I slide the watch out of my pocket, just enough for a quick glance.Fuck me. One of the hands stopped, pointing at him. I don’t know what kind of cosmic joke or whacky karma I had coming my way that every mate I’ve met so far ends up being so God damn hot, but for the life of me, I’m not sure how I’m going to function around them. Plus, now there are three of them.Already?It’s only day fucking one. I might be better off skipping the rest of my classes at this rate.
He makes his way to the middle seat at my table, seemingly unaware of all the eyes on him. As he gets closer the pull in my chest gets worse. He lowers himself in the chair next to me, and the smell of fresh-fallen rain, like when you walk out on a summer's day after a random rainstorm, follows. I try to focus on my work but it’s so hard with him next to me. I always knew finding mates was a possibility, and that some people have more than one in their circle, but I wasn’t prepared for the connection to be so immediate, or to meet them so fucking fast. Like, fate couldn’t give me a break, maybe do one a day?
As he’s pulling out everything he needs to do the assignment, his hand brushes against mine and a small bolt of lighting shoots up my arm, causing my hair to stand on end.What the fuck was that?We both seem to have the same idea of just ignoring the strange shocking feeling as we continue our work. I don’t know what to think about the fact that the pull seems to get more intense with each mate I meet. I’m going to fail all my classes at this point.
Sneaking a peek at him out of the side of my eye, I watch him take a deep breath. It seems the pull of the mate bond is getting to him too, since he slowly seems to be moving closer and closer. By the time the bell rings, we are so close we’re almost touching.
He stands first, offering his hand to help me, and the weird electrostatic sensation is still there, pulsing between our grip. “Hi there, Dove. I’m Ward.”
“Hi. I’m Maggie.” We stand there awkwardly, staring at each other, waiting for the other to make a move.
“If the two of you could stop eye fucking each other and leave my classroom?” Professor Magus is standing at the door, looking at us with disgust.
Ward rolls his eyes and leads me from the classroom, making sure to stand in between me and the Professor when we walk out.
My next class is Elementals, in Valor Tower, and we have yet to say another word to each other. He seems content to walk alongside me. As soon as we take a step out the door of Manor House, we run right into Dallan and Rehan, both of whom seem to have been waiting for me.Fuck. Me.Looks like I’m dealing with this sooner rather than later. I let out a big sigh and make my way over to them, Ward following along. All three look at each other then back at me.
Marsh comes jogging up, looking down at his phone, so hasn’t noticed all three men standing around me. He finally glances up; the look on his face when he registers what he just walked up on is priceless. He starts hysterically laughing. I’m talking about full body shaking, bent over, tears streaming down his face laughing. I step around the guys to stand between them and my brother so I have a good path to him, just in case he thinks of trying anything.
I’m already overstimulated enough. After almost a full minute of his antics, I decide I’ve had enough, sending a small bolt of electricity towards his stomach.
“Ouch! Fuck, that was a bit rude,” he rubs the spot, but the laughter has subsided, so I’ll take the look of discomfort.
“Go away Marsh, I’ll fill you in later. Or I’ll shock you again.” I make a shooing motion at him, and he heads off, giggling like a school girl. Taking a deep breath I turn to face my waiting mates. “Okay, let me get through everything before anyone saysanything, please.” They all silently nod, so I continue. “Dallan, Rehan, this is Ward. Ward this is Dallan and Rehan. It seems all three of y'all are my mates. There are supposedly three more, and yes I know it’s unheard of having that many. It goes along with what kind of witch I am.” I pull my watch out of my pocket. “This is a family artifact; it’s how I know y’all are my mates, and how I know the other three are also somewhere at this school. Also, I’ve felt a tingling pulling sensation in my chest when I’m around any of you and I think is also part of the mate bond as well. So yeah. That's where I’m at.” I look up from my feet, where I have been staring during this whole speech.
I make eye contact first with Dallan’s deep brown eyes, since he is directly across from me. He already knew he was my mate so I figured he was one of the safe options. To his right bright green eyes look back at me. Smiling, Rehan seems to be enjoying this as much as my brother was. The last pair are the ones I’m most nervous about meeting. This green is dark where Rehan’s are bright; a deep almost emerald green. Ward doesn’t look as shocked as I thought one would be finding out he’s part of a circle with five other anchors.
“Well Siren, how doyoufeel about all this?” Rehan steps closer to me, reaching out to lift my chin so I’m forced to look at him. The other two move closer as well, and having them all so close has my magic tingling and going crazy. I can feel their magic responding to mine.
“I haven’t really had the time to figure it out, to be honest. This pull I feel is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. Being separated is like I’m missing a part of myself, which is fucking crazy, since I don’t even know you.” I stop, not knowing what to say. My heart is starting to race, the familiar hum of my anxiety starting to build. “I’m sorry, I just can’t deal with any of this right now.” Letting out a sob, I turn and run away for the second timetoday, towards my next class. One more, and then I can hide in my room for the rest of the day.
I’m in such a daze while walking to the tower I don’t notice Marsh until he’s next to me. “Want to talk about it?” he asks, bumping into my shoulder to get my attention.
“Not really, at least not now. I just have to process all of it.” Even to myself, my voice sounds small. He stops suddenly, pulling me to a halt.
“Mags, I know this is a lot, and it's not at all what we thought would happen. Since coming to this school it’s been one thing after another. I promise it will calm down. Six mates is way more than we ever thought would be possible, but it’ll be okay. Fate gave them to you for a reason.” He pulls me into a hug, “Now go to class, we can relax for a little while afterwards before it’s time for dinner.”
I squeeze him back. “Alright, and thank you Bubba. That helped. See you after class. Hey, if you run into any of them, can you tell them I’ll see them at dinner?”
“Sure thing, sis.”
Marsh
Watching my sister walk towards her last class, I wait until I see her turn the corner before I go back to the three idiots I told to stay put. It’s still funny my sister thought I’d actually walk away when she told me to, not just hide around the corner and eavesdrop–I mean, keep an eye on her. I’m glad I caught her mates before they ran off when she did. Thankfully, it seems they listen well. As I approach, they seem to be lost in conversation amongst themselves. When I get closer they turn to look at me and the full force almost stops me in my tracks. Damn if my sister didn’t get lucky, because they are some of the hottest men I think I’ve ever seen.
“Good, you stayed. Now, listen up. She might be your mate, but she’s my twin and right now she is spiraling from so much happening in such a small amount of time. She is understandably overwhelmed, and I’m aware due to the mate pull that telling y’all to stay back won’t help. But my advice is to take it slow with her. She has always suffered from anxiety, and we’ve finally gotten it to where she’s not having constant attacks. Give us some time after the final class, and we will meet y’all at dinner. Deal?”
“You’re right in assuming we won’t stay away, but we agree to take it slow and at her pace. However, one day you will find your own mates and have your own life, while ours will revolve around her. She is our heart, our center. I will accept your advice at the moment as you know her better, but don’t try overstepping in our mating. I’m not sure about these two–as we had other things to discuss– and I may have only met her today, but I can say without a shadow of a doubt I’d follow her to the ends of the Earth. You may be her brother, but one day you’llhave other priorities.” Ward walks off before I can respond, leaving me and the other two gaping at his retreating form.
“Well, he’s a ray of sunshine isn’t he?” Rehan deadpans. “But we get what you're saying, and we’ll take it easy with her.”
“And we will keep Mr. Serious from being too clingy. We know you are just worried about her. I promise we will take care of her, but we all need to get to our classes or we will be late. I’ll see y’all at dinner.” With that, Dallan takes off leaving just me and Rehan.
“He’s right. We need to go.” He waves, as he heads to his own class.
That went well. She’s gonna kill me for sticking my nose in her business, but I feel so helpless in all of this. Hit after hit, it just keeps coming. I just hope it doesn't end up beating her down.
Maggie
