Mating with the Lincoln Twins

4

Kael’s POV

"Did you use a sleep effect on her?" Lean accused me as soon as I closed the door to the room where Selene lay sleeping. "Why did you do that?"

We returned to the living room, and as I picked up what was left of the pizza, I explained my reasoning to my brother.

"Selene is going through a lot, and we both know that what just happened to her isn’t some bureaucratic mistake."

Lian’s face tensed.

"And that’s why you had to put her to sleep?"

"Of course not. But at least this way, she can rest for a few hours without stressing over everything that’s happening to her."

Lean sighed.

"It hurts me to see her suffer too. If she is, as everything suggests, our mate, then her pain is ours as well—I understand that. But just because she’s sleeping doesn’t mean I feel any better."

He was right. But that wasn’t the real reason I had put Selene to sleep.

"I have a plan, and to carry it out, we need her to be out cold—like a sleeping beauty who won’t wake for a few hours."

Lean frowned.

"She doesn’t have her clothes. She left everything behind at her house, including her laptop."

"You’re not thinking—"

"Of course I am. We’re going in to retrieve her things. She needs them."

Lean crossed his arms over his chest.

"Alright, genius. And when we bring them back to her, what do we say? How do we explain that everything just magically reappeared?"

Lean was supposed to be the smarter one, but sometimes, our roles switched.

"We’ll tell her we have contacts in the tax office. That we pulled some strings and got permission to retrieve her belongings for her."

Lean’s tension eased, and his eyes even gleamed with approval.

"Smart thinking, brother. And while we’re there, we can look for clues about what we came to investigate."

That part hadn’t occurred to me, but if it helped convince him to break into Selene’s house, I was all for it.

"Yeah, that too."

Selene would be in a deep sleep for hours—more than enough time for us to go to her house and get her things.

From our research before coming to the city, we already knew where Selene and her parents had lived—the same parents whose deaths we had come to solve. Getting in wasn’t difficult, even in broad daylight. All it took was unhooking the latch on one of the back windows.

It was surprising how careless Selene’s father had become after leaving the pack, but then again, why wouldn’t he be? No one expected that they would come for him and his family after he had chosen to leave and give his daughter a "human life."

"Her scent is everywhere," Lean murmured, inhaling deeply.

Selene’s scent had become intoxicating ever since we identified her as our mate, and now, standing in what had been her sanctuary, it was overwhelming. I felt it too. I wanted to let it seep into me.

"Alright, let’s get to work," I said. "I’ll get her things, and in the meantime, you look for clues. Deal?"

Lean smirked.

"You get the fun part, huh? No way. I want to go into her room and pack her clothes too. After that, we both look for clues."

I clenched my jaw but agreed. The excitement coursing through me was undoubtedly running through my brother as well. We were about to step into the most sacred space of our mate—her bedroom. A place of intimacy, which we would explore, of course, with the utmost respect.

"Then let’s not waste time."

We entered that sacred temple—Selene’s bedroom, our mate’s sanctuary, where everything dearest to her lay. We scanned the photos on her nightstand, pictures of her with her parents, smiling in a time long past, before tragedy struck.

Lean let out a low growl when he saw the same thing that caught my eye. A photo, taken at least two years ago, where Selene was hugging a boy—undoubtedly a boyfriend from her teenage years.

"Do you think they’re still together?" Lean asked tensely.

I didn’t like the thought. Not one bit.

My wolf growled inside me, displeased at the sight of Selene in another’s arms. It wasn’t logical, but none of this was. She belonged to us. She didn’t know it yet, but she did.

"I doubt it. If they were, she would have turned to him before us. And if she still keeps the picture, it means they ended things on good terms. He’s probably just a good friend who moved to another city."

Lean gave me a strange look.

"You’re unusually sharp today, brother. What’s going on? Has finding our mate sharpened your mind?"

"Maybe," I replied with pride. "Meeting her makes me feel better. Don’t you feel the same? It’s something stronger than infatuation, don’t you think?"

"You, talking about feelings? Now I know she’s turned your world upside down."

"I can hear your wolf purring from here," I shot back. "This—her, this house, her room—it’s affecting you too. Don’t even try to deny it."

Lean averted his gaze, which only confirmed my words. The feeling was mutual. Selene was our mate, so we were bound to feel the same connection to her.

"There’s something bothering me about all this," Lean said as we opened Selene’s closet. "She has a wolf, right?"

I froze for a moment.

"She must have one. Like you said earlier, it just hasn’t manifested because she was raised as a human."

Lean pulled open the closet door while I set up the suitcase to pack her things.

"But what if… she doesn’t? What if she’s been human for so long that her wolf simply doesn’t exist? Can she still be our mate?"

I exhaled sharply, taking the clothes he handed me.

"We already felt it. I don’t think that changes anything."

"But what if it was something else? Not the mate bond—just something else?"

I shrugged.

"They say the mate bond is unmistakable. When you feel it, you know."

Lean nodded and continued handing me Selene’s clothes.

"Let’s assume we’re right, that we have felt our mate bond. But I’m sure she hasn’t felt the same."

His logic was starting to get under my skin. He was opening a door I didn’t want to look through.

"For her," Lean continued, "we’re just two strangers who have promised to help her—nothing more. If she had felt the bond, her wolf would have awakened. She would have recognized us. But I don’t think she’s even attracted to us."

I clenched my jaw and turned away. Absentmindedly, I opened one of the dresser drawers—then shut it just as quickly, as if a ghostly hand had reached out to grab me.

"What?" Lean asked, seeing my reaction.

"It’s her… lingerie drawer."

He stiffened just as much as I had.

"Damn."

Taking a deep breath, I opened the drawer again. Selene’s scent immediately rose, warm and intoxicating.

My wolf stirred, wanting to mark every delicate piece with my scent.

I forced myself to stay in control.

"I’ll take the whole drawer and empty it into the suitcase without touching anything," I said, my voice rougher than I intended. "Agreed?"

"Agreed," Lean nodded quickly.

"For respect."

"For respect, of course."

We looked at each other like two statues of marble locked in a silent battle. Neither of us wanted to admit how much we both wanted to bury our faces in the soft fabric infused with our mate’s scent.

I emptied the drawer without breaking eye contact.

"Done."

"Perfect. Let’s finish with the closet and pack her shoes."

The tension dissipated in seconds, but Lean circled back to the conversation we had left unfinished.

"If Selene’s wolf doesn’t awaken, how will she accept us as her mates?"

It was a crucial detail I hadn’t considered.

"I don’t know," I admitted. "But if she’s the daughter of wolves, if her parents were wolves, then she must have a wolf. Even if it hasn’t surfaced yet."

Lean sighed.

"Then we have no choice," he said as we finished packing. "We have to wake Selene’s wolf. Only then will we know for sure if she’s truly our mate. And if she is… only then will she be able to accept us."