Chapter 10 Chapter 10
Frozen in place, it took Suki a few seconds to come back to reality and realise her friend had run away from the scene she’d just witnessed.
“Erin, wait!” she yelled, trying to sit up.
Brendan moved back up her body, groaning with annoyance and lustful hunger intertwined together, being so close to touching his precious mate. He kissed her chest again and growled, “Leave her.” He kissed her neck and dragged his lips to hers, “Let me make you feel good, love.”
Suki whimpered at his touch, “I…” She wanted to give in to him and allow her scratch to be itched, but she sighed, “I can’t. I have to stop her.” Pushing Brendan off, she pulled herself together, straightening up her clothes and ran after Erin.
Locking into just a small amount of wolf speed to tackle the space between them, but her panicked state made it that much more difficult for her to find her way out of the maze.
“Erin!”
Within good time, she managed to spot Erin rushing out of the exit, but before she could get to her, a hand grabbed her arm and pulled her away. Her palms landed on his chest as the familiar scent of sage and sweet berries took over her nose.
It both soothed her and made her forget why she was in a rush for a moment.
“Ki, there you are,” Rey said, smiling. “Erin went looking for you and–” he frowned once he saw her panicked expression. “What’s wrong?”
Shaking her head back to reality, “I have to talk to Erin.”
Concerned, he stroked her cheek and spoke softly, “Slow down. What happened? I can hear your heart racing like crazy. You need to stop for a second and breathe–” He paused, sniffing, “Whose scent is that on you?”
Her eyes flickered wide. “Rey…”
Turning his head to the side, he could see in the corner of his eye Brendan strolling out of the exit. He snarled at the sight of him but looked back at Suki, trying to hold back his pain, but it lingered in his eyes, “Did you both…?”
“No,” she said quickly, gripping his shirt, “no,” she repeated in a whisper, wanting to confess she would never do that, that her first time was meant to be special, but deep down… part of her considered doing it. “I’m sorry,” she looked back and forth between the two men as she stepped backwards, “I-I can’t deal with this right now, I… I have to go.” She turned to run off, but quickly twirled back to add, “Don’t kill each other.”
Speeding off, weaving in and out of people to finally find Erin, she used her speed to flash in front of her, forcing her friend to stop. They were far from the chaos of the fair, in a quiet place within the forest where only the creatures of the night, the wind and the essence of the moon were present.
“I don’t want to talk to you!” Erin bawled.
Suki grabbed her arm and cried out, “Please!” Trying to settle her voice to get Erin to calm down, “You don’t have to talk, okay? Just listen.”
Furrowing her brows, Erin watched Suki with a stern glare.
Her eyes flickered between her friend’s eyes, and she groaned, “Ugh!” She palmed her face, dragging her hands down exaggeratedly. “It’s so crazy to explain.”
“I thought you cared for Reynard,” she snapped. “I know I take the piss out of him and wind him up, but he’s a good guy, Suki. How could you do that to him? You were kissing him earlier today,” each word spoken was a venomous bite into Suki’s mind, “and then I catch you with the Rogue, of all people, all over you?!”
Frowning, she looked down in shame.
Erin shook her head, “I never thought you would be like this. You always said you wanted romance in your life to be special.”
A tear fell down her cheek, “I do. Erin…”
“I thought you wanted to save yourself for your mate,” she said, looking at Suki with disgust and turning to walk away.
Suki winced in advance, knowing she was going to regret the words she was about to say, “He is my mate!”
Erin froze, turning slowly, after which she followed, “What?” She stepped closer, “Who is?”
Struggling to get her words out, stuttering the wind out of her mouth, she wept, “Reynard is…”
“Then why were you–”
“And…” she sighed. “So is Brendan,” she added as quietly as possible.
Eyes bulging out of her sockets, “What the fuck do you mean Reynard and Brendan are your mates?”
“Shh!” Suki hushed her in a panic.
Erin crossed her arms, “Suki, that’s impossible, werewolves can’t bond with multiple werewolves at once, even twins have their own separate mates.”
She exhaled, “I know that,” and leaned against a tree.
“How? When?”
“Since my birthday…”
Another wave of anger took over Erin’s face, “You’ve been dealing with this for months and haven’t told anyone? Not even me?” Suki stayed silent, embarrassed by her actions and for not trusting one of her closest friends. “Do they know?”
Suki nodded, speaking weakly, “Yes.”
“For how long?”
“They found out when they both came looking for me in the Silver Moon pack, trying to stop my engagement.”
Erin croaked out a peculiar noise of her bewilderment, “This is fucking insane. Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
Bending her knees to sit on the ground, Suki wept into her hands, “I didn’t know who I could trust.”
Kneeling beside her, Erin’s voice softened, “You can trust me, Suki. Look, I know our friendship was kinda forced with my family of witches being loyal to protecting your family of werewolves. But I swore an oath to protect you. I’m meant to be your witch. Not your father’s, not anyone else in your family, yours and only yours. If you can’t trust me to protect you, then I’ve already failed my duty.”
“No!” Suki cried, grabbing her hand. “You could never fail me. It was my fault, I was afraid of… I don’t know, being judged? Maybe people would think I’m crazy, or maybe you wouldn’t know what it meant, and then you would have to tell the other witches. Then who knows what crazy experiments might be done on me, or the Rey and Brendan. I just… I panicked. I didn’t want to risk anyone getting hurt.”
Erin sat beside her friend and embraced her in a tight hug, “And as a result, you’ve been hurting yourself by suffering with this all alone.” She pulled away enough to look Suki dead in the eyes. “No more secrets, promise me?”
“I promise,” she sniffled.
“And I promise to do everything I can as your witch. Now, I won’t tell any of the other witches unless you explicitly tell me I can, but I also can’t help you if I don’t know what happened exactly. So,” she shuffled herself to sit in front of Suki, crossing her legs, “tell me everything. Start from the beginning.”
Suki groaned, “The beginning? We’ll be here all night.”
Holding the pause for a moment, Erin smiled and spoke softly, “For you, I’ve got all the time in the world.”
Her heart sank, realising that even though their friendship was forced upon them, they were still well and truly friends who cared for each other. “I’m sorry.”
She shook her head, “No, I’m sorry for judging you so quickly without even letting you explain. I was shocked and maybe even a little hurt for not knowing.” Taking Suki’s hand and squeezing it, “You don’t have to talk about this now, but when you’re ready, I’ll listen, and there will be no judgment, I promise.”
Suki swallowed thickly and nodded. “Okay. Well, as I said before, it started on my birthday…”