Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Verity:

I could never behave the same way like I did in front of the two brothers and say things around them that I could never say in front of Ragnar.

They were both my mates, and controlling them had been easy.

But Ragnar was different.

He was already furious just looking at me, and saying any of those things in front of him felt incredibly awkward.

The worst part was that none of this had been part of the plan.

Ragnar wasn’t supposed to find out this soon.

Now, all four of us were sitting in his room.

The two brothers shared one couch, while Ragnar sat alone on another. I had a sofa to myself.

He had been staring at us the entire time. Every so often, I caught his jaw tightening.

"It’s true, I swear. We both felt the bond with her," Jaguar repeated, seemingly trying to convince his brother, or perhaps simply break the silence, since Ragnar kept studying our faces without saying anything.

"You’re having an affair with Theodore, right?" Ragnar asked me.

I noticed Jaguar’s expression darken.

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Ragnar pointed at him, silently ordering him to stay quiet.

"There were feelings involved between us," I replied, feeling as though I were being interrogated.

"What was going on between you and Jaguar?"

The moment Ragnar asked that, Jaguar visibly relaxed.

He had probably thought his brother had forgotten that he had also been involved with me.

"Well..." I swallowed hard. "We had some feelings."

I stopped when I noticed Ragnar’s jaw clench even tighter.

"So you were stringing both of them along."

I immediately straightened, ready to defend myself, but before I could say anything, the two brothers stepped in.

I had already made it clear to them that they were supposed to defend me, or I would leave.

"No, that’s not it," Theodore explained quickly. "She had feelings for both of us, obviously, but none of us were officially together. She wasn’t really sure what to make of those feelings."

"Exactly." Jaguar nodded in agreement.

"So she was playing both of you?" Ragnar questioned again.

"No, that’s not true. She had feelings for us because we were both her mates," Jaguar argued, pointing first at himself and then at Theodore.

I nodded in support.

"What?"

Ragnar merely tilted his head as a painfully forced smirk formed on his lips.

"Looks like you’ve trained them well."

No one could have understood how that comment made me feel.

Hearing something like that from Ragnar was genuinely insulting.

He had a way of using nothing more than his posture, gestures, and expressions to make someone feel completely humiliated.

"I haven’t," I finally replied, forcing myself to stay calm so I could answer him more confidently. "It’s true that I had something going on with both brothers, but I didn’t know how serious it was. I was stuck between the two of them."

I hesitated before continuing.

From the way Ragnar watched me, I could tell he was judging me, and he probably wouldn’t stop no matter what I said.

After all, he knew I had overheard his conversation, where he’d openly admitted that he didn’t trust Gigi’s story and had his own suspicions about it.

I couldn’t tell whether he was embarrassed that I knew his secret or whether he was trying to convince himself that his hostility toward me had nothing to do with that.

"So what do you plan to do now?" Ragnar asked.

"I’m not sure. I don’t think I want to pursue anyone right now."

The moment the words left my mouth, Theodore and Jaguar both turned toward me.

"Really?" Ragnar questioned. "You wanted to pursue both of them before the mate bond came to light, but now that they know everything, you suddenly want to step back? It sounds like you led them both on just so you could walk away afterward."

My heart began pounding harder.

"That’s not it. You’re just assuming things," I shot back defensively. "The truth is, I don’t want to come between two brothers."

As soon as I said it, Theodore and Jaguar stared at me, their expressions filled with emotion.

Neither spoke until Ragnar broke the awkward silence.

"Really? After you’ve already led both of them on?" His gaze shifted toward his brothers. "And you two fools actually believe that?"

Ragnar was really not holding back.

My throat tightened at his bluntness.

"Anyway, it’s not like you can simply back out now. And even if that’s what you want, I can’t force you to stay," Ragnar continued. "But you’ll have to tell one of them that you’re not going to pursue him at all. You can figure out what you want with the other one later. You need to shut one of them down right now."

I didn’t know what was wrong with Ragnar, but he was being far too aggressive, and what he was demanding was the last thing I wanted to do.

"I can’t do that. They’re both my mates, and I have feelings for both of them," I snapped.

Ragnar’s expression hardened, a clear warning that I needed to watch my tone.

"I mean, Jaguar has an ex-girlfriend he went back to while he was still showing feelings for Verity. So if she shuts him down, I think that’s fair," Theodore muttered.

Jaguar immediately turned toward him.

Since they were sitting together on the same couch, the hostility radiating between them was impossible to miss.

"You really want to go there?" Jaguar challenged. "Who the fuck are you to tell her she should shut me down, huh?"

His voice rose sharply.

"I’m her mate!" Theodore yelled, pointing at himself. "I’m someone who loves her. I don’t go around sleeping with other women and then come running back to her when it doesn’t work out."

Silence fell for barely a second.

Then Jaguar lunged.

He shot to his feet and grabbed Theodore by the collar.

"You fucking think you can talk to me like that and I won’t fight back?"

Theodore surged upright and shoved Jaguar away, but Jaguar came at him even harder, driving him back against the couch.