Accepting My Twin Mates

Chapter 74

Accepting My Twin Mates Chapter 74

Chapter 71 – Who Can Say No To Free Tea?

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JUST TO GIVE A WARNING: WHILE NOTHING IS DISCUSSED IN ANY GRAPHIC DETAIL, THERE MAY BE A SMALL PART OF THIS CHAPTER THAT SOME READERS COULD FIND TRIGGERING.

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Evgeniya

I was doing this for my mates.

These were the words that played on repeat as my personal mantra, even though I wanted to be a petty b***h and tell Luna Qamar to shove it, along with her tea.

‘Just don’t tell her to f**k off again and you’re golden,’ Evva sniggered, despite the fact she desperately wanted to.

‘As long as this tea thing isn’t a ruse to get me to reject the twins, I won’t.’

When Badru told me their mother wanted to spend time with me and ‘bond’, I almost thought he had been a nugget again and misunderstood sarcasm. That was until Astennu confirmed it and I plain wanted to believe he was just drunk. Both excuses sounded more plausible than their mother wanting to be pleasant towards me.

But, I needed to learn to bury hatchets and be amiable to those I didn’t want to. If I were to be the future Luna, there would be times I would have to plaster on a fake and cordial smile around those I would prefer to claw instead. I couldn’t risk a fight between packs, all because I couldn’t hold my tongue. And I could both see and feel what this discord with my mates’ parents was doing to Astennu and Badru. A home they grew up in now felt the furthest thing from it and, while it was inane of me to think so, I couldn’t help the pang of guilt that it was all down to me.

I wasn’t the only one doing things they didn’t want to. The twins had to lead training with their father this morning. Beta Kate was still on her leave of absence for her health. Being pregnant and dealing with the turmoil her son had left behind were taking a heavy toll on her. Leading any form of training was at the bottom of her long list of worries.

Letting go of the warmth of my mates’ hands was more difficult than I realised it was going to be. The security it provided ebbed away, giving rise to the unsettled feeling gnawing in the pit of my stomach. I had forgone breakfast this morning with the nervous stomach ache swirling around my lower abdomen.

“We’re good to meet tonight?” I upturned my eyes, meeting their midnight irises. “You don’t have any late-night patrols to do?”

“Not unless our dad’s still in a pissy mood,” Badru grumbled.

“He’ll come around,” Astennu’s brows creased in a furrowed frown. By his tone, it was evident he was hesitant to believe his own words of encouragement.

“Well,” I sucked in my lips and pressed them tightly together, set on what I wanted. “However it goes for all of us today, tonight… there’s something I want to give each of you.”

“A present?” Badru tilted his head like a pup, delightfully innocent. His twin, at least, was a little more clued in, his face morphing to an expression of raw want.

“Yeah, a present,” I shook my head, my shoulders shuddering with my held-in laughter. “One that will look very nice, right there,” I pointed to the curve of his neck where his nutmeg and cinnamon scent drew me.

Finally, with a more direct hint, the realisation dawned. He spun me around, clear off of my feet, causing my knitted dress to flare. His lips crashed to mine, sucking the breath from my lungs. Astennu quickly snatched me from his brother’s arms, kissing down my neck. His canines extended, the sharp point nicking my flesh.

“Aste!” I shrieked, pushing him back as hard as I could, though I wasn’t strong enough to escape completely. “Not here, you i***t!”

‘That would have been a fun explanation to hand to their mother,’ Evva almost wheezed. ‘Sorry we’re late. Told your baby boys we wanted to mark and they jumped our bones.’

“You can’t ever call me the impulsive one again, after that,” Badru elbowed his brother good-naturedly.

“Sorry,” Astennu flushed crimson, averting his embarrassed gaze to my hand and dusting my open palm with kisses. “Are you definitely sure?”

“I’m sure that I’m never telling either of you anything like this again when we’re outside… but yeah,” I nodded. “I’m more than sure.”

They pulled away reluctantly and I watched them disappear into the training centre, sparing me one final forlorn look.

I traipsed my way along the wooded path, leading back into town. Luna Qamar had invited me to one of her favourite spots, a cafe called Amarin tearoom, meaning ‘Two Moons’ in Egyptian Arabic. We would be out of the pack house and on neutral ground.

When I said I would’ve rather had a private tea party with the Luna than talk to my father about my heat, it was not my way of telling fate to ‘come at me, bro’.

‘You could have tempted fate in worse ways,’ Evva piped up. ‘Like saying you’d rather birth a litter of six pups in one go.’

‘Thank you for disturbing me beyond measure right before meeting my biggest fan,’ and all my wolf did was offer me a sarcastic salute. I think I preferred her when she was simply a shapeless figure in the back of my mind.

The cafe was situated on the edge of town, one of the first establishments that you would come across wandering down from the pack house. In summer, the balcony windows would be crawling with honeysuckle and wisteria, but being winter, they died back for the season.

Inside, the theme was modern mixed with rustic, in a deep blue colour. Small lights hung from the ceiling to look like little moons, giving the place a soft glow and an intimate atmosphere. The mixed scents of teas, cakes and cookies roused my stomach awake and I prayed it wouldn’t announce itself in front of Qamar.

Only a couple of patrons were seated downstairs, one holding their hand up for their check. A human waitress greeted me at the door, not needing my name or who I was meeting, and guided me to the upstairs level.

There, at a circular table by the balcony doors and silhouetted by the morning sun rising over the forest backdrop, looking the picture of elegance, sat Luna Qamar. With a graceful leg crossed over her other, she was dressed in a ruby-red blouse with gold buttons and a fitted black suede skirt. I was now glad I had made the effort with my attire.

She greeted me with a reserved smile, her hands bunched on her lap, making me wonder if she was as tense as I was.

‘You keep your mouth shut through all of this, wolf,’ I warned, cutting Evva off before she could make any comment. ‘I mean it. Go wave your ass around for Aasim and Baniti through your link.’

“Evie. I’m glad you agreed to come.”

I could feel my wolf’s sarcasm bubbling up, desperately wanting to pop. But to my surprise, she remained quiet, swallowing her quips for later, no doubt.

“Sure,” I slid off my coat, hanging it on the back of my chair opposite. “Who can say no to free tea?”

Oh, why did I have to say it like that?

‘You dare call me a muffin!’ I snapped at my wolf, her snickering echoing in my ears.

“Yes… quite,” the Luna’s eyebrow ticked.

This was a new record for me: inserting foot into mouth within ten seconds.

I nervously straightened out the wrinkles in my silver diamond-knit dress, pulling at the funnel neckline. On other women, it would have fallen below the knee, but on me, it ended mid-thigh and fitted as an empire line. My thick black tights kept my outfit on the classier side rather than revealing. I had refrained from wearing my locket on purpose. While my mates were hopeful that my strange date with their mother would go fine, I wanted to be ready to shift, just in case.

“I mean, I like tea and any excuse to drink it.”

An awkward chuckle blurted from my throat as I sat and I seriously considered nose-diving into the snow outside to escape. Evva’s silent observations of my blundering were by far worse than any derisive comment she could make.

“I must admit, you always did prepare excellent tea without fail,” the Luna attempted to make eye contact, swiping her hand over an invisible crinkle in her skirt.

The twins shared many of her features; her high cheekbones, her glossy pitch-black hair and deep golden skin, right down to her full lips. Their sapphire eyes were entirely from Alpha Isaac; a long- standing family trait, it seemed, given the ancient portrait of their ancestor, Alpha Emmerich, that hung in their office.

“Uh, thanks,” I accepted the compliment, sheepishly.

She nodded, relaxing ever so slightly. “Far better than Isaac. He’s a little gormless when it comes to it, no matter how many times I show him. I caught him once making it in the microwave,” she shuddered. “Needless to say, he was banned from making me tea ever again.”

My laugh this time was genuine, imagining the large Alpha being torn a new one by his slip of a Luna. Qamar was no short she-wolf, but by comparison to the giant Alpha and her incredibly strapping sons, even I felt diminutive in my stature.

I heard footsteps ascending the stairs, the same waitress from before, walking over to us with her handheld device to take our order. The Luna indicated for me to go first.

“A pot of Earl Grey, please, with honey and the apple and gooseberry shortcake.”

I sort of liked the blend, but I knew it was the Luna’s favourite and I hoped it would help smooth the way from the awkward shit-trail I left so far.

“The same,” Luna Qamar smiled graciously. “But with a large scone and clotted cream, thank you.”

“Ok,” the young waitress tapped in our order. “There’ll be a few minutes’ wait, the scones are still cooling and I’m kinda the only one in today. Luckily, it’s real quiet.”

“Oh, that’s fine, dear. We’re in no hurry,” the Luna spared me a consoling look. “A few minutes may be required.”

A tense silence filled the air between us, neither of us knowing how to make the first move.

“Why do you hate me so much?”

There was no point in mincing words or dancing around the subject. So, I was direct.

“You certainly do like to come straight to the point,” she cleared her throat. “And I don’t hate you…”

“Your first knee-jerk reaction when you found out about me and your sons was to demand they reject me.”

“It was a surprise. And it wasn’t exactly unveiled privately… I didn’t handle the situation in the best way I could.”

“That’s for damn sure,” I muttered dryly. “Can I ask, mainly because it’s always played on my mind. Why did you pay for my piano lessons? You might say you don’t hate me, but you certainly don’t like me. So why did you spend money on me like that?”

“You showed promise. Even I could see that much,” she answered simply but honestly. “And it’s an excellent attribute for a young she-wolf to have, especially for attracting a mate.

“You paid for my lessons so that I could bag a mate?” In her eyes, it was probably so that I’d leave the pack, and quickly too. “Well, you weren’t wrong. Aste and Ru love my playing, but I take it they weren’t the intended target audience?”

I took a deep breath to bite back my resentfulness wanting to burst and overflow.

“You know, it was real shitty growing up in a pack like this,” the hurt seeped into my tone. “Being treated as a rogue, something I had no control over, and you did nothing to discourage any of the prejudice in the pack.”

“I didn’t and that was very wrong of me,” the Luna spoke forthrightly, disarming me with how she owned up immediately. “It’s hard to suppress old feelings… old fears. My pack in Egypt was only small but we flourished. The rogues that attacked us took more than just my home from me.”

Her hands absentmindedly stroked over her stomach, a tremble to her fingers and a sniffle in her voice.

“I was only 18 years old when it happened and I had barely shifted… I still have scars from the silver those monsters used on me. I honestly thought I would never conceive after the damage they did from…” her voice broke and she looked away, unable to say the word. “You have no idea how much that sort of fear marks you. My boys are my miracle… ones I never thought I would ever have.”

The Luna suddenly released a burst of bitter laughter. “Isaac’s mother often made comments about my inability to conceive. His father was no better. But my mate stood by me no matter what. He didn’t care if I couldn’t give him a pup… an heir. Thank the goddess, my boys never had to deal with either of them.”

‘Oh the f*****g irony!’ Evva broke her behaved silence. ‘The mother-in-law b***h show continues. We better not end up like that, too.’

‘Evva!’ I pushed her to the back of my mind where she was supposed to stay for the morning. ‘All true, but, what did I say? Now, zip it.’

Although, the Luna’s outburst that morning when my mates and I came down after the first time we mated made so much more sense now. She truly was offering me guidance, in her own way.

“Luna-”

“Qamar,” she interrupted. “Call me, Qamar.”

“Q-Qamar,” I repeated clumsily, having never addressed her by just her name before. “Do I look like a criminal? Or my father, does he look like one?”

“How would I know,” she answered in a small voice.

“He’s just like you, you know. His pack was destroyed. He lost his entire home and he had to navigate a world he had no understanding of, alone. He wasn’t a criminal, he just wanted his freedom with my mother… and me.”

“So he says…” she muttered, struggling to meet my eye.

“You have to stop this. You’re alienating people who are innocent for something that some rapist animals did. Not all rogues are bad people, just like not all pack are good people.”

The footsteps approached once more, this time accompanied by ceramic rattling.

“Here it is, sorry for the wait,” I was somewhat grateful for the interruption from the waitress returning. “Some jerk kid threw something at the window when I was trying to make your tea, so I hope I haven’t forgotten anything.”

The young woman stood back, scrunching her fingers and waiting for approval.

“Yes, we have everything. Thank you,” Luna Qamar politely dismissed the girl. “And if you catch the tearaway, you can send them directly to me.”

Our waitress hurried away downstairs, most likely to keep watch for the bored kid making a commotion.

I took the tea pot, placing the strainer over the Luna’s porcelain cup, and poured, the pungent bergamot aroma billowing with the steam. As I repeated the process with mine, she took one of the sugared curls of citrus peel in the bowl and stirred it in with her tea.

“You make a valid point,” Qamar quietly said, taking the top half of her scone and layering the jam and cream.

“I’m just spitting facts,” I took a forkful of my apple and gooseberry shortcake, melting into the taste. It was just as good as the one Lucy made, although I would never, ever, admit that out loud to her.

The cramp in my lower stomach was back and I mewled a tiny groan, steadying myself.

“My dear, are you quite alright?” She frowned in concern just as she brought her teacup to her lips.

“Yeah, it’s just a weird cramp I’ve had since this morning. I’ll be fine,” I drank down half my tea in a single gulp, hoping the comforting brew would take the edge off.

“If you’re sure…” she sipped her own tea, but her words took on a distant echoing ring.

The room swirled in a blur and I think I tried to stand, only for the parquet floor to quickly rise up and meet me. A crystal clear smash rang out, the one sound I could make out. Where was Evva? She was there but I couldn’t hear her.

‘I don’t feel r-’