Undercover Mate For The Alpha Twins

Meeting up

_Kaelith’s POV_

I sat on the edge of my bed, staring at the phone I’d bought earlier. My hands fidgeted as I scrolled through the contacts, looking for the number Beta Warren had finally given me after I’d practically begged him for an hour.

Eryx.

I sighed and hit call before I could chicken out.

It rang three times before his familiar voice answered. “Hello?”

“Eryx?”

“Kaelith? Holy s**t, is that really you?” His voice immediately perked up with excitement. “You finally got a phone! I was starting to think you’d decided to live like a hermit forever or something.”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Yeah, well, I figured it was time to join the twenty-first century.”

“About damn time. I was getting tired of having to send messages through Beta Warren like we’re living in the stone age.” He chuckled. “How are you? How’s the job going at the Blackthorn Packhouse? Hope you listened to what I said about staying away from the Alphas?”

My stomach did a little flip. Right. He was the one who’d gotten me this job in the first place. The irony wasn’t lost on me.

“Tell him,” Eira urged in my head. “He’s your best friend. He’ll understand.”

“Not over the phone,” I whispered back to her. “Actually,” I said out loud, trying to keep my voice casual, “that’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about. Can we meet up? I have some… developments to discuss.”

“Developments?” I could hear the curiosity building in his voice. “That sounds mysterious. Good developments or bad developments?”

“Complicated developments,” I said. “The kind that is better discussed in person with ice cream.”

Eryx laughed. “Ah, so we’re talking serious developments then. You only break out the ice cream idea for the really big stuff.”

“You know me too well.”

“That I do. What’s going on, Kae? You sound… I don’t know, wound up about something. Like you’re buzzing with nervous energy.”

I was buzzing with nervous energy. Finding out you have not one, but two mates will do that to a person.

“It’s just… a lot has happened,” I said. “And I really need my best friend’s advice.”

“Of course. How about we meet at Moonlight Diner on South Clay Road? You know, our old spot near your mother’s place? We can get our usual pizza and that ridiculous chocolate ice cream you love.”

Moonlight Diner. Just hearing the name made me feel a little better. It was this tiny little restaurant that stayed open late and Eryx and I used to go there all the time when we were teenagers. They had the best pizza in town and homemade ice cream that could fix any bad day.

“That sounds perfect,” I said. “When?”

“I can be there in an hour. Does that work?”

“Yes. Thank you, Eryx.”

“No problem.”After I hung up, I sat there for a few minutes, staring at the phone.

“You’re going to have to tell him eventually,” Eira said quietly in my head.

“Tell him what exactly? That his brilliant plan to get me a job ended up with me finding not one, but two mates? And that I’m pretending to be a man while they both seem to think I’m some kind of cosmic joke?”

“When you put it like that, it does sound pretty wild,” she admitted.

“Exactly. He’s going to think I’ve completely lost my mind.”

“Or he’s going to help you figure out what to do next. That’s what best friends are for, right?”

I rubbed my temples. “This is such a mess, Eira.”

“It doesn’t have to be. We could just tell them the truth. Shift right there in front of them and show them who we really are.”

“And then what? They reject us anyway and we die because I lied to them? Or worse, they get angry about the deception and do something terrible? Like locking me up and torturing me.”

“They might not reject us.”

“Did you see Cyric’s face today? He looked disgusted. Like I was something nasty he’d stepped in.”

“That was a shock. He wasn’t expecting a male mate. But if he knew we were female…”

“If he knew I was female, he’d probably be even more angry that I deceived him. And don’t even get me started on Lyric. I can’t read that guy at all.”

Eira went quiet for a moment. “Maybe. Or maybe they’d understand why you did it.”

I shook my head and stood up. “I need to focus on one crisis at a time. Right now, that means talking to Eryx.”

I grabbed my jacket and headed out.

I borrowed my colleague’s car since I happened to know how to drive. The drive to Moonlight Diner didn’t take long, but as I got closer to my neighborhood, my stomach started twisting into knots. I hadn’t been back here since I’d left. Hadn’t seen my mother.

As I pulled into the parking lot of the diner, I could see Sable’s house just down the street. The little blue house with the white shutters that I’d grown up in.

“You should get more clothes if that's your house.” Eira pointed out. “What you have is getting pretty gross after working construction for days.”

Before I could chicken out, I made a decision. I’d just pop in, grab some stuff, and get out. Quick and easy.

I drove to the house instead and parked in the driveway.

I didn't have the house keys on me and It felt weird.

Taking a deep breath, I knocked.

“Coming!” Sable’s voice called from inside.

A few seconds later, the door opened, and there she was. She looked exactly the same as she had three days ago when I’d left. Same tired eyes, the same disappointed expression that seemed permanently etched on her face. Well wasn't expecting a change in just four days.

“Kaelith.” Her voice was flat. “What are you doing here?”