Page 19 of Roman
I sat down and stared. I was incredibly torn.
“We’ll take care of Beau. But if you want to talk to him, you might need to make sure you’re in your other form. I don’t know that he speaks tiger. You know?”
I harrumphed at Lukan. He wasn’t wrong. I couldn’t communicate with Beau until we’d claimed one another.
“I’m going to get back inside. If you want to talk to him, do come back as your other half. And although I wouldn’t complain about seeing you naked, I don’t think Beau would like it very much, so make sure you’re dressed too, all right?”
I made another noise at Lukan before he chuckled before he disappeared inside the house he’d been standing outside of. How was it that I’d just had a conversation with the fae without ever saying a word? I sat there for a moment longer before I managed to turn and leave. I could do nothing for my mate in my current form, and that meant I would have to go back to Ramsey’s and get dressed. But Lukan had said that Beau was sleeping. With that last thought in mind, I retraced my steps and went around to the back of the house. Once I found the correct back porch, I curled up and prepared for the rest of the night. It wasn’t as if it was cold out. Even if it was, my tiger form could handle it.
I heard several voices a bit later and had to assume it was the others as they left the house that Beau shared with his brother. I didn’t stir from my spot where I was curled up and watchingover the back door of Lukan’s place. Not that there was any threat.
I somehow dozed off at some point, though, because I was awoken by a push on my head. When I looked up, I found familiar blue eyes staring at me.
“I figured I’d find ye here. Edison wants to talk to ye, so ye best be comin’ along with me.”
I absolutely would not argue with the created warlock’s mate at any time, so I stood and stretched. I heard chuckling off in the distance and realized that Wallace hadn’t waited for me. It wasn’t as if I would have an issue with catching up with the other tiger shifter. It was time to see what Master Edison needed.
Chapter 8
Beau
“You seem very upset this morning,” Konrad said. “I would think you would be over the moon after finding your mate. Roman is such a gentleman. You will find life with him quite fulfilling, I’m certain.”
I stopped what I was doing and looked down at the worktable that I was standing in front of before I burst into tears again. I’d fought with Evan yesterday evening, something we rarely ever did, and now I had the choice of choosing my brother or my mate. How did one choose between those two?
Arms wrapped around me, and I felt myself being moved to the other side of the room. I sat, blindly trusting Konrad that I would land in a chair. The sudden feeling of soft tissues in my hand had me bringing it to my face instinctively. I wiped at my eyes and nose and somehow managed to look up into bright blue eyes that were filled with concern.
“What’s all of this? You have your mate. Why are you crying so?”
It took some effort to finally get myself calmed down enough to talk. “Evan and I fought,” I got out first. “He says Roman will make me give up everything to take care of his babies.” I startedcrying in earnest again. I wanted my brother in my life, but I wanted my mate more. He was my mate. I heard Konrad say something but didn’t understand because I was crying too much. He disappeared for most likely not long, and then he was back.
“Aleric is coming, and he has someone that I’m sure you need to see.” Konrad reached out and wiped at my face, and I realized he had a damp cloth. I looked up and tried to calm myself, but it was no good. “There, there. It’s going to be all right. I don’t know what happened between you and Evan, but I know Roman, and that man would never ask that you give up everything to raise his babies. He dropped everything to raise his twin brothers. The last thing he would ever do would ask you to give up something for babies.” Konrad sighed as he wiped at my face again.
“I have to choose,” I told him, my voice coming out in a whisper.
“No you don’t. You can have it all. That’s the beauty of life here. There’s no need for choices. Well, beyond when the two of you get around to doing the deed and exchanging bites. But that’s not what we’re talking about at this very moment. No, we’re discussing the fact that you think your brother would ever make you choose.”
I looked at Konrad and nodded before I wiped my face and then blew my nose. “That’s what we were fighting about last evening. He told me if I chose Roman, that he was going to forget I was his brother. That I’d have to give up all of my dreams after he worked so hard to get us a better life. Which is true. He worked a lot in our village to give us a good life. And he pleaded with the fates to take not only him but me as well. Which they didn’t have to.”
Konrad shook his head. “You were supposed to be here all along. You were brought with your brother because Roman was here waiting for you.”
The door out front chimed, indicating that someone had come in. That was a bit of a surprise because we weren’t open yet. We were still baking the day’s goodies.
“Don’t worry. That’s just Aleric. I unlocked the door, and he will relock it once he’s inside.”
“Who is he bringing?” I asked. If I had waited only a few seconds longer, I would have known that he was bringing Evan. I absolutely did not want to see my brother though. I couldn’t help it—I burst into tears again, and without a thought, I used magic and popped myself back into Lukan’s spare bedroom. It wasn’t the most mature thing, but I absolutely did not wish to be berated by my brother again. It was too soon, and I just wasn’t ready to deal with having to choose between my brother and my mate.
I had nowhere to go. Not really. I lived with Evan, because Evan was all I had, and he had been given a place to live. Sure, Lukan would let me stay with him for as long as I needed; he’d already said as much. But I didn’t have anywhere to call my own. I never had. And now? Well, if I were to accept Roman as my mate, I would be moving into his place. Again, not my own. Which I understood was part of Evan’s issue. But wasn’t it like that for all omegas? Well, most? Didn’t most rely on their mates, their alphas, to take care of and provide for them?
Knocking sounded from downstairs. More like pounding, actually. But it stopped just as quickly as it had started. I didn’t think anything of it until I heard footsteps pounding up the stairs. Before I could react, Evan came into the room.
“Don’t,” he said before I even stood from where I’d been sitting on the bed. “I’m not here to argue. I want to talk to you and apologize.”
That had me stopping. “For what?”
“Being unfair, mostly. I’ve put you in an impossible and unfair position. I have no right to ask that of you. That was wrong, and I’m sorry.”
I sat there, staring at my brother. There were so many emotions going through me at the moment, but the one that stood out the most was anger. How dare he?
