Chapter Twelve- Mates

My palms were wet by the time the garage door opened in front of us.

The only thing more intimidating than Logan being angry was when he said nothing at all, and he wouldn’t even look at me when he opened the car door for me.

I glanced around the room as he hovered over my back and guided me to the kitchen door. Alongside their collection of motorcycles and four-wheelers were my car and some plastic buckets.

A rare twinge of guilt dropped into my stomach as I realized they spent the day doing something nice for me. It wasn’t often that someone did something for me that wasn’t paid to.

The hate I was feeling just a few minutes ago disappeared in an instant, but my pride wouldn’t let me thank them.

To my surprise, my brother was sitting on the living room sofa watching television and drinking a beer when I walked in. “Well, it looks like the whole wet blanket patrol is assembled.”

I sank onto the couch beside him and crossed my legs on the coffee table. “Why are you here, really?”

He cleared the food from his mouth and wiped his hands on a napkin. “Well, I was playing cards and eating pizza until they decided to pick you up. And I’ll be staying tomorrow night because I can’t see the bride before the wedding.”

He brought his beer bottle to his lips and lifted his brows. “Looks like we’re roomies again.” 

He wrinkled his nose to the fresh wounds on my body and shook his head. My mouth got me into trouble every now and then, and it was hardly the first time I’d come home with a battle scar. “How was the club?”

After rubbing the idea of having my brother sleep beside me away from my forehead, I sighed and motioned to the twins with my hand. “It was great until these two showed up and dragged me from the human I was entertaining myself with like a couple of fucking cavemen. “

“Oh, boy.” Teddy laughed and rubbed the side of his stubbly face before he shut off the television. “Yeah, we should talk about that, Tess.”

My toes dug into the back of my shoe as I popped it off. “Talk about what, exactly? How your brothers-in-law are knuckle-dragging Neanderthals.”

Rubbing at the sore spot at the back of my head, I motioned to the man who caused it. “I’m surprised Logan didn’t bring his fucking club so he could whack me over the head and throw me over his shoulder.”

With his back pressed against the wall and his arms crossing his chest, he finally looked at me. “I won’t forget it next time. You best believe that.”

Teddy leaned over with his elbows on his knees and rubbed the back of his neck before flinging his fingers up at the twins. “These boys are under the impression that they’re your mates.”

After a throaty laugh that echoed all around the house, I shook my head when I realized this whole thing was a trap. “Oh, goddamn it. I hate you, Teddy.”

I turned to face him, and I could see it in his eyes. “You fucking turncoat.” My finger poked his chest. “You don’t give a shit about me. You just wanted to give your new brothers a little wedding gift.”

My hands pressed to my knees as I lifted myself from the couch, then my finger pointed at him. “Well, you can forget that shit.”

Jacob and Logan, I’m sure, don’t understand the less than great attitude I was giving them right now, but this is like a damn nightmare.

I didn’t like the idea of being mated to anyone necessarily, but being stuck with Lycans was pretty much the worst pairing possible for a sex-addicted free spirit like me.

These men would try to lock me up in this house and immediately make me have their pups. I’m just not ready for that kind of situation, and nothing these guys said was going to change my mind.

He rose to meet me, and his hand wrapped around my chin. “This is a good thing, Tess. I know you better than anyone. I wouldn’t have agreed to this if I didn’t think it was right for you.”

“Right for me?” My eyes narrowed to my brother, and my hand slapped my chest. “What about what I want? Doesn’t anybody at all give a damn about what I want?”

Fat tears dripped from my chin as it moved back and forth in his palm. “I don’t want this. This is your picture-perfect idea of happiness, but it’s not mine. I can’t live this way.”

My eyes finally met my maybe mates. “You boys don’t want this. Believe me when I tell you that.” I pointed my finger to the big white house across the road. “I’m not like your mother and Stella. You can’t turn someone like me into a housewife. I don’t want children. This is all wrong.”

“No.” Logan shook his head as his hands took Teddy’s place around my cheeks. His thumbs pushed my tears away as he dipped his knees to look at me. “This is fate. You’ve been so beaten down so long, you can’t remember what being in a family that loves you feels like. But that’s all over now. We got you.”

The comfort of Logan’s arms around me was like a warm down blanket on a chilly night. Having Jacob wrap his arms around me from behind made me feel like I was being swaddled like a newborn baby. I could feel their chests rise and fall against me as their heartbeats called out to mine.

For the first time in my life that I could remember, I felt safe. But that little bitch that lived inside my head, the one who knew all my secrets and traumas, just couldn’t let me be happy. She always ruined everything. “No, no, I don’t want this.”

“I can’t breathe.” Like a million hands were pulling me into the Earth, I felt suffocated, and the whole world became a dark mass of warbled sound as I pushed myself free of them. “Stay the fuck away from me.”

With my bag clutched tight against my chest to shield me from the love they were offering me, my bare feet pounded against the wooden stairs that led to the room I spent last night in.

I slammed the door and panted for air that couldn’t fill my lungs fast enough as I pressed myself against it. There were flowers at my bedside, and I closed my eyes to them. All this normalcy and closeness was like a coffin that I was trying to claw my way out of, but everyone was just kicking dirt down on me.

The creaks on the stairs got louder until they stopped on the other side of my door. I didn’t need to smell the chocolate-laced air roll in from underneath to know who was standing there. He was always there. The soft purr of his throaty voice spread out across the wooden slab, and tears fell from my eyes when it reached my ears. “I’m here, Tess. I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you.”