Chapter 37
epting 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 ce.
‘Don’t damage the papers,’ he warned. ‘And there’s a sh drive in there too. It’s all for n.’
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 y 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 nk, trotting along beside me.
‘You that desperate to y Heru too?’ I teased, earning a loud grumble of protest.
‘I would have asked if you wanted to ride me,’ he muttered. ‘Butst 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 ofughter, ‘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 wanmune by the time Aasim and Heru had finished
ying 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,cked 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 wan Family’snd became apparent as we neared, gradually bing greener and warmer,
the snow retreating. Blooms and trees, in full leaf, flourished when they shouldy 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, wans were humans blessed by the moon
goddess and entrusted to protect the primordial spirit of the earth, gaia, by manipting the energies of
nature around them. Earth wans were the most numerous, able to grow nts no matter the season
and enhance their natural properties, making them quite potent. Others could see the aura of those
around them, some couldmunicate 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. n’s homey just up
ahead on the edge of the wanmune. 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 distanceter in front of
a log-built cottage with a thatched roof and climbing roses and ivies growing up the exterior. Arge
paddocky 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 n’s mare, Sugar,” he ced 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-ck hair flowing down his back, a deep tanplexion and
a fairly broad build from what I was expecting; he had to be n. 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.
Iughed 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, pping 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 awkwardlyughed. I wasn’t expecting such a warm
greeting, having been used to seeing and experiencing more formal and prim wees.
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 nts 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 n, 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,” n 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.”
“Howe 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 gotpetition from a nt?” I snickered at theical 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,” n pulled a brte woman by her hand to greet me; his familiar, a wan
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, n 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 arge steaming teapot on the table.
“Is it the funky stuff?” Badru grinned, sniffing the aroma emanating.
“No, you need to concentrate,” she yfully 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 wan Family that lives in a wolf pack in Oregon.’
‘Ashen Star?’ I rified.
‘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.
n presented, with a flourish, tes 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 theck of meat.
“I can open up that tofu bacon? It went down wellst time,” n pped the table in raucousughter.
“No! Never again,” Astennu eximed, a huge grin on his face at the inside joke between them.
“Thest time I offered them some,” n 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.”
Iughed 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 n’s small downstairs office, also filled to the
brim with nts. I handed over the stack of files, paper and the sh drive.
“It’ll take me well over a week to get through all of this, maybe longer. Hope that’s alright?” He nced
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 inmand 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.
n 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 tough, “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 thest few hours of that night,” Badru added to the memory.
“Me neither,” n 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 memoryne, though their bromance was quite adorable. Luna Qamar had some surprise for the
twins that neither looked particrly 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 epting 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, cing 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 porcin.
Her eyes widened as theynded 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.
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