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2002 Words
“Selene?”
Her name left my lips before I could stop it. I stood in the hallway, watching her frozen in front of the door, hunched from the cold, the nerves—or maybe from the sharp look Tara had just thrown her way.
Nicole pursed her lips and let out a short, mocking laugh.
Kael appeared behind me in silence, probably because his wolf had also sensed her—the girl we’d come to this city for. The one who pulled us into the human world.
From the moment we saw her, we knew.
She was the one we’d been tracking for months.
What we hadn’t been prepared for… was that she would also be our mate.
The recognition was immediate. Our wolves howled so loud it nearly deafened us, and we had to pretend—every second—while Selene showed us the apartment.
“You felt it, didn’t you, brother?” I asked.
“Of course. There’s no doubt. She’s our mate. My wolf wants to connect with hers, but can’t find it. Could it be… what I’m thinking?”
“My wolf is just as restless, yes. It must be that. I see no other explanation. Selene has grown up entirely among humans, raised like one of them. She must know nothing of our world—and her wolf hasn’t manifested yet.”
And now she was back. Less than an hour after she’d left.
Was it fate?
“Do you know her from somewhere?” Nicole asked quietly, as if Selene weren’t standing right in front of her.
Selene didn’t answer.
She said nothing.
Her face flushed with shame, and without a word… she turned around and left.
Kael and I looked at each other, confused.
Had something happened to her?
We thought about going after her, but doing so in front of our supposed girlfriends wouldn’t look right. So we stepped back inside.
Nicole threw herself onto one of the sofas like she owned it. Crossed her legs, stretched out, and sighed dramatically.
“This dump? Seriously, this is what you rented?”
Tara made a face of disgust as she scanned the living room.
“The appliances look like they’re twenty years old. And that couch? How many backs has it ruined?”
“Furniture from some low-end chain store,” Nicole added, turning to Kael with a sugar-coated smile. “Couldn’t you have picked something a bit more... worthy of you two?”
Kael didn’t answer. Neither did I.
“Well,” Tara said, smoothing her dress in front of the mirror by the door, “we’d better go before we catch fleas. This cheap, depressing aesthetic is draining my energy.”
Nicole stood up like she’d just completed a punishment.
“See you later, boys. Maybe next time pick something a little less... proletarian.”
Kael held the door open without a word. When they left, he shut it—not gently.
Silence.
My wolf growled. Low. Irritated.
I went to the window. I spotted Selene. She wasn’t far. I saw her walking quickly along the sidewalk, shoulders tense, arms close to her body. She stopped at the corner—right in front of the bus station.
Kael was already grabbing the keys.
I didn’t need to say anything.
We left without a word. We took the stairs, certain Nicole and Tara had taken the elevator. Once they were gone, we followed.
We caught up to Selene at the bus stop, just a few minutes later. She stood there, staring at the ground, biting her lower lip. The weight in her body was tangible. Her sadness was raw. Heavy.
“Selene,” I said gently as I approached.
She turned, startled. When she saw us, her eyes widened—a mix of surprise and pain.
“What… what are you doing here?”
“We came for you,” Kael said, straightforward as always. “What happened? Why did you come back?”
Selene’s cheeks flushed with pure fire.
It was… adorable.
“I didn’t want to cause trouble,” she murmured, lowering her gaze. “I didn’t know you were… with company.”
“They’ve left now,” I said. “So if you’d like, we can go back up to the apartment.”
She bit her lip again—a gesture that sent my wolf into a frenzy. That kind of reaction… only your mate could cause it.
“Come on,” Kael urged. “You don’t have to stay here feeling alone.”
Selene nodded slowly. And when she began walking between us, I noticed… her steps were lighter than before. We walked back to the apartment.
“What’s going on, Selene?” I asked once we offered her a seat. “Whatever it is you want to say, you can say it. It’s okay.”
Her cheeks flushed again.
"Look, this isn’t easy to say, but… I just lost my home. So I was wondering if maybe I could stay here, with you, just for the duration of your rental."
“You want to stay with us?” Kael asked, crossing his arms over his chest, masking the storm of emotions he must have been feeling.
The fact that our mate had not only returned but was now asking to stay with us was shocking—but above all, exhilarating.
“I don’t understand, Selene,” I said, pretending to be simply intrigued by her proposal. Could there be a chance that she had felt it too—our mate bond? No, impossible. Not when her wolf hadn’t even awakened. “Did something happen?”
She flushed with embarrassment, and I felt an almost uncontrollable urge to pull her into my arms. But we had to hold back. There would be a time to tell her the truth, to explain our purpose here and what had happened to us the moment we saw her.
But not yet.
Not yet.
“I lost my home. I just got there and found a horrible eviction notice. Apparently, my parents left debts with the tax office before they died.”
We knew about Selene’s parents’ deaths. It was a key reason for our presence here. But she couldn’t know that. Not yet.
“I didn’t know your parents had passed,” Kael said. “I’m so sorry.”
Selene looked at us like a frightened deer about to be sacrificed. The impact of that sorrowful gaze was immediate, and my wolf howled in agony. Whatever pain our mate felt, we felt it too—if not more intensely. But we had to stay in control.
“I’m truly sorry, Selene,” I said. “I imagine that must have come as a shock, which means you have nowhere to go.”
She nodded, lips pressed together in shame. We were supposed to act surprised, but we couldn’t keep up the act for long. We were suffering alongside her.
I exchanged a look with Kael, silently agreeing—of course, we would let her stay with us.
“You say it, brother,” I said through our mental link. “I get the feeling you intimidate her.”
“Intimidate her? How? What did I do?”
“Come on, we’ll talk about it later. For now, don’t let her suffer any more.”
“Selene, come in, please,” Kael said, stepping aside from the door. “Tell us what happened.”
She walked past me, and the scent of her hair wrecked me.
I wanted her so badly.
“Have you eaten anything?” I asked from the kitchen as I saw her sit down in the living room. She shook her head.
“Let’s order a pizza. I’m starving too,” Kael said, settling beside her. I wasn’t sure what it was about my brother, but I could tell he was making her nervous again.
I needed to step in.
“You order it, Kael.”
He growled through our link.
“Be a little more empathetic with her. She just lost her home,” I told him.
“I am being empathetic, but I don’t know—I can’t help being a little rough.”
“Order the damn pizza while I try to calm her down.”
Reluctantly, Kael made the call. When I sat beside Selene, I noticed her breathing ease. Our legs brushed lightly, and her warmth seeped through my skin, igniting an almost uncontrollable urge in my wolf. I forced myself to shift slightly away, but the space left by her absence felt unbearable.
“What did the eviction notice say?” I asked.
Selene explained what little she knew—that she wasn’t even allowed to enter the house to retrieve her clothes and belongings.
“All I have is the money you transferred to me, and now I’ll have to spend some of it to buy clothes, replace my laptop, and get food—all while I was about to pay my university tuition to resume my studies. I had to take a semester off after my parents died.”
I understood her situation perfectly. And I wondered—could this strange eviction be connected to what we had come to investigate?
“For now, you can stay with us. It’s not a problem, Selene.”
“Really? Are you serious, Lean?”
The joy and relief on her face made it clear she had nearly thrown herself into my arms—which I would have welcomed more than anything—but she didn’t. And though I was disappointed, I found comfort in knowing that at least she was no longer distressed. We could protect her now.
“Of course, Selene. You can stay,” I assured her. “And I know Kael agrees with me, right, brother?”
Kael hung up the phone just then and nodded with a smile that, honestly, even gave me chills. Of the two of us, Kael was always the more impulsive one. It worked well for him with most women, but for some reason, it didn’t have the same effect on Selene. She still looked at him with unease.
“I’ll help with the expenses—groceries, whatever we need. Don’t worry,” she offered.
I lifted my gaze and met Kael’s eyes.
“Poor thing. We definitely can’t let her spend the money meant for her tuition, but we need to act normal. What do we do?”
“Tell her it’s fine—for now. Later, we’ll find a way to give it back to her.”
I smiled at his suggestion without committing to anything.
“And I’ll sleep in the living room. Don’t worry—I don’t want to be a burden, or make you feel uncomfortable with me around.”
I wanted nothing more than to notice her, to feel her presence, to have her disrupt my life in every way possible. But once again, we had to act. We had to pretend—at least until we had the evidence we had come here to gather.
“You can take one of our rooms,” Kael offered. “You can have mine. It’s no problem.”
Finally, my brother was showing some empathy. But Selene immediately shook her head.
“No, please, I insist. You paid for two rooms, and you’re already doing too much by letting me stay. I’ll sleep in the living room—that’s non-negotiable.”
She seemed adamant, so I suggested to my brother that, for now, we let her have her way. Once we gained her trust, we’d convince her to reconsider.
“There’s another crucial issue we need to address,” Kael said as he sat beside us. Selene and I turned to him expectantly.
“The bathrooms. There’s one in each bedroom and one for guests—but that one doesn’t have a shower.”
Kael was right.
We had, without a doubt, reached the most delicate negotiation of our entire arrangement.
- Writer
