One Mate Was Never Enough

Dinner With The Brothers

POV: Chloe

Dinner was a beautiful kind of torture. The dining room was everything the rest of the manor was. Vast, elegant, and suffocating. Candlelight caught the edges of crystal glassware and threw warm gold across the long table, and somewhere between the soup course and the main, I lost the ability to think clearly because Tristan wouldn’t stop looking at me.

He sat directly across from us, unhurried and perfectly composed, one hand resting loosely around his wine glass while the other turned a fork slowly between his fingers. He wasn’t staring obviously, it was worse than that.

It was the kind of looking that happened in the spaces between conversations, quick and precise and devastating, like he was cataloguing every breath I took and filing it away somewhere I’d never have access to. Ethan was talking about his graduation plans. I caught perhaps every third word.

“Babe, you’re quiet tonight,” Ethan said softly, bumping his shoulder against mine.

“Sorry, just tired.” Another lie added to the growing pile. He smiled and reached over, spearing a piece of food from my plate and lifting it toward my mouth with effortless affection.

“Here, you barely touched your food.” He said. I opened my mouth automatically, and something shifted across the table.

“Have you two slept together yet?” Tristan’s voice was calm, conversational. Like he’d asked about the weather.

I choked...

Not metaphorically. The wine I’d just sipped went the wrong direction entirely and I pressed my fingers to my mouth, coughing hard enough that Ethan immediately turned to me with wide eyes, his hand landing warm and concerned between my shoulder blades.

“Chloe? Hey, hey...” he called out desperately. Across the table, Tristan watched without expression. Only his eyes moved, dark and deliberate, tracking my reaction with the focus of someone who had aimed carefully and was now observing the damage.

Ethan, bless him, had gone slightly pink. He scratched the back of his neck with a sheepish grin that was somehow both embarrassed and proud, and the combination made the whole thing infinitely worse.

“Tris, you can’t just...” he started.

“I’m fine,” I said too quickly, pushing back from the table. My voice came out surprisingly steady considering my entire chest was on fire.

“Excuse me. Just need a moment.” I said. I didn’t wait for a response. The corridor outside the dining room was cooler, and I followed it blindly until I found the restroom, stepped inside, and locked the door behind me. Then I stood with my back against the wood and pressed both palms flat against it and tried to remember how breathing worked.

“Get it together,” I told myself.

“He’s just a man. He’s just...” the door handle moved. I spun around.

“Occupied...”

“I know.” Tristan’s voice came through the wood, low and even. Then somehow, impossibly, the locked door opened, and he stepped inside, closed it behind him, and turned to face me in the narrow space. I felt like a trapped rabbit, the restroom suddenly felt the size of a cupboard.

“How did you...” I started.

“It’s my house, Chloe.” He said it quietly, like that explained everything. Maybe it did. He didn’t move toward me immediately. He stood with his back against the door and looked at me the way he hadn’t allowed himself to downstairs.

Without the careful, composed mask, without the performance of indifference. Something raw had broken through the surface of him, and the sight of it made my heart seize.

“Why Ethan?” he asked. The question was soft. That made it worse.

“Tristan...”

“Was it intentional?” his jaw tightened.

“Did you know he was my brother when you met him, did you come here on purpose, or did you genuinely not care enough to ever find out anything about the life I was living after you left?” he asked Painfully. Each question landed like something thrown hard.

“I didn’t know,” I whispered.

“I swear I didn’t know until tonight.” I said. Something moved behind his eyes. Not relief, It was more complicated and more painful than relief.

“Seven years,” he said. His voice dropped further, rough at the edges now in a way it hadn’t been downstairs.

“I searched for you for two years straight, Chloe. Two years. And then I had to teach myself to stop because it was killing me.” He took one step forward.

“And you walked in tonight on my brother’s arm like it was nothing.”

“It wasn’t nothing.” my voice cracked.

“None of this is nothing to me.” I responded.

“Then why did you leave?” he asked me. I couldn’t answer. The reason I’d left was the same reason I couldn’t answer him now. Some truths were load-bearing walls. Remove them and everything collapsed.

He moved closer, and I stepped back until the counter pressed into my spine. He stopped in front of me, close enough that the familiar scent of cedarwood and smoke wrapped around me like something I hadn’t realized I’d been suffocating without.

Then his eyes dropped to my neck and suddenly, everything changed. I watched it happen in real time, the careful rawness on his face dissolved into something older and darker and far more dangerous. His breathing changed, the muscle in his jaw locked. His eyes fixed on Ethan’s mark on my neck and simply stopped moving.

“Tristan...” I called as he lowered his head and pressed his mouth to my neck. A low growl vibrated deep inside his chest. The sound wasn’t human anymore, my breath caught in fear.

“Tristan…”

“That little bastard marked you!” The words came out distorted, dangerously inhuman. Before I could react, Tristan grabbed my waist and yanked me violently against his chest. Then his mouth crashed against my neck. I gasped sharply as his teeth scraped over Ethan’s mark before sharper fangs suddenly pierced my skin slightly.

Pain mixed instantly with something hot and dizzying. He bit down with a precision that sent electricity crackling from the point of contact all the way down my spine.

I felt something move through me that had no rational explanation, a warmth that spread outward from where his mouth was, sinking under my skin like ink into paper. I grabbed his shoulder instinctively, fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt.

The mate bond ignited like a struck match. That invisible hand clenched around my heart again, the same sensation from the entrance hall, but deeper this time and far less ignorable. My knees betrayed me slightly, his hand caught my waist before I could register that I was falling. And then...

A strange warmth spread beneath my skin where he bit me, making my knees weaken. My fingers instinctively grabbed his shirt. Tristan groaned softly against my throat like he completely lost control. The air around us thickened with his scent, cedarwood, smoke, rain, and something overwhelmingly wild.

Mine...

The word echoed inside my head suddenly, not in my own voice, his.

Then...

Knocking exploded against the restroom door.

“Chloe?” Ethan’s voice called. Panic slammed through me instantly. I shoved weakly against Tristan’s chest.

“Stop... Ethan’s outside.” I told him, but he barely moved. Instead, his hand tightened possessively around my waist while his lips brushed dangerously close to the bite he just left on my neck.

“Chloe?” Ethan knocked harder.

“Are you okay?” he asked

“I…” My voice came out breathless. Tristan’s thumb slowly stroked my waist beneath the fabric of my dress, making my thoughts blur completely.

“You smell like me now,” he whispered darkly against my skin. Another knock shook the door.

“Baby?

Why is the door locked?” he questions me. Fear exploded inside me.

“Tristan,” I whispered desperately,

“please.” but he only stared at me with those terrifying possessive eyes, completely unmoved. Outside, Ethan’s voice grew more anxious.

“Chloe, open the door.” When I didn’t answer immediately, his tone sharpened.

“I’m serious. If something’s wrong, I’m breaking this door down.” He threatened. That finally snapped me back to reality, panic surged violently through my chest. I pushed harder against Tristan this time.

“Please stop.” I said. For a moment, neither of us moved. Then slowly, painfully slowly, Tristan stepped back. But the look in his eyes promised this wasn’t over, not even close. I forced myself to steady my breathing before calling shakily toward the door,

“I-I’m okay, Ethy. I just got dizzy for a second.” I lied. There was silence from his end, then he sighed in relief.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” I responded fast.

“You scared me.” He confessed. Guilt stabbed through my chest.

“I’m sorry.” I said, then he paused again, thinking I guess.

“Okay. I’ll wait outside.” He agrees, and then his footsteps retreated slightly. The second they did, I turned furiously toward Tristan.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I demanded. His expression remained cold again, but I noticed the faint traces of wolf shift still lingering in his eyes.

“You belong to me,” he said quietly. My heart slammed painfully against my ribs.

“No, I don’t.” I responded. A dangerous smile touched his lips.

“We’ll see.” He smirked and walks out, letting me come out on my own when I’m ready. Thunder crashed violently outside again, shaking the manor windows as I walked back to sit at the dining. A servant suddenly rushed down the hallway nearby, speaking urgently to someone downstairs about a mountain road collapse from the storm. My stomach dropped.

“No...” I almost cried out. Several minutes later, Ethan rejoined us looking frustrated.

“The storm’s gotten worse,” he explained.

“The road down the mountain is flooded already.” I immediately shook my head.

“We can still leave.” I said to Ethan.

“You can’t,” Tristan said calmly before Ethan could respond. I looked at him sharply. That faint cold smile remained on his face.

“The mountain roads are sealed tonight.” He said firmly. Every instinct inside me screamed danger.

“I’ll book a hotel nearby,” I argued quickly.

“There are no nearby hotels,” Tristan replied smoothly. Ethan rubbed the back of his neck apologetically.

“Baby… maybe we should just stay the night.” He said.

“No.” I let out. The refusal escaped too quickly and both brothers looked at me. Ethan appeared confused while Tristan looked amused. I forced myself to calm down.

“I just… don’t want to inconvenience anyone.”

“You won’t,” Ethan assured gently. Then Tristan spoke again, low enough that only I could hear.

“Stay willingly,” he murmured, “or I tell Ethan exactly how we know each other.” He threatened. Ice flooded my veins instantly, I stared at him in horror.

That monster...

He held my gaze calmly while Ethan remained completely unaware beside us. I had no escape left, none at all. And Tristan knew it.