she instead stated, “I’m guessing though that your pack is much better off than Everard’s is.”

“It is,” he agreed again. “Although, he does have his own house and I don’t. I couldn’t bring myself to live in my parent’s house after they were killed, so, I moved into the pack-house. The house still sits empty, but my beta keeps an eye on it for me.”

Farrah gave his hand a gentle squeeze, hearing the pain in his voice for his lost parents, as she asked, “Hm… how far from the borderline is this house here? It seems like it’s some distance from the pack-house.”

“It is actually. I remember running here almost every other day growing up, and if I wasn’t here, Everard was at my house,” he told her. “Our parents were good friends, my father had no siblings, so they became close as brothers, just as Everard and I did. When our fathers took over the two packs, they wanted to be close to each other so that their kids could bond in the same manner they had I suppose, so they built their houses close. They wanted to be close to the pack, but they also wanted privacy because an alpha gets very little of that if he’s too accessible. Grandad never seemed to get any peace; Dad told me that more than once. Apparently, since grandad lived in the pack-house which made him too accessible to his pack, Dad changed that by building his own home. He left and went home in the evenings, leaving small squabbles for his beta to deal with and he came home to Mom and me. It worked out well for us because I saw my dad a lot more than he saw his dad when he was growing up.”

“So, the house you grew up in and Everard’s house are close to each other,” she mumbled, “but not too close to the pack-houses. So, if we lived here, how far would it put you from your pack-house?” She felt him shrug and looked up at him.

“It would be doable I suppose,” he told her. “My pack is pretty spread out and only the singles live in the pack-house along with me and my beta.”

“Does your beta have a mate?”

“He does, and a daughter. They have a floor all of their own because that is how my dad had the newer pack-house built after the old one was destroyed in a hurricane.”

“Hm… okay, so maybe get a four-wheeler or something to travel from here to there if needed?” She asked then.

Brenton chuckled as Everard walked into the room drying his hair with the towel over his shoulders.

“What, it’s a legitimate question,” she huffed as Brenton stared at her, an amused look on his face.

“We’re wolves, Farrah, we could shift and run in half the time it would take you to get that four-wheeler out to ride,” Brenton told her. “However, if you needed to haul something between the two homes, there’s a path between here and there, I came down it tonight. It could stand to be cleared again because it was pretty grown up, but a four-wheel-drive pickup can go down if need be.”

“What exactly are we talking about?” Everard asked.

“Where we should live apparently,” Brenton told him as he stood. “I’m going to get my bag from my truck and take my shower. The two of you can figure this out for now since Farrah has my input on it.”