The Wrong Roux Brother Slipped Into Me

MATE

CHAPTER SIX.

MINA’S POINT OF VIEW.

I pushed the closet door open with my shoulder, the silk sheet clutched to my chest like it could save my dignity. Declan stood with his back against the bedroom door, one hand still wrapped around the handle as if he expected his brother to try again. His shirt hung open over his chest; the towel sat low on his hips.

And in his other fist, he was holding my panties.

“I never said that out loud,” I said

“You were thinking very loudly.”

“I was in a closet.” I had no wolf, so I couldn’t access the pack’s mind link. No one could hear me, and I couldn’t hear anyone else. I didn’t say that aloud, right?

“You were in my closet, Mina.” His grey eyes moved over my face. “Your thoughts weren’t so quiet.”

I opened my mouth, then shut it. There was no answer to that; there was only the fact that he had answered something I was sure I’d never said, and that I’d been too scared to ask how. Unless I did say it aloud….i don’t know, maybe I was too fixated on Elliot?

Declan followed my gaze down to his own fist. For half a second, he looked at the panties like he’d forgotten they were there. Then, without a flicker of embarrassment, he crossed to the dresser, laid them in a drawer, and shut it.

“T-those are mine,” I said, mustering as much courage as I could.

“They’re in my drawer.”

“That doesn’t make them yours!”

“Doesn’t it?” The corners of his mouth twitched. “I mean, I did take them off with my teeth a couple hours ago.” My cheeks burned hot, tearing my eyes from his. “I sucked, bit, nipped on every part of your pretty, pink cunt, Mina. I think we can say they’re mine now.”

I gulped, heart pounding against my ribs, my fist clenching around the silk sheets I held against my chest. I needed to change the subject. “Why did you lie to Elliot?”

“About what?”

‘The growl…you heard it too. You were there.”

“I was.” He turned to face me fully. “And whatever is inside you belongs to you, Mina. Elliot doesn’t get to ask or know about it, not unless you’re ready to share it.”

Whatever is inside you…The word slid down my spine like a cold claw. Twenty years of being told there was nothing there, no wolf in me, and he said it like it wasn’t true.

Like I wasn’t a wolfless freak.

I didn’t know what to do with that, so I did what I always did when something kind scared me. I looked for the trap. “You don’t have to do this, you know?”

“Do what?”

“Be nice.” My voice shook. “I know how this works. You’re charming, you let a girl lower her guard, and then, the second she’s unsuspecting, you tear through like the wolf you are. Your brother even said it too, some poor, stupid omega. I’m not stupid, Alpha.”

His entire body went still. “Don’t call me that.”

“What?”

‘Alpha.” Something flickered in his eyes, quick and hurt as I’d slapped him.

“You had no issue with it hours ago.”

“That was when I was c**k deep inside you; not now. Call me alpha then; it excites me. B never outside that. I’m not Elliot, Mina. I don’t lure.” I looked away for a second, nodding slowly before I whispered. “Then what was that before he knocked. Every night, anywhere you wanted? That was what you offered, that was the offer.”

“Forget it.”

My heart dropped. I was right, he doesn’t want me, not really. “F-forget it?”

“I said it wrong, Mina.” He took a step forward, then stopped, as though he had to force himself to stay at a distance. ‘I was holding you, and you were warm. I said the wrong thing. I don’t want you in my bed because my brother broke your heart; I don’t want a girl for one night.”

“Then what do you want, Declan?”

His eyes held mine. At the edges, their grey was turning bright gold. “I want you as my luna.”

A laugh tore through my throat before I could stop it. it wasn’t a kind one; it cracked in the middle, and I knew the exact moment he heard how it sounded, because his jaw locked.

“Mina…”

“Wolfless girls can't be Lunas,” I said gently, as if he were the one who needed protecting. ‘It’s in the elders’ laws. The council would never…” I trailed off with another humorless chuckle. “If you want to get me back in your bed, you have to try something else.”

“The council…” He folded his arms with a humorless chuckle of his own.

“They’d never allow it!”

“The rules.” He said it through gritted teeth, his face scrunched up as if they left a bitter taste in his mouth. “You and your rules.”

“They’re real, Declan. We both know it.”

He exhaled, stepping away from the door. He stalked my way, his thumb holding my chin so I had to maintain eye contact. “Is that the only reason?”

“No.” I looked down. “Look, I did like last night…it…” I stopped, my cheeks must be bright red by now. “I just think you feel sorry for me.

And I think if I say yes, you'll get tired eventually, and I’ll have fallen for you by then. And then…you’ll..” I stopped. I hadn't meant to say the last part. I’d only meant to think it and keep it in a tiny, shameful locked box in my head. Declan didn’t break eye contact.

Slowly, his left hand burrowed into my thick, blonde hair while his right hand lifted my jaw. sparks; they hit my skin like little jolts of electricity, stopping right at my core.

A sigh escaped my lips from the back of my throat, my body lax against his. he made me feel so….I couldn’t understand it.

I wanted him; f**k, I did.

However, the reason I found my way into that bed was because of his younger brother, and my stupid heart for him. If Declan breaks my heart as well, I don’t think I’ll be able to survive that.”

“I won't.” He whispered suddenly. My eyes widened to meet his golden, red ones.

“W-what?”

‘I won't break your heart, Mina.” How did he hear that? Did I say that out loud again? “One chance, that’s all I ask. Anytime you want to leave, you may. I will not stop you.”

Looking at him, it would be cruel to pretend I didn’t see the honesty in his irises. I wanted to say yes, I wanted to say f**k it, and let him show me everything. I wanted to hurt Elliot with that thought; the girl whose heart he tore apart was now in his brother’s bed.

It was a delicious offer.

Like the devil himself placed it before me. And f**k, I wanted it. I opened my mouth to say something when something buzzed on the nightstand. Declan didn’t look at it right away, but he had to when it buzzed three more times. His whole body changed the second he lit the screen.

His jaw set tight before I saw the Alpha slip back into place. “Aunt.” He muttered, reading the screen after he dialled a number. “The elders arrived early.” He disappeared into the bathroom and came out dressed in under a minute. Black jacket, dark trousers, the storm back in his eyes.

He pointed at the chair. My skirt lay folded on it, along with one of his black shirts.

“Wear that. Eat, sleep. I’ll be back by noon.”

I nodded, watching him head for the door. He paused with his hand on the door handle. “Mina.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t run.”

I didn’t answer. It was not a lie if I said nothing.

..

I ran.

It wasn’t because I didn’t want to stay. That was the worst part; I ran because I did, because I’d been wanted for exactly eight hours and had no idea what to do with a feeling that big. I put on his shirt, tucked it into my skirt, and slipped out through the back stairs and the garden. The mansion shrank behind me. I kept my head down, wrapped my arms around myself to keep the cold air creeping up my bare legs as far away as possible.

On my way back to my hut outside pack lands, I heard something. At first I thought it was the wind, until I heard audible words along with it.

“..did you see the beta;s face this morning? He looked like someone knocked the air out of his lungs. Training was especially brutal on him earlier.”

I froze, the sound of a boy’s laughter clearer than that of rushing waters. The dorms were at least half a mile behind me. Yet, I could see the grey roof through the trees, tiny as a coin. Nobody could hear that far.

Not even real wolves.

“... I heard the alpha took someone to his home last night.”

“Bullshit! The alpha’s never brought anyone home, Marcy. Not even once…”

I clapped my hands over my ears, but it didn’t help. I broke into a run, the trees whipping past my ears but it didn’t stop. I could hear them, their voices, the flap of the wings of the birds overhead, a squirrel’s claws scratching bark, the stream beyond the border stones rushing like it ran inside my skull.

I didn’t stop until I pushed open the wooden door to my hut. I jumped into the shower, releasing a desperate sigh when the hot water blasted my senses. The voices had stopped, finally.

What was that?

My lungs burned as I breathed; trying to not think about how I ended up here so quickly. It would have taken me at least an hour to get off the pack and walk the only safe route to my hut, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I arrived here too soon.

Sooner than ever.

The hut sat just outside the border stones, where the pack had allowed the wolfless to live. My grandmother before she died, purchased the land, and hired someone to build something for me. It was close enough to have proximity to the Roux pack, but far enough to be forgotten because of who lived in it

It had one room, one window, one bed, and a shower that ran cold for two full minutes before It warmed. I stepped further under the shower, releasing a sigh when the water dampened my hair. Bracing my hands against the tiles, I winced at the sound.

Every drop of water was too loud.

I could hear it strike the floor, gurgle down the drain. I could hear my own blood pumping, a steady roar in my ears. I scrubbed my skin until It was red, yet I still smelled like him.

Warm vanilla, coconut, and something darker underneath that tightened my stomach in a way I had no words for.

“Okay,” I whispered. “Just breathe, Mina.”

I fluttered my eyes shut, trying to take slow, deep breaths when I heard it. just underneath the sound of water, the pipes, under my own pulse, there was another heartbeat.

It was far away; very far away, but it was clear, steady, strong, and I felt it in my ribs. I counted the beats without meaning to. One, two, three. It was fast, too fast for a man sitting in a room full of elders. It beat like someone who had been running, or someone trying very hard not to.

I pressed a hand to my chest; my own heart was racing too. Of course it was; I’d just survived the worst and best twenty-four hours of my life. But it wasn’t just the speed.

I held my breath, and listened, and my hand dropped slowly from my chest, because the two heartbeats weren’t just fast. They were the same. Every beat of mine landed right on top of his, like two people walking perfectly in step.

Thump-thump.

I didn’t have to ask whose it was. I knew it the way I knew my own name.

Declan.

Last night, pressed against his chest, I’d noticed how slow his heart was, strangely slow. Now it galloped across the miles between us, and I couldn’t make it stop. I couldn’t make mine stop either.

“This isn’t possible,” I said out loud, over the sound of the shower. “I don’t have a wolf.”

From somewhere behind my ribs, in a place I’d been told my whole life was empty, something stirred. At first, it was slow and warm, like an animal waking from a very long sleep. The voice that followed wasn't mine; it wasn’t anything I’d heard before.

And it spoke a single word.

Mate.