Calix
At the moment we stepped out of the conference room and into the hallway, Alex made an excuse to leave.
“I have some business to attend to, Mom, so I’ll leave you and Calix to sort out whatever it is. I’ll be nearby so just mind-link me if you need me,” said Alex immediately.
He was halfway to the stairs by mid-sentence. I grumbled inwardly, secretly hoping Mom would guilt him into staying and hearing her out.
“That’s fine, Alex,” called Mom to Alex, who was already halfway down the stairs.
Alex plastered a halfhearted grin on his face and gave us a thumbs-up before disappearing out of sight.
“My boys are busy these days,” said Mom, with a heavy sigh.
I sighed, my shoulders sagging as my mood deflated. Mom was about to either make a scene or guilt-trip me. I could feel it. I was the closest to her out of all her children and, thus, I was the most likely to always give her the benefit of the doubt. However, even I had to admit to finally noticing the unhealthy pattern emerging. She motioned for me to follow her to her room. She shut the door behind us and theatrically listened for footsteps in the hallway like we were spies in enemy territory on Mission Impossible or something.
“Mom,” I said, careful not to inflect as though I were whining.
I needed her to realise we were two adults conversing, not a mother and her toddler son.
“I hope this isn’t an airing of more misgivings you have about Chasity,” I said cautiously.
I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but I wanted to make it clear that the wedding was happening. Chasity was already pregnant. Ideally, I would have done this the other way around: marry Chasity and then conceive. I was traditional-minded in that sense, but I was thrilled about the pregnancy nonetheless. I was also determined to marry Chasity before she gave birth. There was no reason to wait. She was my Luna and she was carrying my heirs. I didn’t want the legitimacy of these heirs questioned, not that anyone would dare to, not with Felix’s legendary temper.
I sat on the cushioned bench at the foot of my parents’ bed. Mom remained standing near the door.
“I just really don’t want to be overheard,” she whispered.
Then, mind-link me, I said telepathically.
“No, no,” said Mom with a wave of her hand.
She smiled and sat next to me.
“I wanted to have one of our talks, just quietly,” she said.
I nodded, angling my body to face her. She took a deep breath.
“Now, your Uncle and I were close growing up. Did you know that?” She asked.
“You mean Chase?” I asked, shocked.
I had never heard her refer to him as my Uncle. She had kept his existence a secret for years.
“Yes, even though we were step-siblings, we cared for one another like regular siblings,” said Mom. “That’s why I ultimately decided to raise Chasity.”
My wolf and I were puzzled. We didn’t know if to laugh or not. She didn’t really raise Chasity. Chasity had been our own resident Cinderella at best, except this time Cinderella had three handsome stepbrothers instead of two ugly stepsisters. That made Mom the evil stepmother, the villain. I didn’t like the thought of that. Mom had a lot of good in her, she had just mishandled the way she had gone about treating Chasity. I pushed those thoughts aside. It was creepy to think of Chasity as a relative when we weren’t even related by blood. Blood relatives can never be fated to each other, thank goodness.
“Chasity and I are not biologically related, Mom, and no offence, but I don’t think Chasity sees you as a mother figure,” I said as kindly as I could.
Mom’s face fell.
“Which is a good thing!” I added quickly. “You’re barely her step-aunt and she’s barely our step-cousin. Didn’t your Dad remarry again?”
“That’s not the point,” quipped Mom. “Chase is under the impression that I raised Chasity in his stead,” said Mom.
She looked at me like she expected me to understand some underlying meaning here.
“So,” she continued. “I need you and your brothers to act like…”
She trailed off. The room was silent. Her meaning dawned on me.
“You want me to lie to Chase,” I said, feeling disappointed.
“No, not just you, you and your brothers,” said Mom apologetically.
My frown deepened.
“As far as Chase knows, Chasity was raised alongside you three by your father and me,” said Mom.
“Chase, Chalice and Chance already know that Chasity’s childhood was far from ideal,” I mumbled.
“They know bits and pieces,” said Mom. “They don’t the whole picture. There’s just no need to enlighten them, no need to upset them with any gritty details, you know. There’s no need to blatantly lie, but there’s also no need to divulge everything…unsavoury.”
I nodded, not totally onboard with this, but not feeling like arguing.
“Good,” she said, sounding relieved. “And talk to your brothers for me. You would know how to put it across to them. I knew you or Alex would understand why we should be discreet. No need for a tell-all. Felix…well, it’s Felix I’m a little worried about. You know how…er…forthcoming he is. Just tell Alex and then you and Alex can encourage Felix to keep the household nice and peaceful. The past is gone.”
I nodded slowly. I didn’t agree. The past is never gone. It lingers in every fibre of our beings. The past shaped us, but it didn’t define us.
“I won’t make this harder than it has to be,” I said dutifully, promising what I could.
I couldn’t promise to keep everything under wraps, especially if Chasity felt the need to reconcile some of it. My goddess had every right to tell her newfound relatives about what she had been through.
“Great,” said Mom triumphantly. “Why stir up a hornets’ nest?” She said, her shrill nervous laughter filling the room.
I supposed she didn’t mind being overheard now that she had half-buried the past. I could already hear those hornets buzzing.
Alex
Yes, I didn’t feel like dealing with Mom’s melodrama right now, but I was no liar. I really did have business to attend to. Avoiding the undoubtedly awkward conversation Calix and Mom were having right about now was just a bonus. I always had business to attend to. I was the eldest Alpha. I had to keep abreast of things.
Beta Keaton sat across from me in the downstairs den, a rarely used room in the large pack house. I didn’t want anyone to interrupt this briefing.
“So, the were-fox girls in question are on their way to full recovery?” I clarified.
Keaton nodded confidently.
“But what do you want done with them?” Prompted Keaton. “They’re technically accessories to the kidnapping of our Luna, are they not?”
I leant back against the sofa. Keaton was in an armchair across from me. There was a walnut coffee table between us overladen with stacks of papers I didn’t even want to go through. Felix and Calix were under the impression that I loved paperwork. No. I loved order. Keeping order often involved extensive paperwork. No one loves paperwork.
“June and April saved my Luna from harm at the hands of their…crime boss,” I said, for want of a better term.
Keaton snorted with laughter.
“June and April?” Questioned Keaton incredulously. “Are they coming to Luna Chasity’s next sleepover? You mention these criminals by their first names so casually.”
“That’s how my Luna thinks of them,” I said, shrugging. “My hands are tied here.”
“Cut them free then!” Demanded Keaton. “Your hands, not the were-fox girls.”
“I know,” I chuckled.
“Look,” I said, rubbing my temples. “The reason why they got injured was because they fought their leader on Chasity’s behalf, giving my pregnant Luna time to locate her parents, giving us time to rescue her. She’s safe and reunited with us and her family. Without those girls, the story would be different. I can’t ignore that,” I admitted.
“So what would you have me do?” Asked Keaton, scowling.
I knew certain werewolves held a personal prejudice against were-foxes and Keaton was perhaps one of them.
“They’re sly,” warned Keaton. “They do things to get things. They strategise. They saw their leader’s house of cards crumbling and saw an out for themselves. ‘Let’s make nice with the Luna and find a new leader!’ That’s what they were saying to themselves!”
“Anyone who acknowledges my Luna as their leader is welcome in the pack,” I countered. “I say we adopt them into the pack on a trial basis, under close supervision. Transfer them to the prison infirmary, sentence them to time served once they’re well enough to be discharged and then release them on probation!” I said, stamping the final word of my verdict onto the paper in front of me with red ink.
Felix
My baby, Chasity, seemed thoroughly engrossed in the lesson. I found myself enjoying how her face lit up with excitement whenever she committed something new to memory. I wasn’t surprised. I knew she liked the academic side of school. She was a bit like Alex in that regard. I decided not to interrupt the lesson early. There was no fun in disrupting something Chasity found interesting. She had already gotten me to play with dolls with her in the past, for goodness’ sake. Clearly, I was wrapped around her little finger though I still tried to hide it sometimes.
I found myself daydreaming about what our babies would be like. Hopefully, each triplet would take after me, Alex and Calix respectively, or better yet, they’d all be like their Daddy (me, of course). I pictured three tiny versions of me wrecking the house and picking fights with each other. Okay, on second thought, some diversity of thought among the baby triplets might make for a more harmonious household. I pictured a neat as can be kid studiously sitting behind a stack of textbooks, a rowdy kid enthusiastically practicing sparing in the yard and a sensitive boy sniffling and tugging on the hem of Chasity’s dress to get her attention. Chasity would be the perfect Mom. I grinned at the mere thought. It was surreal how all of that was about to be reality.
“Isn’t that right, Alpha Felix?” Asked Nikolai, pulling me away from my daydream.
I frowned at him. Chasity looked at me, an inquisitive expression on her face.
“Come again?” I said.
“There’s a Wolf Country legend concerning triplet Alphas, right?” Said Chasity excitedly.
“Oh, um, yeah,” I said, caught off guard.
I had heard Alex talk about it.
“People say the Wolf Country was originally one huge nation of werewolves in primitive times. They say Triplet Alphas ran all of Wolf Country then in perfect harmony until each Alpha found his mate. They had three separate mates, you see, in the legend. They began to fight and disagree because each felt his own mate should be the true Luna or should be above the other two she-wolves in some way. It was harder for the girls to get along than it had been for the brothers because the girls were strangers to each other. The three Alphas divided Wolf Country into North, Central and South. They each became the forefathers of the numerous packs in each region. The brothers were not perfectly happy without each other, despite the fact that they each had a mate. Fate saw this and she vowed to never let such a division happen again when it came to wolves who shared a womb simultaneously. Identical twin and triplet wolves were fated to a single mate from then on. This individual mate would be perfect for them and would bring them closer together, strengthening their bonds instead of weakening them and dividing them,” I explained, drawing from my vivid recollection of Alex telling the story.
Alex used to tell it as a bedtime story to Calix whilst I pretended to be asleep because I was “too old for bedtime stories”, but I had been awake, listening.
Chasity smiled sweetly at me.
“That’s a nice story,” she said shyly.
She looked up at me from under her lashes.
“It’s kind of romantic,” she said.
“It’s total bullshit though,” I admitted.
She frowned.
“There’s no proof that every pack Alpha has a common ancestor. Those triplets would have shared identical DNA, which would make all Alpha lineages related, which they’re not,” I said bluntly.
Chasity twisted her little mouth to one side in displeasure.
“But,” I continued, grasping her chin and stroking her cheek with my thumb. “The part about multiples finding one perfect mate couldn’t be more true,” I said with a wink.
Chasity blushed.
“I’m not perfect,” she mumbled, looking down, her cheeks flushing a deeper shade of red.
“No one is, but you come pretty close, Luna,” said Nicolai cheerfully.
I glared at that fucker. What was he playing at? Did he have a death wish or something? I didn’t snap him in two because I was such a classy guy and he had been agreeing with me for the most part about Chasity’s perfection.
“We about done here?” I asked the tutor, making sure my tone conveyed that his answer should be ‘yes’ or else.
“Yes,” he said quickly.
Smart guy.
“Thanks again for the opportunity,” he said. “Once again, it really is such an honour to serve my Alphas by tutoring their Luna. It’s a dream j…”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand.
I hadn’t asked him for a whole podcast. Chasity pinched my arm for interrupting the tutor like that.
Don’t be rude, Felix, she squeaked in my mind.
He’s checking you out right in front of me! I exclaimed defensively.
Chasity laughed in my mind.
I assure you he’s not, said Chasity. Trust me! He has good vibes and good intentions and he’s not interested in me.
Well, if he’s not interested in you, then he doesn’t have good taste, I said cheekily, pulling her close to my side.
She giggled aloud this time. She waved goodbye to her tutor as he hastily gathered his stuff and left the room.
“Okay, now I’m confused! Which one do you want?” Chuckled Chasity. “Would you rather he was interested in me or not?”
I sighed theatrically.
“It’s not a big deal if a guy thinks you’re hot cause you are, obviously, but he shouldn’t bring it up cause you’re mine,” I said, growling the last word playfully and pulling Chasity into my lap suddenly.
She squealed and tried to wriggle away, but I tightened my arms around her. Eventually, she went limp in my arms and let out a dramatic sigh of surrender.
“I concede,” she announced. “I can’t escape you,” she said.
“You want to escape me?” I asked, just the slightest bit worried.
“Never,” she said honestly, looking me in the eyes.
My wolf and I could tell she meant it. I pulled her in for a ravenous kiss and she reciprocated my enthusiasm. I swept the map and books off the table, letting them tumble to the ground. I put her to sit on the table and stood between her legs, resuming our kiss. Chasity’s fingers worked their way through my hair down to the nape of my neck. Every point of contact between us made my nerve endings fire. My wolf growled playfully in the back of my mind, showing me images of what he had in mind. I was only a horn-dog because I had a literal Alpha wolf in my mind, trying to direct my steps. There were many things we disagreed on, but Chasity was not one of them. We were both hopelessly enamoured with her and happy to snatch a moment alone with her. I lifted her off the table and held her bridal-style without breaking our kiss. I moved from the conference room to my room at wolf-speed. By the time the door slammed behind us, we had already hit the sheets.
