“What?” I didn’t mean to snap at my brother, but with my beast so close, I was grateful that I hadn’t growled.
“Are you home yet?”
“Just. What do you want?” I was being a dick. Most people considered me the happy go lucky brother. I usually was. But right now I was barely holding it together.
Mate.
Find.
Go.
“Hold on. Let me get where I can talk.” Or at least I wasn’t completely surrounded by my mate’s scent. No, not my mate. Huston’s mate. Or worse, neither of ours.
I bolted across the room and then out of it, not stopping until I was surrounded by fresh air. I sucked in breath after breath as if my life depended on it. I had to clear his scent and calm my beast down.
Mate.
Claim.
Ours.
My plan was failing epically.
“Huston and I need to see you,” Tanner said.
“Good thing I’m home.” Or was it?
“We are at the hotel on Main. Come and meet us.” He wasn’t asking. “Room 213.”
“I can’t.” My bear was pissed I was this far away from Candrin. There was no hope of me getting into the car. “Keep Huston from the house.”
At the end of the day he was my brother. We would have to figure out something—something that wouldn’t hurt him. Ignoring mybear wasn’t going to be feasible for long. I’d never felt him this forceful before. He didn’t like my actions and he wanted to take control.
“We’ve both been needing to stay away,” he all but whispered.
What the fuck did that mean?
“Excuse me?” Maybe I heard him wrong.
“We have the same problem.”
“As in you both think he’s your…” I couldn’t bring myself to say the word. It felt wrong to say it in relation to someone else. but it wasn’t justsomebodyelse. It was my brothers. And that made things exponentially more complicated.
“Yeah. We’re on our way.”
“I’ll be out back. My bear is having ummm… a moment.” If I didn’t leave now, I was going to fur out here.
“A moment?”
“Just get here. We’ll talk about our pain in the ass beasts when you do.” I was already walking towards the back of the house. “Hurry.”
My skin was tingling, my bear more in control than I’d felt since I was a teen during my first shift. This wasn’t good.
I started to jog until I was behind the shed and could strip my clothing without Candrin seeing. That was if he was looking. Was he peering out the window, trying to catch a glimpse, his every thought focused on me?
Shaking off the thoughts, I stripped and let my bear loose, forcing him to run away from the house. It took all of my energy, which was oddly a good thing. That kept me from thinking about the current situation my brothers and I found ourselves in.
The sound of the car pulling into the driveway alerted me to them being home and I ran back to where my clothing was and waited. It took longer than I anticipated and I was just about to shift back and get them when they rounded the corner, Tanner’s posture all Alpha and bossy. Great. That better not be at me. It wasn’t as if I could pick who my beast decided was mine.
