“Not much…just that it’s very rare for it to happen before the age of twenty-five.”
“Oh…Ian said the same thing.”
“Did he tell you it’s high risk?” asked Ollie, quietly.
Nodding, Theo said, “He did… but I didn’t care because I knew it would be fine. My mates are more worried than I am, but I guess that’s what Alphas do…worry about everything.”
Chuckling, Ollie said, “That’s certainly true from everything I’ve seen…especially when their mates go into labor.”
Rolling his eyes, Theo exclaimed, “No kidding! I’m pretty sure Norm will be okay, but I know Smokey won’t.” Then, growing serious, he asked, “Are you gonna stay here now?”
Pausing for a moment, Ollie replied, “It depends…Mac and I haven’t talked about it, but we might have to leave.”
“Because of your job?”
“Yeah…and other things.”
“Oh,” Theo murmured dejectedly. “I was hoping you could stay until my wedding so you could walk me down the aisle. Dad had promised me he would, but…oh, never mind.” Feeling stupid for even bringing up the subject, Theo lay down and stared at the vivid blue sky peeking through the gazebo’s arching aspen branches.
“Don’t do that,” Ollie said firmly, but softly, staring intently at his cousin.
“Do what?” Theo murmured, keeping his gaze upward.
“You start to say something but then you stop. You’ve done that several times this morning already.”
“Oh…that,” Theo muttered. Then rolling over on his side, he studied Ollie, searching for what he wasn’t sure. Maybe for a clue why his bear was unhappy, or maybe it was…“Why did you come here?” he asked.
“I told you last night…why?”
“Did you talk to my parents first?”
Shaking his head, Ollie said, “No, I swear.”
“Why not? Weren’t you curious why they gave me to Arald? Didn’t you want to know what terrible thing I did to make them do that?” Theo asked softly before rolling onto his back.
“You are incapable of doing anything bad, Theodore,” Ollie said.
“If that’s true, then my parents must have just stopped loving me.”
“No! That’s impossible!”
Sitting up quickly, Theo looked at his cousin angrily. “Then tell me why they sent me to that awful place. I didn’t do anything to deserve it! And even if I had, they could have just told me to leave. Norm would’ve gone with me. We were…are Fated Mates, and he promised he would always take care of me. Instead, they joined forces with Norm’s parents and sent us both away…like we were guilty of some unspeakable crime!”
Theo closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, tears began to flow. “Ollie, I sat in that cell, day after day, waiting for them to come for me…to tell me it was all a mistake…that they didn’t mean it…to explain why they did it. Every day, my hope grew dimmer, and when I finally accepted that they weren’t coming…it nearly killed me. Only Norm and Kieran kept me alive…for three long years. When Cody and Dylon rescued us,they gave us the choice of going back home, but Kieran put his foot down and told them it was impossible, so they offered us a home at the Blackwood Pack. Norm and I accepted—at least we knew we’d be safe here…something I’d never have felt if we had gone home.”
Ollie sat quietly, but his emotions churned within him at the pain he heard in his cousin’s voice, yet there was something more—a longing that Theo was trying to hide. “But what if you could…go home…and be safe there? Would you want to?” he asked softly.
Staring at Ollie, Theo opened his mouth and then snapped it shut. Jumping up, he stalked out of the gazebo and over to a huge, old, fallen log in the meadow. Breathing heavily, he gazed down at the wildflowers that dotted the field, reminding him of the ones at home—the ones he missed. He’d given up ever seeing them again, but his cousin had asked him a question.Do I want to go home?Theo reached down and cupped one flower, his eyes studying the petals and color. It differed from the flowers at home and yet was still very much the same, at least in his mind.
Snapping the stem, he raised the flower to his nose, inhaling the sweet scent, but even that didn’t smell like the ones at home. He twirled the stem between his fingers and watched the blur of the petals as they flew around. It reminded him of the many hours he’d lain in the meadow at home with dreams of a bright future filling his mind. A fated mate was always part of it, especially after the stories his parents had told him about them.
Now he had two Fated Mates—something he, and probably his parents, never knew could happen. He wondered what they would think about it, especially since one of his mates was a grizzly bear. Or what his former Alpha would do when he found out he had more than one mate. Probably order all of them to beput to death, if Norm was right about the reason their parents sent them to Arald’s in the first place. Then, it had only been the two of them, but now, there were three of them—all gay. And if the Alpha gave that order, Smokey would probably attack and Norm would join in, but there wasn’t any way they could win against the Alpha’s enforcers. Picturing the bloody aftermath, Theo sighed.
Ollie watched Theo’s shoulders droop and heard his deep sigh. He never meant to upset his cousin, but by the look of it, he had—deeply. Rising, he slowly walked over to Theo, stopping behind him. Hesitating for a moment, he raised his hand and let it hover over his cousin’s shoulder, wondering if his touch would be welcomed. Then, Ollie slowly lowered his hand until it rested on Theo. “I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to upset you,” he murmured, slowly rubbing his cousin’s shoulder.
Shaking his head slightly, Theo said, “You didn’t…I just wish I knew why my parents did what they did. Without that piece of the puzzle, I can’t move forward…I’m just caught in a dark hole with no way out.” Turning his head, Theo glanced up at his cousin. “I have tried to forgive and forget…move on with my life…but I can’t. It doesn’t matter what I’m doing, suddenly something will trigger a memory of what my life was before Arald’s… and then…”
“I think that’s normal,” Ollie replied. “It takes a long time to forget memories…especially good ones.”