Undercover Mate For The Alpha Twins

Chaos Unleashed

_Kaelith’s POV_

I stood there like a deer caught in headlights, staring at two gorgeous men who were staring back at me like I’d just announced the world was ending.

Which, honestly, maybe I had.

The scarred one, Cyric, my brain supplied helpfully, thanks to Eryx, looked like he wanted to set me on fire with his eyes alone. His jaw was clenched so tight I was worried his teeth might crack.

The tattooed one, Lyric, just looked… amused? Like he was watching the most entertaining disaster of his life unfold in real time.

And me? I was having a full-blown panic attack while trying to figure out how the hell I was supposed to handle having TWO mates.

TWO.

As in, more than one.

As in, the Moon Goddess had clearly been drinking when she made this decision.

“This is impossible,” Cyric snarled, taking a step back like I was diseased. “The Moon Goddess doesn’t make mistakes like this.

I opened my mouth to speak, maybe to explain or apologize, but Lyric beat me to it.

“Actually,” he said, tilting his head and studying me with those sharp eyes, “I think there might be more to this than—”

“No.” Cyric’s voice cut through the air like a blade. “Absolutely not. I refuse to accept this… this joke.”

My chest tightened painfully at his words. Eira whimpered in my head, and I could feel her hurt mixing with my own panic.

“Tell them the truth,” she urged. “Tell them who we really are.”

But I couldn’t. Not here or now. Not when I was dressed like a man and covered in sawdust and probably smelled like paint and sweat.

“I…” I started, my voice cracking. Great. Even my fake man-voice was betraying me now. “I need to go.”

I turned to run, but Cyric’s voice stopped me cold.

“Don’t you dare move.”

The Alpha command in his tone made my knees want to buckle, but I forced myself to stay upright. I wasn’t going to submit. Not to him. Not when he was looking at me like I was something disgusting he’d scraped off his shoe.

I turned back around slowly, chin raised despite the terror clawing at my insides.

“You don’t get to order me around,” I said, my voice shaking. “I don’t care if you’re an Alpha.”

Lyric’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, this just got interesting.”

Cyric looked like I’d slapped him. “What did you just say to me?”

“You heard me.” I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to look braver than I felt. “I said what I said.”

The silence that followed was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Both twins stared at me like I’d grown a second head.

Then Cyric laughed. But it wasn’t a happy laugh. It was cold and harsh and made my skin crawl.

“Unbelievable,” he said. “Not only does the Moon Goddess saddle us with a male mate, but she gives us an unruly one. What’s next? Is he going to challenge us to a duel?”

“Don’t tempt me,” I muttered before I could stop myself. Eryx would kill me. So much for staying away from the Alphas.

Lyric actually grinned at that. “I like him.”

“You would,” Cyric snapped. “You’ve always had terrible taste.”

That hurt. It hurt more than it should have, considering I’d known this man for all of three days. But the mate bond was already weaving itself around my heart, making his rejection feel like physical pain.

Eira was practically howling in my head now, begging me to shift, to show them who we really were. But I couldn’t. If I shifted now, if they saw the truth, everything would change. They might lock me up in a dungeon or worse, behead me.

And I wasn’t ready for that kind of change.

“Look,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady, “I didn’t ask for this either, okay? You think I wanted to find my mate while I’m dressed like…” I gestured at my paint-stained clothes. “Like this?”

“Then what do you suggest we do about it?” Cyric asked coldly.

I took a deep breath. “Nothing. We do nothing. I finish my job, I get paid, and I leave. Simple as that.”

Both twins stared at me like I’d announced I planned to sprout wings and fly to the moon.

“You want to… ignore the mate bond?” Lyric asked slowly.

“Why not?” I shrugged, trying to look casual even though my heart was racing. “It’s not like it’s going anywhere. And it’s not like either of you actually wants me.”

“That’s not….” Lyric started, but Cyric cut him off.

“Fine,” he said sharply. “If that’s what you want, then that’s what we’ll do. I formally reject—”

“NO!” The word tore out of my throat before I could stop it.

Both twins froze.

I could feel my face burning with embarrassment. Way to play it cool, Kaelith.

“I mean,” I said, scrambling to recover, “you can’t just… reject someone like that. Especially someone that just got their wolf.”

Cyric’s eyes narrowed. “How old are you?”

Crap.

“Twenty….” I replied, feeling heat crawl up my face. “I….” I floundered, my brain refusing to cooperate. “It’s rude and wicked and heartless to reject a person who just got their wolf.”

Lyric snorted. “So you’re saying, you just got your wolf today?”

“Yes,” I said, getting more flustered by the second. “You can’t just reject me, the rejection would kill my wolf or worse, kill me too. And not to talk of the two of you doing it once.”

“So?” Cyric prompted.

My eyes widened. Did he just?….

“Do we look like we care about your life?” He added, a disgusted look on his face.

Another silence fell over us. This one was somehow worse than the last. It stung, but I would be damned if I let this bastard’s words get to me. Mate or not.

“I don’t give a f**k about you two, but I sure as hell love my life. Don’t you dare reject me.” The last part came out unexpectedly and Eira gasped. Was I growing balls now? Where did that confidence come from?

Lyric started laughing. Not the mean laugh Cyric had done earlier, but genuine, surprised laughter. He was actually laughing.

“Oh, you’re serious,” he said, wiping tears from his eyes. “You actually dared to speak to us like that?”

“Don’t laugh at me, I dare to do a lot of things.” I snapped, my temper finally getting the better of me. “I’ve been working my ass off for two days straight, and I’m not about to let some uptight Alpha with a stick up his butt ruin everything just because he’s having a crisis about his sexuality!”

The words hung in the air like a bomb waiting to explode.

Cyric’s face went through about fifteen different expressions in the span of two seconds. Shock, outrage, confusion, and something that might have been embarrassment.

“My sexuality is not in question,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Could’ve fooled me,” I shot back. “The way you’re freaking out about having a male mate suggests otherwise.”

“I am not freaking out!”

“Right. And I’m the Queen of this pack.”

Lyric was still laughing, leaning against the wall like he was watching the best show of his life.

“Will you stop laughing?” Cyric barked at his brother.

“Not a chance,” Lyric grinned. “This is the most entertainment I’ve had in years.”

I looked between the two of them and realized I was in way over my head. These weren’t just any werewolves. These were Alphas. Twin Alphas. And I was standing here arguing with them like they were regular people.

Like they were equals.

Which they definitely weren’t.

The smart thing to do would be to apologize, bow my head, and get the hell out of there before things got worse.

But I’d never been particularly smart.

“Look,” I said, trying to inject some reason into the situation, “can we all just… take a step back here? This is clearly a weird situation for everyone involved. Maybe we should sleep on it before making any big decisions.”

“Sleep on it?” Cyric repeated.

“Yeah. You know, let it percolate. Sleep is good for processing complex emotions and….”

“Did you just tell us to sleep on our mate bond?” Lyric asked, still grinning.

“I told you to sleep on your reaction to it,” I corrected. “There’s a difference.”

Cyric rubbed his temples like he was getting a headache. “This is insane.”

“Tell me about it,” I muttered.

“You know what?” Cyric said suddenly, dropping his hands and fixing me with a stare that could have melted steel. “Fine. You don’t want to die, right? Then I’ll leave you to finish up with the renovation, get your money and leave. But once the work is done, you’ll have to reject us. One month is enough to strengthen your wolf.”

I blinked. “Really?”

“One month,” he continued. “You have one month to wrap things up, reject us and leave. The other way round wouldn't hurt.”

“And if I don’t?” I teased, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.

“Then we’ll reject you, and you leave the territory. Forever. I don’t care what happens to you later on.”

Mean. The finality in his voice made my stomach drop. At least I would get my pay. That’s the most important thing.

I sighed and lifted my chin.

“Deal,” I said.

“Deal,” he agreed.

We stared at each other for a long moment, the challenge hanging between us like a gauntlet thrown down.

Then Lyric cleared his throat.

“Well,” he said cheerfully, “this should be fun.”

I had a feeling his definition of fun and mine were very different things.

But I’d made my bed, and now I had to lie in it.

One month to become stronger, finish the work I came to do, get my money and disappear after rejecting them.

While dressed as a man.

While trying not to fall for two gorgeous, infuriating Alphas who probably wouldn’t want me even if they knew the truth.

“And you,” Cyric snapped his fingers in my face. “Not a word to anyone. If this gets out, I'll kill you. Understood?”

Yeah.

This was definitely not going to end well.