Teilo
When Teilo wasn’t sure how to behave in any situation, he followed Nico’s lead. The bulk of his interactions with other people were either the scientists and trainers in the house that was now a bombed-out shell, or marks that had to be killed. The scientists and trainers didn’t allow the shifters to talk to each other when they were in their human form. Nico and Teilo had learned to say a lot to each other without talking at all, and that was without the mind link they now shared.
So when he saw the woman Ben called Mom stand there with her hands on her hips, and she did not look happy, Teilo glanced at Nico. His cage brother’s back was ramrod straight, and his face was completely devoid of expression.I can do that.On Ben’s left side, Teilo stood just as Nico was.
“Benjamin Aristotle Putney. I can’t believe this is the second time you’ve been in the area in the past month, and you’ve only now decided to visit your own family? You found beautiful mates, and I didn’t even get a phone call?”
“We couldn’t stay last time, Mom. We needed to get somewhere safe—"
“And you didn’t think home was a safe place for you?” Mom’s voice rose and Teilo felt a familiar anxiety in the pit of his stomach.
“We wanted the sea,” Teilo said quickly, before he lost his nerve. “We asked Ben if he could take us to see sand and the sea because we’d never seen it before, and so he took us to an island. It was because of us. Don’t be angry at him. Be angry at us. We can take it,” he added as he saw Nico nod out of the corner of his eye.
It was like the woman’s features softened right before his eyes. Ben’s Mom wasn’t overly tall, but he could see the features they shared, especially around the eyes and the hair color. She was well-rounded and looked like she could hold her own in a fight. Teilo got the impression her cat was sleek and powerful, much like Ben’s was.
“My dear boy, I’m not angry at Ben.” Even Mom’s voice had softened when Teilo found himself the focus of her attention. “Kylo and Nori already told me the state you were in when Ben found you, but part of a Mom’s skill is making their sons feel guilty, so they will call and visit more often. If I didn’t reprimand Ben, he’d think I didn’t care.”
Teilo didn’t understand, but he nodded anyway, making sure he didn’t show his confusion.
“Now, Ben is going to introduce me… because he was raised with manners,” Mom prompted.
Ben grinned. “Mom, let me introduce my mates. This is Nico on the left, and Teilo on the right, and before you ask, no, they are not twins, they’re doppelgangers.”
“We call ourselves cage brothers,” Teilo added, hoping that would be helpful, “but our DNA is different. They made us in a lab.”
“Oh, my stars, and here I am rattling on about how a Mom behaves, and you have no frame of reference for it. I’m so sorry.”
Teilo was still trying to make sense of what Ben’s Mom had said, when the woman hustled over and the next thing Teilo knew, he was beinghugged. Arms around his waist, body pressed gently against his, hugged.
He froze, and looking at Nico, he was sure his panic was showing. Ben’s smile wasn’t helping.What am I meant to do?
Hug her back.That was Ben’s voice, and he sounded happy. So carefully, Teilo patted the woman’s shoulders, instinctively sniffing.Ben’s home.His cat could make the connection even when he was struggling.
“You have a family now, Teilo,” Ben’s Mom said, and Teilo knew in his gut she was telling the truth. “We are often loud, sometimes dysfunctional, but we all love and protect each other fiercely, and we’ll do the same with you. You’ll get used to us.”
And if she hadn’t just knocked the bottom out of Teilo’s world, Ben’s Mom squeezed him around the waist one last time and then went and hugged Nico in the same way.
The hugging must’ve been like a signal or something. Ben was chuckling when he and his Mom had their hug, and Ben whispered something in her ear that made her smile all the wider. Then Ben took them outside to a large porch where his Dad was grilling on a barbecue.
Teilo braced himself, but Ben’s Dad didn’t seem to have the need to hug them, although he shook their hands—his and Nico’s—and welcomed them to the family. Teilo was glad he didn’t need to hug them. Ben’s father was built like a lion with lots of hair and huge shoulders.
Ben, Nico, and Kylo were talking about the Devil and what they’d found at the house, but Teilo’s mind wandered. He kept glancing back at the kitchen where Ben’s Mom was bustling around, stirring things in pots, and chopping vegetables on a large wooden slab.
As Teilo looked, Mom caught his eye and indicated with her finger that he should go to her. He hesitated, caught between wanting to be near Ben and Nico, and wanting to know what she wanted. She held up a knife and a root vegetable and was smiling.
I guess I could learn to cut up something that didn’t bleed.Edging away from Ben and Nico, Teilo ducked into the kitchen.
“You can still see them from here,” Mom said. “What do you know about chopping vegetables?”
“Why do you have them in different shapes?” Teilo looked at the board that already had piles of various colored vegetables on it.
“It’s so everything can finish cooking at the same time. Here.” Mom handed him a knife. “Do you know how to use one of these?”
Teilo tested the weight—a little heavy in the handle compared to the blade, which he tested with his finger. Sharp. “I can use this,” he said, reaching for a long white tube vegetable. Checking to see what shape Mom had cut others of that shape and color into, he laid the vegetable on the board, and within a blink, he reduced it to evenly sized cubes, the blade barely kissing the wood of the chopping board. “Like that?”
“You’re a natural.” Mom beamed at him, and Teilo felt a warm, squishy feeling inside. “If you can get that pile done there,” she pointed to where about a dozen vegetables were waiting, “then you and I can have some ice cream.”
“What’s ice cream? Is it something we eat or chop?” Teilo moved quickly, slicing, dicing, and chopping, the knife an extension of his fingers. He could barely see the blade move due to the speed, but Teilo was confident he knew where it was with every chop. Pushing the last of the vegetables into its correctly colored pile, he looked up to see Mom staring at him.
