Chapter 12 - Catra

Catra slept some, but it was fitful. She knew she was safe at home with Ryan. She knew she was in his bed because she could smell his scent all around her.

Every time she closed her eyes, streaks of brilliant white light flashed across the inside of her eyelids. The light bled into her dreams, turning them violent, frantic, erratic. But she wasn’t quite sure if she was actually asleep, or if she was simply seeing into the future.

A future where the universe was too broken to put back together, and where Heaven fell down to the Earth. Something big and bad was coming. All because she had created an Angel.

When Catra woke up she nearly hit her head on the shelf above the bed, when she heard the bedroom floorboards creak. She turned onto her back, sitting up, looking around blearily, to see that it was Nora who took a seat in the rocking chair across from the bed.

Nora had a ball of pale pink wool and two sturdy knitting needles in hand.

“I came to check how you were doing.” Nora said pleasantly.

Nora had been incredible when Catra and Ryan had discovered they were mates. She immediately took Catra in and treated her so well that Catra felt immediately at home. When Catra had shown up at the Cashel pack compound she had been lost and homesick for a family that didn’t really want her, and she had been tired of the magic she used.

When she showed up at the compound, she vowed to never use sex in her magic practices again and vowed to stop wearing glamors to make herself feel better. The mating bond striking like lightning had not done anything to excite Catra emotionally.

Instead, it compounded all the existing exhaustion that threatened to drown her.

Nora noticed this and instantly got between her and Ryan, allowing her time to get used to living with a pack of werewolves. Nora gave her what no one else could. Not even Ryan.

She gave Catra comfort. That was why Catra used the worst magic she could to halt Molly’s disease. To thank the woman who had, in a way, saved her life.

Not that she would ever speak about that magic with anyone ever again.

“I’m fine, I suppose.” Catra said listlessly. A large bottle of water, aspirin, and a box of dry crackers were neatly placed on the bedside table next to her. She looked back over at Nora and the pale pink wool.

Of course Nora knew. If Catra had not known better, she would have thought that the werewolf Luna had a little witch in her.

It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.

“I’m only four months along.” Catra said, pulling Ryan’s quilt tightly around her, as if she needed something to protect herself.

“I know.” Nora answered, smiling. “I’ve been waiting for you to tell me. To tell us.”

“Where is Ryan?” Catra opened the box of crackers and started eating hungrily. She was starving. She could not tell if her newfound hunger was because of the pregnancy or if she was simply comfort eating.

“He called a meeting with several other pack Alphas. He told me about the demons, and I suggested that we start shoring up our defenses.”

“Yeah,” Catra said. She finally felt awake, and knew she had to start planning how she would save Daniel.

Her eyes fell to the backpack on the floor near the bed and her heart jumped with relief. They would need all that gold to negotiate for Daniel’s transition.

“I need to get up and see Daniel. Make sure he is okay and then plan the next steps. We have to get him changed into a demon.”

“When are you going to tell Ryan that he is your other mate? And that Daniel and Ryan are each other’s mates?” Nora asked the question so casually that Catra choked on a cracker.

“I- I don’t know what you mean.” Her voice was devoid of emotion although her heart was racing. She could hear it thumping erratically in her chest and she knew Nora could hear it too. There was nothing that Nora would miss with her extremely sensitive werewolf hearing.

“You don’t have to worry my girl,” Nora’s voice was soft and gentle, “I’m not judging you. Do you think your situation is new to me?”

Catra did not try and stop the flood of tears that escaped her then. The trauma of the night before, in the Palace of Souls, and the pressure of keeping Daniel’s true identity a secret from Ryan was crushing Catra. And she was starting to break.

It was a relief to cry the way she was, sobbing breathlessly, burying her head in her hands as her shoulders trembled. The violence of her tears frightened Catra. Now that she had started crying, would she ever stop?

Nora discarded the knitting swiftly and came to sit down on the bed next to Catra, pulling her into her large arms.

She tried soothing Catra, smoothing one large, calloused hand over Catra’s unruly hair.

“It is okay darling,” Nora clucked sympathetically. “I know how you feel. I know exactly how you feel.” Catra pulled away and took the crisp, pale yellow handkerchief that Nora handed her to dry her eyes.

“When you say you know exactly how I feel…” Catra asked tentatively, and Nora laughed loudly this time.

“Ryan doesn’t know this, although it was never something I intended to keep secret from my children. But his father wasn’t my only mate. And I wasn’t Cillian’s only mate either, by any means.”

Catra pulled away, and she forced her mouth closed, though she knew she was failing.

“You mean, you and Cillian each had another mate.”

“No dear me! That would have been complicated. I mean that we each mated with one more person.” A small smile crossed Nora’s face as she reminisced on the past. “There were three of us. Myself, Cillian, and a beautiful Fae man from the Unseelie Court. The King of the Unseelie Court actually.”

Catra really did not bother hiding her shock then as Nora pulled away and went to fetch her knitting.

She moved over so that Nora could settle comfortably on the bed next to her as the woman told her story.

“Cillian and I were both always adventurous, especially when we were younger.

And before he took over as Alpha, we met Aislinn. King of the Unseelie Court. Cillian and I knew we were each other’s mates, and no matter how adventurous we were, we wouldn’t dare cheat on each other.” Nora started knitting and her hands moved so quickly that they became a blur. Catra could barely keep up.

“Well, when we spoke to our parents, we discovered that many werewolves, and other creatures,” The blue wool that had been shapeless before was starting to take shape as Nora continued her story, “Are more likely to mate in threesomes, for want of a better word.”

“So you’re sure that Daniel and Ryan are each other’s mates too?” She had never gotten an inkling that Ryan was interested in men.

Not that she had an issue with it.

In fact, it made her wet just thinking about the two of them together.

“My son has dated men before. Long before he met you.” Nora said, her voice incredibly matter-of-fact. “We even thought he might have a male mate. Or someone of a different gender entirely. You know how diverse our magical world is. There’s no telling.”

“B- but” Catra stuttered the word as her brain played catch up with everything that Nora had revealed, “How am I supposed to tell the two of them? I met Daniel yesterday. And Ryan doesn’t even know who he is! I’m attracted to Daniel, but I don’t know if I even love him!”

Her voice had risen about two octaves as she considered the implications if Daniel was both her and Ryan’s mate.

“Don’t do anything just yet.” Nora spoke simply, as though the answer was obvious. “You don’t have to react to every situation right away. And I can promise you this, you have much bigger problems.”

“Yes,” Catra sighed, laying back in the bed. “And I have no idea how to start solving these problems.”

“I know a witch, across the border in Wales.” Nora answered, her hands still moving quickly. Catra realized that Ryan’s mother was knitting a baby onesie.

“She might be able to help you. You’ll have to invite Ryan with you though. There is no leaving him out of this.”

Catra nodded slowly. Ryan was her mate. He was Daniel’s mate. Daniel was her mate.

There was no leaving either of them out of anything she was doing.

For the rest of their lives.