Accepting My Twin Mates

Chapter 37

Accepting My Twin Mates Chapter 37

CHAPTER 37 – THIS IS THE DELTA?

Evie

Astennu shifted to his wolf, joining his twin. I folded his clothing and stuffed them, along with Badru’s, into the saddlebag he had fixed in place.

‘Don’t damage the papers,’ he warned. ‘And there’s a flash drive in there too. It’s all for Elan.’

I grasped the carved eagle horn, about to haul myself up into the stirrups, when Astennu nudged me.

‘Hang on, don’t get up just yet. Aasim and Heru usually play chase for a while.’

I stood back, watching the giant ebony wolf lower his chest to the ground and wave his tail around, barking to initiate the game. Heru began to rear his head, swishing his tail and the two took off out of the stables, running at full pelt down the riding trail heading east.

Guess I was walking for a while.

‘Wanna catch up?’ Badru rubbed up my flank, trotting along beside me.

‘You that desperate to play Heru too?’ I teased, earning a loud grumble of protest. This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

‘I would have asked if you wanted to ride me,’ he muttered. ‘But last time I asked that, you scowled.’

‘That’s because you said it in a gross way,’ I patted his head.

‘Ok, you wanna ride me in a non-gross way?’

I let loose a sharp burst of laughter, ‘crouch down then.’

Once I was situated on his back with a firm grasp on his thick fur at the scruff of his neck, he took off to catch up. We were over halfway to the wiccan commune by the time Aasim and Heru had finished playing chase, and I was able to actually get some horse riding in. The stallion was always a ball of boundless energy and kept up with the two Alpha wolves easily. The twins, too, lacked no limits to their stamina, tumbling and pouncing on each other as they ran through the shallow covering of snow. I noticed Astennu was the faster of the two, always just a whisker ahead. Badru was stronger. The few times he managed to catch his older twin, he pinned him with a little more ease.

The wiccan Family’s land became apparent as we neared, gradually becoming greener and warmer, the snow retreating. Blooms and trees, in full leaf, flourished when they should lay dormant given winter’s beginning. While I had never met any personally, we had been taught in school about all the beings we shared our world with. As the legend went, wiccans were humans blessed by the moon goddess and entrusted to protect the primordial spirit of the earth, gaia, by manipulating the energies of nature around them. Earth wiccans were the most numerous, able to grow plants no matter the season and enhance their natural properties, making them quite potent. Others could see the aura of those around them, some could communicate with animals and there were those that could heal injuries, and even receive visions of the future.

As the treeline receded, Astennu and Badru halted our run to shift and dress. Elan’s home lay just up ahead on the edge of the wiccan commune. I could hear the excited sounds of another horse nearby and as soon as I had removed my mates’ clothes from the saddlebags, handing them over, Heru was off. About to panic I had let him run away, I ran after him, only to pull up a short distance later in front of a log-built cottage with a thatched roof and climbing roses and ivies growing up the exterior. A large paddock lay at the side with an attached stable and a roan-coloured appaloosa hanging its head over the fence to greet the pale gold stallion.

I heard a light chuckle behind me from Astennu as he approached, sliding on his jacket.

“That’s Elan’s mare, Sugar,” he placed emphasis on the mare’s name, a knowing smirk teasing his lips as he looked on at his horse nuzzling the pretty appaloosa. “That’s how we met him. He was out for a ride at the same time I was breaking in Heru.”

The two were quite smitten. My boy liked him some Sugar, it seemed.

A man emerged from the house, long jet-black hair flowing down his back, a deep tan complexion and a fairly broad build from what I was expecting; he had to be Elan. The man greeted Heru, who didn’t seem to mind, although his attention was still on the mare behind the fence.

“I honestly have no clue what I did for that horse to hate me,” Badru grumbled, watching the easy interaction.

I laughed at his pouting, taking his as he and Astennu led me over.

“I knew you couldn’t be far behind,” the man grabbed each of their hands in turn, pulling them in for one of those man hugs.

The twins ushered me forward in introduction.

“Dang, they make you wolves big,” he joked, slapping his arm across my back to lead me into his home.

Or, at least, he tried to as best he could despite our height difference; he was about a half foot shorter than me. He also had the strangest brown eyes I had ever seen. They were an unnaturally vivid shade, with bright specks of gold, amber and red.

“Trust me, I’m a bit of a weird exception,” I awkwardly laughed. I wasn’t expecting such a warm greeting, having been used to seeing and experiencing more formal and prim welcomes.

I turned over my shoulder, about to ask about Heru, to see Astennu already dealing with his saddle and bridle, nodding at me to go into the house and that he’d follow soon. As I was heading through the door, I looked to see the stallion taking off into the paddock after Sugar. He had galloped the whole way and still had stacks of energy to chase the teasing mare.

On the inside of the cottage, wisteria and honeysuckle vines grew everywhere on the ceiling and in full bloom. Pots hung from driftwood branches along the walls and huge potted plants lined the floors, akin to a rainforest.

I couldn’t help but gape, having never seen anything like it before.

“This is…” I began, only to be silenced as I watched a couple of the vines reach out slowly and uncurl towards Elan, wrapping around his hand.

He chuckled quietly and gently brushed them off. I felt a small tickle on my cheek, making me jerk at the unexpected sensation. One of the trailing vines crept around my shoulder and up to my face, another was working its way around my hair.

“They like you,” Elan smiled, obviously amused by my reaction.

“How do you know?”

“They’re telling me,” he stroked one of the flowers. The confusion must have been written all over my face because he added, “not everything talks with its mouth.”

“How come the ones outside aren’t like this?” The vines on the exterior didn’t seem to react at all as we passed them.

“These are around us constantly. They kinda take on their own life,” he nodded behind me.

Badru had vines snaking all over him, a few even blooming against his cheek. The same with Astennu, too, when he entered.

“Have I got competition from a plant?” I snickered at the comical sight.

“They get excited over new visitors,” a feminine voice joined in from what looked like the kitchen. “For some reason, the flowers like Ru especially.”

“This is my wife, Hazel,” Elan pulled a brunette woman by her hand to greet me; his familiar, a wiccan version of wolf’s mate. She too had the same unnaturally vivid eye colour, in green. “She’s a healer in our small clinic.”

“Unfortunately, I’m not a very strong one. I can only handle small injuries” she blushed. “Come on through, Elan has made you all breakfast. Sorry I can’t stay and eat with you, I’m due at the clinic soon.”

She wrapped a thick knitted and patterned pashmina shawl around her shoulders after leading us through to a kitchen diner and centred a large steaming teapot on the table.

“Is it the funky stuff?” Badru grinned, sniffing the aroma emanating.

“No, you need to concentrate,” she playfully tapped the back of his head and waved us all goodbye to head to her work.

‘What funky stuff?’ I mind-linked.

‘Her cousin is from a wiccan Family that lives in a wolf pack in Oregon.’

‘Ashen Star?’ I clarified.

‘Yeah, they make a special tea for the pack there and Hazel sometimes has it in,’ Badru began pouring me a cup of the non-funky tea. ‘It is like catnip to our wolves, makes them all spacey and chilled for a few minutes.’

‘Make a note of that tea,’ Evva quietly urged. She had been silently watching and admiring everything about the home we were about to eat in.

Elan presented, with a flourish, plates filled with soy crepes, fresh raspberries from the stalks grown in the kitchen, and oat cream.

“Would be nice with a side of bacon,” Badru muttered at the lack of meat.

“I can open up that tofu bacon? It went down well last time,” Elan slapped the table in raucous laughter.

“No! Never again,” Astennu exclaimed, a huge grin on his face at the inside joke between them.

“The last time I offered them some,” Elan nudged me, letting me in on the story. “They both threw it up in seconds. Badru was practically green and hurled into a bush outside. Bunch of lightweight carnivores.”

I laughed along as we ate, loving the easy interaction between the three men. I was so used to a structured hierarchy, of titles constantly used and the Alpha family always revered. It was simultaneously strange and a breath of fresh air to see a dialogue so easy, unrestrained and without a care for ‘rank’.

When we were finished eating, we got to business in Elan’s small downstairs office, also filled to the brim with plants. I handed over the stack of files, paper and the flash drive.

“It’ll take me well over a week to get through all of this, maybe longer. Hope that’s alright?” He glanced between my mates, splitting up paperwork as he went.

Astennu nodded, saying there wasn’t any rush.

“Does this mean you’ll move to our pack in the future?” I asked, untangling one of the ivy stems from my hair.

“Nope,” he looked up from his desk. “I can do it all here, so don’t need to.”

“He won’t be in command of any wolves, so he doesn’t have to live nearby,” Astennu added.

“It’s still so weird thinking that you’ll be doing the finances,” I mused, trying to wrap my head around the bizarre and unorthodox situation.

Elan smiled without a hint of offence, “I did go to college for it. We’re a pretty modern Family here. We have WiFi and everything. Hazel’s Family are the more earthy and ‘liberal’ ones.”

“They will dance in the moonlight naked there, she’s told us all about it,” Badru shook his head with a wry grin.

Astennu began to laugh, “she tried at the wedding party, but this Family is a little more modest and chased her around trying to cover her up.”

“I still barely remember the last few hours of that night,” Badru added to the memory.

“Me neither,” Elan sighed, wistfully. “Well, except the good stuff that came after everyone left.”

We stayed a little while longer and probably would have been done sooner without the boys wandering down memory lane, though their bromance was quite adorable. Luna Qamar had some surprise for the twins that neither looked particularly excited about, but nevertheless, they were expected back.

Heru was happily sprawled out with Sugar in the paddock. With some coaxing, Astennu managed to get some enthusiasm to ride back to Two Moons and we were back home by mid-afternoon.

Just as we were about to leave the stables, Astennu stopped me, gently grasping my wrist to spin me around. He slipped his hand along my neck, caressing my jaw with his thumb.

“Telling the pack about us, does this mean you’re accepting us? As your mates?”

“Yes?” My reply wasn’t as firm as I would have liked. “I still want to take this slowly. I’m not ready to bare a mark yet and being a Luna is still terrifying… but I want this out on my terms, not through some pack spreading rumours.”

“Then let’s go piss off our parents,” Badru grasped my other hand, placing a kiss on my palm.

I intertwined our hands between the two of them, no longer caring if anyone saw, and headed back to the pack house. The twins had mind-linked their mother, asking where she was and, strangely, she was held up in the small parlour, just off the main pack dining hall. It served to host small and informal get- togethers and looked out onto the mountain view.

As we approached, Lucy hurried out of the kitchen carrying a small tray, stacked with porcelain.

Her eyes widened as they landed on us, “oh goddess, you’re back. Evie, I swear I didn’t know before you left. I wanted to tell you sooner, but you looked so happy. And I was hoping to catch you before you went in…” her words spewed out on top of each other in her panic.

What the hell had happened now?