Page 11 of The Wolves At My Sides

“Fara, I want---” I searched for polite words.

Fara and I had a history of raunchy talk about our love lives, but we drew the line at our mates.

“I wanted him,” I said.

“I’d be more worried for you if you didn’t. Would suck for him too,” she yawned.

“But Irwin. It feels like cheating to even think about him in that way. Irwin is my world. Irwin and our baby.”

“Brother, I’m sleepy. So I’m going to cut to the chase.”

“You always do,” I managed a chuckle for her.

“Your world just grew. Don’t do anything you don’t want to do, but if you feel that way and Irwin feels that way and Fen feels that way – something’s eventually going to happen. So, I think you need to work out your shit before it does. Cheating is non-consensual bullshit. It’s sleeping with someone outside your relationship without your partner’s consent to be involved in all that bullshit. You’re not in that situation. You’re not slipping it to someone in a motel room behind Irwin’s back.”

“I know, but---” I didn’t know what the but was.

“Brother. The baby’s asleep. I’m going to take a nap. I think you should take this as a win. No one got beat up. No one got hurt. Somehow, you’ve found both of your omegas. Fen survived everything in his life to be alive right now. Congratulations. It doesn’t feel like a win right now, but when you get your head out of your ass and accept it the true-mate response it will. I’ll even be around to say I told you so, but first I’m going to take a nap.”

“Get some sleep. I love you.”

“Love you too, brother.”

Chapter Seven

Irwin

For a moment, Fen and I stood in the kitchen not speaking. Neither of us were sure what to do or say. I felt like a giant ass. I should’ve been better at navigating the true-mate response. I’d done it once already. I glanced out the back door at Marcus’s office before shutting it. He’d be a while. He’d call someone in his family before he called his clients.

“Marcus wants to be here. It’s just that he’s the village’s only therapist,” I said and headed toward the fridge.

When all else fails, eat. What else could I do? I could think of a lot of other things to do. I could push Fen right up against the back door and kiss him until I chased away all his doubts. I could kiss him hard like Marcus had kissed me that first day we met – hard enough to make him know he belonged here with us.

“I get it. Folks rely on him,” Fen nodded.

I got out the stuff for sandwiches and together we made them up. I almost told him he didn’t have to help, but he wasn’t a guest. He was family now. He’d be here every day and every night and --- I shook my head chasing away the thoughts of what night might bring.

“He also probably feels confused,” Fen said, cutting into a ripe, juicy tomato from Eston’s greenhouse.

“I think it’s all confusing for all of us.”

“He adores you. I could tell. He doesn’t want to cheat on you, probably.”

“It wouldn’t be cheating,” I shook my head.

“I know that. He probably does too, but ---”

“He can’t help how he feels,” I nodded.

“If it’s easier I can stay where we planned at first.”

“If you want to you can, but in my experience being away from a true-mate is hard. Even now, I want to drag Marcus over here. The first few days and all the time before the claiming vows are even harder,” I said and blushed as the thoughts of what our claiming vow might look like flooded my thoughts.

“Do we need a plan?” Fen asked.

“For what?”

“Everything, I guess. Look, I’m not good with people. I know I told you that when we talked on the phone, but I’m really not. I know how to put on a mask and deal with customers, but the whole interpersonal thing, I don’t know --- I just --- I’ve never done it.”

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