Page 27 of Meant for Them
She sneezes a few times to illustrate her point.
“We need to show you some pictures because you mentioned somebody named Alex. That him?” I ask as Wiley flips to a page in one of the albums.
“What is this, some kind of psychic power? Why do you have a picture of my mate in your attic?”
Wiley lets out a low growl. “I don't see his mark on you, sugar. You're gonna be calling anybody your mate, it best be one of us. And he's in this album because this is our brother that screwed us over.”
Morgan unfolds the photo, revealing the rest of us in a picture with Alex when we were teens. Just about before everything went to hell.
“I don't understand. How... how is this possible?” She looks at the album some more, like she needs more proof.
Troy sighs. “We can only assume you ended up here because something in us called to you. When you perceived a rejectionfrom Alex, your wolf automatically sought out the only other wolves in the world that could make it better.
“And that caveat we mentioned? The only person who could have gotten through our boundaries? A potential mate. This is going to sound... probably incredible in a bad way, but you know that witches exist, correct?”
“I may not have a formal education, but I'm not stupid. Of course I know witches exist. I’ve never been to one of their communities, but everyone knows about them.”
Troy puts his hands up in apology. “Didn't think you were stupid. Just wanted to make sure we were on the same page. When we were younger, our mom used to read fairy tales to us every night before bed. She said she wanted her four boys to grow up loving stories, with a heart for romance. She had two mates as well, though my father wouldn't agree to anyone else being a part of their relationship.
“Our uncle was more than willing to share his mate, but Dad met her first and already had his claws in her. Where do you think Alex perfected his powers of manipulation?
“Mom was terrified of losing Dad for a long time. It wasn't always a happy home, but we always got a happy story at night. Alex is the oldest of us. When it started to become clear that he would follow in my father's footsteps and take over the company, my father decided that he had his heir, and that his spares were superfluous.
“And it's not even like it's some big, multimillion dollar company or anything. Sure, dad started a successful company and I have no doubt that our brother has done well with it in our absence, but our father decided at some point that Alex was the only one deserving of being backed by him. Having all of us around was a risk he didn’t want to take.
“He'd already alienated his own brother, so it wasn't too much of a stretch for him to alienate some of his children also. Mom ran off at some point, too messed up over missing her other mate. By that point she understood what emotional abuse was and decided to get away. Our father had no intention of being a single father of four. We wanted our mom to leave though, so don't hold that against her; her happiness was more important.
“So, in an act of pettiness our dad was known for, he enlisted the help of some witches. Since he's in the real estate business, it was nothing for him to acquire this cabin. Got a witch out here to set the spell and then talked Alex into getting us out here. It was under the guise of it being a weekend for us brothers to relax and bond, because things were a bit tumultuous, but as soon as we crossed the barrier they laid, Alex hung back, and we were trapped.”
“There was some bullshit note here,” I take over, trying to keep any emotion out of my voice because I really wish this didn't affect us anymore, “telling us the terms of the spell. So at least there's that. I guess he could have just left us all blind. But basically, once enacted, we couldn't leave for the first 72 hours. After that, we'd be allowed to enter the closest town to get supplies. He assured us we'd always have money in our account to purchase food with, as well as a little extra for clothing and what else we needed for the home, and yes, the allowance is generous, but we've been more or less trapped here for years.
“Because every magic has a cost, there had to be a way to undo it. Dad thought he was being clever I bet when he chose the cost of this spell. No doubt, he wanted to ensure Alex would meet his mate and not have to share with anybody else, namely us, and by keeping us away entirely, that was never going to be a risk he even had to worry about.”
Something sparks in Morgan's face. “But that doesn't mean your mate couldn't come here and find you, right? It's like that fairy tale where the princess is held captive. The one where they had to fall in love in order to break the spell on the prince? Did he mean to emulate that?”
Wiley shrugs. “Who knows. Probably though, because he knew how much we loved stories. Wanted to take something our mother made us love and use it to hurt us. So, the spell could be broken if our mate found us and decided to be with us. But let me be clear right now; that has nothing to do with us biting you. Yes, it's a perk, but we would have done it regardless of what we got out of it. The truth is, we just wanted you, plain and simple.
“I speak for all of us when I say, we’ve felt the pull to you since the first time we laid eyes on you. With all the wonkiness of the magic going on, we couldn't be sure until we bit you if you were really truly meant for us or not, but the second our bond snapped into place, it was very clear exactly who you are to us. You truly are our mate as well, Morgan. I hate that you had to go through what Alex did to you, but I don't hate that you ended up here, with us. We're going to take care of you. We're going to give you everything he should have but failed to do. And we're going to do it all without his approval or input.”
It's exactly the future I’d always imagined before Dickface Alex went and squashed it with a big, ugly boot.
If I can put the picture back together though, like a puzzle, I find it’s almost exactly as I remembered— me and my brothers, surrounding our mate, obsessing over her until she’s annoyed and begs for space. I bet Morgan would be so cute doing that. Morgan’s so fucking adorable doing anything, though, in either form. Did you see her eating those olives? Fucking perfect.
So yeah. Fuck Alex. We’re going to cultivate this daydream until it’s fully real. It’s a good one. However, the pretty, idealistic daydream is shattered by the shrill ring of the landline.
Wait. What? I don’t think I realized that thing still worked. Has it ever rung before?
eleven
Morgan
The phone continues to ring, but none of them make a move to actually answer it. “I'm sorry, do you not know what that sound means? It means somebody's trying to get a hold of you. Do you need me to show you how to answer a phone?”
Jake rolls his eyes and gives me a light swat on the ass before climbing down the ladder. They're being weird, so of course I'm going to follow.
Whoever's calling must actually want to talk to them and not just sell them shit, because when the guys don't answer on the first attempt, they just call right back. And again, the guys all just stare at the phone like it’s something confounding.
I'm kind of sick of the sound, so I swoop in and grab it. “Hello?”
