Her Brother, Her Mate

The next evening….

My lips curl up into a smile as Mark picks me up at Amanda’s house. I stood at the door, admiring the clean-cut man jogging up the steps to take my hand and help me back down the 5 steps. He’s been exceptionally sweet since yesterday, trying his hardest to make up for the bad first impression.

Mitch agreed to let Mark take me out alone tonight, saying he had something he needed to take care of before tonight. Tonight is the night their father removes the binding on their magic. I’m nervous. After the binding is gone, they will be able to be intimate with me without the risk of killing me.

I’m a virgin, and never even had a boyfriend. No first k**s. No getting to any bases with a man. Except for the few times Zeki forced me to hold his hand or put his arm around me when we had to make appearances for our parents, I have never had any experience with men.

Mark and Mitch have TONS of experience. More than I would like to even think about. I am so worried I will be a disappointment. I awkwardly asked them if I had to worry about STDs or anything like that and they both reassured me that werewolves aren’t susceptible to most human medical conditions, STDs being one of them. I hate that I had to ask, but if I didn’t, it would have nagged at me and I would be hesitant to do anything with them.

“You look beautiful,” Mark tells me, kissing my cheek when I reach the bottom step.

“You look pretty good yourself,” I told him, looking him up and down. “So, where are we going?”

A boyish grin spread on his face. “It’s a surprise.”

I squinted at him, narrowing my eyes but returning his enthusiastic smile.

The entire drive is maybe 5 minutes of easy conversation, Mark caressing my hand, arm, and kissing my knuckles on occasion. The electrical currents I now know are from the mate bond are making my skin vibrate and tingle. Their touch is becoming an addiction. I crave the tingles when they’re not around, and just want their hands on me in some way when they are.

We pull into a marina and nervousness hits me. I’ve never been on a boat like these ones before. I’ve taken the ferry, but that’s not really the same as being out in open water with sharks and who knows what else beneath you.

“What’s wrong?” Mark asks, taking in my hesitation as he helps me out of his car.

“Are we going out on the water?” I gulped nervously

“That was the plan,” he smiled sheepishly, tilting his chin towards a larger boat under the shaded part of the dock.

“I’m in heels,” I squealed, motioning down to my shoes. How am I going to stand on a swaying boat in the middle of the ocean?

“You will be fine. I promise,” he chuckles lightly, “Unless you’re too scared. You can admit it if you are. I won’t judge you.”

“I’m not scared,” I jutted my chin out defiantly, even though the words out of my mouth were a lie.

Mark held his hands up, “It’s okay. No judgment. If you can’t do it, we can just go to Five Guys and eat burgers, then take a boring walk around the park. Wouldn’t want to scare you.” I know he’s just teasing me, but it works. I sighed, gripped his hand and dragged him with me towards the boat.

Mark chuckles huskily, his throaty laugh doing things to the inside of me, amplifying the butterflies in my belly from the nerves of getting on this damn boat I know is taking me out to my death.

Stepping on board, Mark leads me across the tanning deck, into the cabin, and I gasp in surprise at the sight before me.

****

Mitch POV

Things have been going great the past 24 hours. Hadley even allowed us to take her to dinner last night. She is getting a lot more comfortable with us, letting us hold her hands, hug her, pulling her in to cuddle against us. The only time she gets a little upset is when we start kissing her cheeks too much. She gets embarrassed since the bond is triggering her arousal from the contact.

Tonight can’t come soon enough. Dad and Amanda finally have everything they need to lift the bindings on our magic. I don’t even care about getting the magic. I’m just happy Mark and I can claim our mate. It’s torture being around your willing mate and not being able to do anything more than a k**s on the cheek. I want to k**s every inch of her gorgeous body, then watch as my brother worships her body. I want so badly to see the way her body reacts to both of us pleasuring her at the same time. She is ours, and after tonight we can finally show her what that truly means.

She’s currently out to dinner with Mark after getting off work. He wanted her alone for a little bit since I had her alone the first time I took her out to lunch. Lady Delilah told me to take a leave of absence from work until I could get my personal affairs sorted out. My position will remain for me to take whenever I’m ready to go back.

Now, I’m on my way to take care of the last thing that has been worrying me since finding my mate.

Suzie.

She has been blowing up my phone the last few days, sending me crazy texts, and voicemails of her crying. It’s excessive, even for her, and I need to put a stop to it now. I can’t entertain the clingy attitude of hers now that I have my mate. It’s like her addictive tendencies have latched onto me, and I didn’t notice until it was too late.Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.

She has never called me this much or freaked out this much in the past when I didn’t answer or text her back. She would just wait to see me in person at the b***d bank and b***h at me there. I don’t know what happened over the last few days, but it needed to stop. I wasn’t going to let Suzie ruin Hadley’s feelings towards me. I can just imagine the way Hadley would react to Suzie blowing up my phone. Hadley wouldn’t tolerate it, so I’m not going to either.

I’m not going to let anyone upset my mate.

I let Suzie pick the meeting place. Some casual bar in Midtown. As I pull up, parking in the small lot next to the place, I notice her junk car is already there, parked in the back. I decide to park away from it, just in case. If this ends poorly and she starts freaking out like I think she will, I don’t want to have to walk awkwardly back to the cars beside her.

I park my Tesla right under a security camera, praying she won’t go psycho and hurt my car when she gets mad at me.

It’s still early, so the bar isn’t busy. There is a sign flashing saying ‘happy hour’, but I don’t plan on drinking tonight. I want to get this over with, get home, then prepare for tonight. I want to be ready to claim my mate with my brother as soon as this is all over.

Suzie waved me over to the table she claimed in the corner of the bar. She has two drinks already in front of her, offering one to me with a smile as I get closer.

“Hey. I went ahead and ordered for us.” She is grinning, and seems overly cheerful for some reason. I was expecting her anger and whining, not for her to buy me a drink. I looked into the cloudy orange drink she placed in my hands. It looks like a screwdriver. I never get screwdrivers. I don’t like sweet alcohol.

I sniff it, and it smells off. The smell of it almost burns my nose, like breathing in toxic fumes. Looking at Suzie, her smile seemed to falter for a second, then she looked offended, her defensiveness flaring.

“Oh my gawd, do you really think I would do something to your drink?” she snips, wrinkling her face in disgust. She said it not me. I wasn’t sure, but her defensiveness speaks volumes.

I dip my pinky in the drink, instantly hissing as my skin makes contact with the liquid. Her face turns into a mask of fear as I toss the glass to the side and it shatters in pieces, the splatter of the laced liquid seering the side of my leg.

“Why the f**k would you try to poison me with wolfsbane, Suzie?”