I didn’t say anything, but at least I knew I was safe with Tyson.
Chapter twenty-three
Ace
I could hear them talking, and it infuriated me to listen to their banter before the room fell silent. I was sick and tired of being compared to Tyson. Ever since we took over this pack, it had always been a competition, but it wasn’t supposed to be like this with her. She belonged to both of us, yet he would toss me away from her, and that pissed me off. We agreed that we would share her.Share, not one keeps her for himself. It made me wonder if it had been his plan all along, but I knew that was just my jealousy talking.
I sat staring at the ceiling. I wanted to be with her, wanted to apologize, wanted to make up for what I had done, but I couldn’t if she wouldn’t let me near her. Atticus was frantic at the thought of losing his mate, frantic that she would reject us again. I was restless, and she was so close yet so far out of reach for me right now.
“Will you stop that?” Tyson’s voice said, flitting through my head.
“Stop what?” I asked, annoyed.I was staying away, like he’d wanted.
“The scratching,” he snapped at me. I looked down at my hands, not realizing my claws had slipped out, and I was tearing apart the side of my bed.
“Sorry. I didn’t realize,” I told him.
“Are you okay or not?”
“Like you care. What do you think?” I told him.
“She is asleep. You can come in but don’t wake her. And you try anything…”
“I won’t. Atticus is annoying me.”
“I mean it, Ace. You try to mark her, I will lose it. You can come in, but hop out before she wakes,” Tyson told me.
“I won’t. I just want to be close to her,” I told him, already climbing out of bed. I opened my bedroom door before creeping down the hall, creeping around my own damn house, but I felt better knowing Tyson still wanted me to be her mate. It put me at ease a little that he wasn’t trying to shove me out.
“He is our twin,” Atticus told me, making me realize how silly my jealousy was. He was just protective of her, we both are. Only I was the one that fucked up.
I pushed open his bedroom door, and he was watching TV. Lucy was asleep with her head on his chest. He pulled her closer, giving me room on the bed so I could lie beside her.
“Don’t wake her. She will be pissed off,” Tyson mindlinked, and I nodded before carefully lying down beside her. I shuffled closer to her, draping my arm over her waist. I buried my face in her hair, inhaling her scent. My wolf instantly relaxed, and so did I.
“If she accepts us, we will have to get a bigger bed. No offense bro, but I don’t want you touching me,” he said, and I chuckled, and she stirred. I froze, and Tyson did too before looking down at her. She rolled, both of us frozen before she turned into me. I knew she was reacting to the bond and not me, but I liked it all the same as she snuggled closer.
Tyson flicked the TV off before snuggling closer to her.
“Fine, you can stay. But if she wakes up and is angry, you are taking the blame.”
“Deal.” I replied, kissing her head and pulling her closer to my chest.
***
Lucy
Waking up, I was surrounded by warmth. Sparks rushed everywhere, all over my body, and I stiffened when I picked up Ace’s scent. My hand darted to my neck, and I let out a breath of relief when I realized he hadn’t marked me while I was asleep. I stared at him. Besides their scents, the only difference between them was Ace had a scar through his eyebrow and across his eyelid while Tyson’s face was scar-free. Though Tyson had a rather large cut across his inner thigh from taking on a bear when we were camping when I was a kid. It had stumbled into our camp, trying to get in our tent.
It woke us up when it clawed through the canvas, and he barely had time to shift before it dragged him out. Poor thing was hungry. Tyson fought it off and scared it away, yet it tore into his thigh pretty badly, and I had to hold his thigh together while it healed, leaving the scar, while Ace went to get Ryker. I ran my fingers down his eyelid tracing the scar with my finger. His eyes instantly flew open at my touch.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, gripping my hand. He kissed my fingertips before holding them to his chest. “I know you hate me. I know I shouldn’t be in here, but Atticus was restless,” he said, closing his eyes again and going back to sleep.
“I am not forgiving you, Ace,” I told him.
“Just don’t reject me. I can live with you hating me, but don’t reject me,” he said. Now that I had calmed down and wasn’t so emotional, I didn’t think I could even if I wanted to. I still hated him, yet some part of me all along knew they were mine. I just didn’t know it without my wolf. I didn’t say anything, knowing I was too hot-headed to promise anything, but I knew I would stick with it when I truly decided. I felt movement behind me and looked over my shoulder just as Tyson sat looking over at us.
“Everything good?” he asked worriedly, and I knew he thought I would be losing it at Ace being there.