Page 5 of My Pucking Mates (Pucking Werewolves #4)

K haos, Slate, and Miss Tilly—being the meddlesome bunch they are—decided it was best they go to the pack for a few days to see if we could work anything out. We being Eris, Dolos, and myself. Anything being deciding what we do about our mate bond.

I’ve been sitting on the couch since they left, fiddling with a blanket, while I try to think of how I can get them to communicate with me...At least let me know what’s going on. I’ve spent my entire life having to be strong all the time, and I’m so tired. I just want to be.

Earlier, I noticed Dolos dragging Eris away from Khaos. I’m not sure what’s going on, but their tempers are clouding the townhouse in tension.

I tried to wait on the couch for them to come through the space organically. I wanted to try and strike up a real conversation, but just sitting and waiting here is making me twitchy.

When their energies become so loud and… pained …

I can’t sit still any longer. My feet carry me to Eris’ bedroom door.

It’s a space I know I’m not welcome, but I can’t help the tension of his pain suffocating me, and not do something.

The fact that it’s this strong with our bond incomplete, makes my heart hurt for him.

Without contemplation or hesitation, I fling his bedroom door open. Their attention simultaneously snaps towards me. Eris’ eyes are especially wild, and I can feel his wolf riding him hard. Dolos looks exasperated for his brother and whatever he’s trying to discuss.

I bolt across the space and fling myself into Eris, wrapping my arms around him, latching on with all my might. There’s an inkling of fear I don’t want to give life to, that he’ll shake me off.

He smells like bonfires and autumn nights. A sigh escapes me as I greedily inhale his scent.

Surprised he hasn’t pulled away or pushed me off of him yet, I very slowly lift my chin enough to open one eye to check the status of my surroundings.

Seeing Dolos first, I find his jaw is practically on the floor.

I’ve never been able to get so close to him, and now that I’m here…

I never want to leave. When I can’t avoid it a second longer, I decide to chance a look at Eris.

With my cheek still smashed against his chest, I tilt my head to sneak a peek up at him, taking in as much as I can.

What I find isn’t as bad as I was expecting, but it’s not as good as my silly little heart had hoped.

His head is tilted slightly away from me with his eyes clamped shut and jaw locked tight.

While he’s tolerating my abrupt touch, not pulling away as I expected he would, I allow myself to melt into him. Testing my limits further, I turn and elongate my neck, the column of my throat now resting against his chest.

His heartbeat thrums through me as I unabashedly gaze at one of my mates.

Staring straight at his face is kind of like trying to stare at the sun; he’s so damn beautiful, it nearly hurts.

His golden skin looks so soft aside from the angry, throbbing vein crawling up his neck.

His strong jawline dusted with a day or two of growth, which might be the longest I’ve ever seen it.

His annoyingly long eyelashes. His high cheekbones.

The way I dream of running my hands through his ruffled blonde hair.

I wish I could see his gray eyes—the same gray as Dolos’, but somehow, they’re sharper, keeping everyone at arm’s length.

Leera was telling me that he wasn’t like this when she met them. She told me how they were the goofiest and orneriest people she’d ever met. Did I do this to him?

I could see those attributes in Dolos, but it seems impossible for this twin. He’s been nothing but cold, distant, and daunting since the sight of him stole my breath.

The moment I realized they were both my mates was the strangest experience of my life. My wolf was whining and pawing to be released, wanting her mate. For the both of us—my wolf and I—to realize there were two of them was a shock.

Especially after losing our entire pack—apart from our Alpha.

He later told me how he would have perished as well if it weren’t for Leera.

He went on to explain that she was his soul-sister, in a way, and everything that had transpired to date.

I’ve since gotten Leera’s side of the story as well, and it’s something straight out of the legends we were told as pups.

Not only was she reincarnated by the Moon Goddess to return to her mate, Roman, and her brother, Khaos, in this lifetime, but she has also been gifted with several powers, some of which we have yet to understand. Her healing powers are what saved Khaos, without her even knowing what she was doing.

With the recent loss of our entire pack, there wasn’t really time for introductions and mate bonds. The perished deserved our utmost attention and respect while being returned to the Goddess’ embrace.

The movement of Eris’ arms pulls me from my thoughts and back to the moment. I brace myself, and my heart, as I fully expect him to remove me from his personal space. Instead, Dolos and I gasp simultaneously when his arms lock around me.

Fuck, I didn’t want to cry. I just wanted him to not be in so much pain.

Leera’s hugs have shown me how important they are, and I just reacted.

For him to return my embrace is like nothing I ever expected.

His strong arms are holding me, and my body is going haywire, happily losing its shit.

The mate bond tingling across my skin everywhere we meet, begging me to complete the bond, but that’s not my choice. They have to want me.

I don’t move. I barely even breathe. Terrified that I’ll wake up and this will have all been some kind of dream, wild hallucination, or worse…That it’s real, and he’ll come to his senses and throw me out of his room and…reject me.

My wolf whimpers at the thought, and he must have picked up on it because his eyes flash open, and…I’m not prepared for what I see. There’s a thunderstorm brewing in his dark gray eyes. There are shocks of silver and flecks of black among the storm clouds gathering in his irises.

He looks me over as though something was physically wrong with me, but still, I don’t move. Too scared to even blink until my burning eyes force me to, needing the hydration.

I don’t know how long we stand there in silence while a war wages within him. Dolos has slowly begun to approach us like you would a scared and wounded wild animal. When he reaches us and we’re still locked in the embrace that I refuse to let go of first, he moves to stand right next to us.

Not behind me and joining the hug in a way that would sandwich me between them— wouldn’t that be amazing?— but instead, he’s at my right side, Eris’ left, where I continue to refuse to let go of this hug.

Leera once told me, “You should never be the first to let go of a hug, because you never know just how badly the other person might need it.”

I think she’s on to something, because if anyone needs a hug this long, it’s apparently Eris.

Still moving at the speed of a hundred-year-old tortoise, Dolos lifts his left hand, placing it on the small of my back, and it takes all my self-control not to moan at the contact. With both of them touching me, all my nerve endings are being fried, and tingles are shooting through my bloodstream.

I’m clearly not the only one affected as his eyes close and his head falls back. When he returns his head to the upright position, he clasps his brother on the shoulder with a look of adoration on his face.

I don’t know yet what these men have been through, but I know it’s a lot, and they love each other even more for it.

Dolos moves closer to us, and like everything else I’ve noticed about them, they are polar opposites—he smells like blooming trees and spring rain.

My body is full of so many feelings. The most overwhelming sensation is blinding happiness.

I scold myself for being weak when a single tear escapes and rolls down my cheek, but it doesn’t fall because Dolos catches it with his finger and makes a show of putting it in the square breast pocket of his T-shirt.

I turn my head towards him, resting my ear on Eris’ chest, listening to the thrashing of his heart for as long as I can…in case this is the only time I’m ever allowed to hear it.

Dolos is watching me, and his eyes are a much lighter gray today. I’ve noticed from a distance that both of their eyes’ colors seem to change with the weather, what they’re wearing, and their moods.

Today his eyes are a brighter gray with an almost navy-looking ring around them.

Goddess, they’re so beautiful.

“Runa,” Eris says, and my heart rate spikes, my legs going weak. That’s the first time he’s ever said my name.

Please don’t be the last, I beg the Goddess and whatever deities will listen.

Dolos’ hand on my back tenses as we wait for his twin’s words.

“Thank you.”

Two words from him shouldn’t do what they do to me. I turn my eyes back to his and swear, “Always.”

I shouldn’t have said that, but I can’t take it back now…but it’s true, nonetheless. “Can we try to…talk?” I whisper.

He closes his eyes, but when he opens them, they look like the calm after the storm. “Can Dolos and I have a moment to finish the conversation we were having? It’s important for me to get this off my chest. Then…”

I hold my breath at his pause, equally terrified and excited about what he’ll say next.

“…it’s time we had a discussion.”