Her Brother, Her Mate

Hadley POV

Mark and I had an amazing evening out on his big boat, and I’m happy to say that we didn’t see a single shark, though we did see a few dolphins on our way back in. It was a truly magical date.

That is until Mark started singing this song he called ‘Boats and Hoes’, which, after beating him on the chest and giving him the cold shoulder in a huffy fit, he told me was from a movie called Stepbrothers, and not an insult towards me. He told me I had to watch it, because when all three of us went out together, at some point, he and Mitchel were going to be singing the song a lot, just out of habit from their little inside joke.

Mark and I were walking hand in hand in the resort after dropping his car off with the valet. It’s almost time. Time for his father to lift the bindings on his and Mitchel’s magic so they could finally claim me, or whatever it’s called. I want to be claimed. I want to be theirs, more than ever.

Mitchel won me over pretty much from day one, but now, so has Mark. I never thought I would tolerate any man, but here I am wanting nothing more than to belong to two. Two extremely handsome, extremely immature, and extremely seductive men, who I now know are also extremely caring, extremely sensitive, and extremely in love with me. I’m extremely blessed. Extremely.

“Are you ready, sugar?” Mark asks, tugging on my hand in the elevator, pulling me to him to wrap his arms around me, holding me against him.

“Are you ready?” I smiled, “You and Mitchel are the ones who are going to be gaining superpowers. I’m just a bystander in all this.”

“Superpowers?” He lifts a brow.

“What would you call it?”

“Uh, magic?” he chuckles, “Superpowers would be like flying and s**t like that.”

“Are you telling me that you won’t be able to fly? Man, that might be a deal breaker,” I sighed dramatically, shaking my head.

“You were scared of getting on a boat, but you suddenly want to fly?”

I smiled brightly, nodding to him, “Boats make you confined, at the mercy of the seas and whatever is in it. Flying sounds….freeing.”

“Hmm, maybe I should learn how to fly then.”

“It would be a very attractive quality to have,” I giggled.

“I have so many attractive qualities already,” he smirks.

“Being humble is not one of them,” I laughed, patting his cheek.

The Meyers suite is like a high-class apartment, elegant and vast, all except the giant pentagram outlined in the middle of the cleared out living room with a black sandy substance. The air is thick with the scent of herbs and incense, tickling my nose. Sage is burning at the corners of the pentagram, resting on ivory dishes.

Mitchel is already there, lounging on a chair pushed against the wall. He smiles when he sees us come in, but his smile doesn’t reach his eyes, making me anxious for some reason. My heart pangs when he simply looks away from me, not showing much enthusiasm at our, well, my entrance. It’s not my pride that hurts, but some part deep inside me, the part that usually buzzes with electricity when one of them touches me. It feels like rejection. Like he’s indifferent to my being here.

Is that normal for mates? Is it a werewolf thing, because I was out on a date with his brother?

“Everything okay, Mitch?” Mark asked, leading me around the pentagram to one of the other chairs available for seating against the wall.

“Fine,” he looks up and smiles at him tightly, then turns his attention back to the floor, staring at the smoke rising from one of the sage bundles.

Maybe he’s just nervous? That has to be it, right? I bite my l*p, chewing the flesh while I study his profile, willing him to look at me and show some kind of emotion. The pain inside me is eating away at my insides, making me feel like I need to throw up.

I was about to ask him if something was wrong when his mom and dad walked into the room. Amanda followed behind, carrying a large basket with a tea towel covering its top.

“Good, you’re all here,” Micah said, clapping his hands in front of him. Micah Meyers looks a lot like Mark and Mitch. More like Mitch with his longer, rougher appearance and vibe, but his sharper facial features resemble Marks. He’s very attractive for an older man, and I was almost gawking at his handsome appearance.

“Hadley, sweatie,” Vivian came to sit beside me. “Thank you for coming! You can keep me company.”

“Hi Mrs. Meyers. Thank you for allowing me to be here for this,” I smiled at her.

“Call me Vivian, dear. You are family, not just an employee. No need to be so formal. After tonight you will be able to officially be my daughter-in-law.”

My cheeks heat at what she is insinuating, and my eyes move between Mark and Mitchel. Mark is smirking at me, but when I look at Mitchel, he is grimacing, still staring at the ground.

I involuntarily clutched my stomach watching him, a whimper leaving my lips before I could stop it. It hurts. It physically hurts me to watch him treating me so coldly. Did I do something wrong?

“Are you okay, Hadley?” Vivian asked, Mark dropping to his knees in front of me, cupping my face, then looking at my stomach, searching for the source of the pain. I looked again at Mitchel, his eyes finally meeting mine. There is worry there, but also something else. Something sad and broken, like it’s painful for him to be looking at me right now.

“I, uh, must be feeling a little upset from the boat ride still. Can I use your bathroom?”

“Of course! First door on the left down the hall.”

“Do you need help, sugar?” Mark asked me as I stood on my feet.

I shook my head, “No, thank you. I’ll be right back.”

He rubs his thumbs over my cheeks, “Let me know if you need something. I think we have nausea medicine.”

“I’m fine,” I force a smile, then k**s his hand before dropping it from my face.

I don’t know what is wrong with the other brother, but it hurts too much to sit here and be ignored. That damn mate bond force inside me feels like it is eating its way out of my belly button, and I just want a moment to compose myself, suffering in solitude while I try to reason out what is going on with my other mate.

Mitch POV

A few hours prior…..

“So you poisoned Mitch because he skipped out on a date?” Carlos snarls at his sister in an interrogation room at the warrior center. The same interrogation room I pried the nails from Suzie’s fingers several years ago, the event that started this all. “Are you f*****g insane? Why would you poison someone for a reason like that?”

“That wasn’t why,” Suzie sniffles, her face a mess from all her hysterical crying.

“Then why? Why hurt someone who has always defended you?”

“He’s throwing me away for his mate. I thought,” she sniffles again, sucking snot back up her nose in a very unattractive way, “I thought if I restrained his wolf’s side he wouldn’t feel the mate bond and he would forget about her.”

“Suzie,” Carlos ran a hand down his face, exasperated with his sister.

Her words from earlier have been playing in my head over and over again. “I’d rather die than live without you.”

Was that another way to manipulate me, or was she being serious? Would she seriously kill herself if I chose my mate over her? Would she really do that to me? Am I really going to let her?”

“What!? I have no one, Carlos. f*****g no one, except for him, and he was about to dump me for some mate.”

“Dump you?” Parker asked, “I wasn’t aware you two were an item.”

“We aren’t,” I said darkly, “and we never were. I was never anything more than your friend. I don’t understand where this warped idea came from.”

“YOU! YOU, MITCH!” She screams, “You have been stringing me along for years, and now you want to throw me away? I won’t let you! I won’t let you leave me like everyone else did. I don’t want to be alone.”

“I don’t want to be with you though, Suzie. I never did,” I told her, desperate for her to actually hear me this time as I was explaining all this, “I was okay being your friend and that was it. I never wanted anything more or tried to give you that impression. If I did, I’m sorry, but I never wanted to be with you like that. I still don’t. I want my mate and no one else.”

She hisses, “If you choose her over me, I will make you regret it. I will not live without you. I would rather die.”

Carlos slaps her, making me cringe from the impact as her head snaps to the side. “I’m taking you to Lady Delilah. I don’t trust you to keep out of trouble this time and I’m not going to let you ruin any more lives.”

He drags her out of the room, Suzie, crying and pleading for me to save her the entire way down the hall to the transportation vehicle waiting out front; the one that brought her here.

“Don’t let this get to you, Mitch. I’m sure this isn’t the first time a psycho has latched on to you,” Parker says jokingly. I smiled tightly at him. No, this isn’t my first time dealing with this type of situation, and I know how things turned out the first time. Can I really live with myself if another woman kills herself because of me?

I left the warrior center after signing my statement with the guard on duty, waving bye to Parker in the parking lot.

What am I going to do now? All I ever wanted was my mate, and now that I have her, I ruined it by leading on another woman. I want Hadley, but can I truly be happy with her if Suzie kills herself over me choosing my mate?

Hadley also has my brother, not just me, but Suzie has nobody, just as she said. I was it. I was all she had. Hadley will be okay without me, but Suzie won’t. The question is, can I really live without my mate? Could I really live without Hadley now that I know how absolutely perfect she is for me; for us? Can I really give her up to save someone else?