MATED TO FATHER, FATED TO SONS

RYKER

Day of the fucking full moon.

Half of the pack would either be fucking like animals in heat or chasing some other primal instincts of theirs through the forest under the silver light. What would I be doing tonight? Fucking my mate with my brother right there beside me.

Just saying it out loud in my head made it sound absolutely insane.

Don’t get me wrong, Rowan and I have had sex in the same room plenty of times while we were in college, used to attend those exclusive underground sex parties with different girls writhing around us in various states of undress. But never the same girl at the same time, and definitely never our actual fated mate.

This was completely different territory entirely.

Sharing a random hookup at a party was one thing. Sharing the woman the moon goddess herself had chosen for us was something else entirely, something that made my wolf pace restlessly under my skin.

I was pacing my room like a caged animal, unable to sit still or focus on anything, my thoughts spinning in circles about tonight, when my door was knocked on sharply three times.

I already knew it was Rowan from the particular rhythm of the knock, that annoying polite pattern he always used, so I did not bother answering out loud and just waited for him to let himself inside like he always eventually did anyway.

The door opened after a brief pause and Rowan walked in, his expression troubled and tense in a way I recognized. "Have you seen Cole anywhere? I noticed he has not been around the pack house since dawn this morning."

I stopped pacing and turned to look at him properly. "Have you checked Nia’s room? You know how those two have been lately."

Rowan shook his head, running his hand through his hair in frustration. "I need him to go to Ironcrest with me today before tonight."

I glanced at him confused, my eyebrows raising skeptically. "Why the hell do you need Cole specifically to go to Ironcrest with you to see Lila? What does he have to do with anything?"

"I want to see how they act together," Rowan stated carefully, his voice measured in that diplomatic way of his. "See if there is anything between them still."

I immediately burst into genuine laughter, the sound filling my room and probably echoing down the hallway. "Are you seriously looking for a reason to justify having sex with Amaris tonight while you are still officially engaged to Lila?"

"I am not like you," Rowan protested defensively, his jaw tightening. "I don’t think Lila deserves to be treated that way without explanation."

I laughed again, harder this time because he was so predictably moral even when planning to fuck another woman. "Trust me when I say this, brother, that bitch absolutely deserves it and so much more than just being stood up on the full moon."

Rowan frowned deeply at me, disapproval clear on his face. "Why do you think she is so evil? She has done nothing directly to you personally that I know of."

"Evil recognizes evil," I stated simply, meeting his eyes without flinching. "I know exactly what she is underneath that perfect innocent act she puts on for you. I can see it."

Rowan sighed heavily, clearly not wanting to argue about this right now. "Or you are all in over your head about her and seeing things that are not there. I need to go now to Ironcrest if I want to make it back before the full moon rises tonight."

"Let me go with you," I offered immediately, pushing off from where I had been leaning against my desk. "I am the absolute best at coming up with creative believable excuses for why you will not be fucking your fiancée tonight under the full moon like she probably expects."

Rowan sighed again but nodded reluctantly. "Fine. Let’s go. You seem to be enjoying this entire situation far too much for someone who claims not to want to share."

"I am enjoying watching you squirm with guilt," I corrected with a grin. "There is a difference."

We started walking down the long hallway together side by side, our footsteps echoing off the cold stone floors of the pack house.

The morning sunlight streamed through the tall windows.

"Remember that party junior year?" I asked, grinning wider at the memory that suddenly surfaced. "The one at that sketchy fraternity house way off campus?"

Rowan groaned audibly. "Which one are you talking about? There were literally dozens of those parties."

"The one where you convinced me to do body shots off those identical twins," I continued, the memory vivid. "And we ended up in that massive hot tub with like fifteen people completely wasted."

"That was entirely your idea, not mine," Rowan corrected, but I could see he was smiling slightly at the memory despite himself. "You were the one who suggested body shots in the first place. I was trying to study for my economics exam the next morning."

"Until I physically dragged you out of the library," I reminded him. "You needed to actually live a little instead of being constantly buried in boring textbooks."

"I needed to pass that class," Rowan countered. "Which I barely managed to do because you kept dragging me to parties every single weekend."

"And you loved every single second of it," I stated confidently. "Admit it, brother."

"I admit absolutely nothing," Rowan said firmly, but his expression had relaxed and he was definitely smiling now. "Though I will say those twins were memorable."

"See? You did have fun," I said triumphantly. "You just hate admitting it because of your ridiculous moral code."

"My moral code is not ridiculous," Rowan protested. "It is called having standards."

"It is called being boring," I shot back. "But I love you anyway."

We turned the corner near the main grand staircase that led down to the entrance hall and that was when I saw her.

Amaris was standing directly in front of Alpha Corvin’s office door, her small hand raised like she was about to knock on the heavy wood.

She paused when she clearly heard our approaching footsteps and turned to look directly at us, her eyes widening slightly in what looked like surprise or maybe guilt when she saw both Rowan and me standing there together watching her.

Alpha Corvin opened the door from inside before she could knock, his tall imposing figure filling the entire doorway. He glanced at Rowan and me standing there frozen in the hallway like idiots, his dark eyes scanning both of us briefly.

Then Amaris turned back away from us and walked into his private office without another word or glance in our direction.

The door closed behind her with a soft click that somehow sounded absolutely deafening in the sudden silence.

I felt my wolf surge forward violently inside me, possessive territorial rage flooding through my entire system like fire in my veins.

My hands clenched into fists at my sides so tight my knuckles cracked.

"What the fuck is my mate doing in Alpha Corvin’s room?"