(Hours later)
We got back to the cabin. Home. The house I grew up in.
I’d assured her she could stay the night. Honestly, I wasn’t going to have it any other way, but she just smiled and nodded at me. She had no idea how those little smiles made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
We crept in, quiet, careful not to wake my parents, the light already off in the house.
I led us toward my room.
“Stargazing, huh?” A voice called out to us.
Crap.
We froze in place, caught.
There was the briefest hint of panic in me. Ashena’s… we didn’t…
Use it yet.
Way up on the upper part of the house, leaning on the railing, hand flicking on the lights, was my father.
I tried not to look at how much of a mess we both were.
There were grass stains and leaves, dirt… all over us.
“I…”
I couldn’t finish the words. Any words.
My mouth just kind of hung there, open.
What do I even say?
We were a bit too dirty for any normal excuse, right?
“I may have pushed him down the hill…” Jane said, speaking for us. She looked down a bit, as if she were nervous.
“And…” This wasn’t just a one-sided push down the hill, though… especially if we were both equally covered, so… “I may have retaliated?” I added on to her words.
My dad laughed lightly.
“Go get cleaned up and head to bed.” He shook his head and turned away a bit, mumbling to himself, “Oh, what it’s like to be young.”
I heard my mom laugh. “And what can you compare it to?”
“Hey! Not fair! I was young once!”
She giggled as he abandoned the railing and went back to their bed. We were free and clear. I let out the breath I’d been holding.
That was so close.
“Uh-huh. Sure, you were.”
“I was!”
At least now we didn’t have to sneak all the way to the other end of the house. I held out my hand to her and led her silently to the series of doors. I opened mine and the bathroom, them being right next to each other was pretty convenient.
“You can go first.” I told her, pushing her toward the bathroom. “I’ll get some spare clothes for you.”
And I did.
I looked through a lot of my clothes.
When she came into my room, towel wrapped around herself and a blush on her cheeks, I froze in place. I stared.
Jeez.
Slowly, she started to smile, tilting her head at me.
It broke whatever trace I’d been in and I stood suddenly, grabbing the bundle of clothes for her from the bed. She took them silently.
We paused. I took a breath. Another. It didn’t do much.
“I should…” I started to say. “I – uh… I – go wash… up.” I nodded to myself. “Go wash up. Yup. You can change in here. I’m going.”
Flustered, I made my way to the bathroom, completely forgetting the stack of clothes I’d set aside for myself as I did.
I rested my head against the wall in the shower. Why was I like this now? It wasn’t like I should be nervous anymore. Maybe it was the run in with my parents that had sparked it… or maybe, it was because I could see her more clearly in the light, rather than in the shade of trees and slim bit of moonlight that had been shining down.
When I came back to the room, after giving myself a little spritz of the stuff Ashena gave us, I silently snuck over to the pile I’d made for myself, quickly excused myself and went back to the bathroom to change. Again, not that I needed to go to another room…
This was…
A lot.
A really… a bit much to handle.
I returned to my room dressed and found her sitting on my bed, in the same spot she had been. She gave me a smile and patted the bed. My bed.
She…
I swallowed the knot in my throat and came over to her.
All those nerves from earlier that didn’t show up? Yeah, they were definitely here now. The nerves before the shower? That was nothing compared to now.
“Come here, I’m tired. Let’s sleep.”
She pulled me in for a quick kiss and then wrapped her arms around me in order to flip me over onto the bed next to her.
My breath left me, in a good way. She rolled over onto the bed, pulling the covers up over us a bit.
Despite her being so close, so accessible, I felt my energy drain in an instant. Yeah. I was tired too.
This was Jane. Why the heck was I nervous in the first place?
Jane was safe.
We were together.
She tucked herself closer to me, curling up, grabbing my hand in hers. She splayed my fingers out and traced the lines of my palm as her eyelids fluttered a bit. I clasped her hand in mine and kissed the top of her head.
“Goodnight.”
“Mm. Goodnight.”
It didn’t even cross my mind that when morning came, my parents might peek into my room.
Still tired enough that opening my eyes seemed like a struggle, I heard my door click open. I did nothing, and seconds later, it clicked shut.
Eh…
Faintly, my senses started coming back to me, and I could feel her heart beating steadily against my head.
I was…
I opened my eyes slowly.
This was my room.
Jane was here.
I was…
My eyes shot open.
Our arms were wrapped around each other, my head resting on her chest, one of her hands resting in my hair.
I moved slowly to get up.
Everything about last night came back to me and I smiled as I untangled myself from her, only to grab her hand in mine and lightly kiss the back.
She grumbled cutely a bit in her sleep before her eyelids fluttered open.
“Hi… Lee.”
“Hi.”
I leaned my chin in my other hand and gazed at her as she woke up.
“Pretty…” she mumbled as she reached a hand up to touch my face.
Sighing, she closed her eyes again.
“Mmm. I don’t want to get up,” she grumbled not long after.
“Are you hungry?”
Her eyes opened, interest on her face.
“Hm?”
I grinned and pulled her from the bed.
We had a light breakfast together, my parents seeming to disappear for an hour or so… I suspected it was to let us hang out in peace without potential interrogation from them, which was nice. And then not long after that, Jane’s father showed up to take her home.
I went out to send her off, before a realization hit me and I had her wait as I sprinted back to the house. I silently maneuvered past a couple creaky floorboards silently, not wanting to disturb my parents. I reached my room and grabbed the item, shoving it into a bag quickly before heading off again to give it to her.
I halted when I heard their voices.
“Those two…”
“I think Lee’s in love.”
“You think?” My mom responded sarcastically.
My dad chuckled a bit.
“I know. He’s got that look in his eyes when he sees her and talks about her…” He trailed off almost thoughtfully.
I hardly breathed.
“Do you think he should wait for his true mate?”
A chill raced through my whole body at her words. There really wasn’t much in that to worry over. Jane was my true mate, but the rest of the words? Did they want me to wait longer? When they finally found out… what would happen?
“I don’t know…” my dad finally said, “It’s his choice.”
I moved quickly out of there.
I gave Jane the present and waved goodbye with a smile, only a little worried about what they might say once they knew… but maybe they would just congratulate us when that time came around. Maybe…
They’d get it.
(79 days prior to present day)
“What?! What are you talking about, Jacob?” My mom asked, almost like she was accusing him of being ridiculous.
He wasn’t though.
He was right.
I stayed silent.
There wasn’t any way I could deny it. I should’ve known I couldn’t keep it from my dad. Not now.
“Think I can’t smell that?” he prompted me. “I may not be good for much right now, but I know what I’m smelling.”
I gulped.
What were they going to say?
How upset were they going to be when I told them I kept this from them?
Years.
It had been years…
“…Lee?”
My mom’s stern voice reached through those questions. I tensed up when I felt her hand on my shoulder.
“Yes…”
I turned slowly to look at them, licking my lips nervously.
“You do smell different.”
My eyes widened.
I panicked.
There wasn’t another word for it.
I stared between them, worry and fear and uncertainty flooding through me, making it hard to speak.
“I thought – I… I was going to tell you both… but… we just… I…” My voice cracked and I couldn’t bring myself to continue any more than that.
How was I supposed to explain this?
It wasn’t simple.
It wasn’t easy to just outright say it.
To say, ‘oh, a few years ago I became mates with Jane and we’ve been hiding it using Ashena’s perfume stuff and I’ve been deceiving you this whole time because I wasn’t sure how telling you would go’ was so easy, wasn’t it? Oh, and, the trademark ‘I was going to tell you next time we all met up’ would definitely go over well, too.
Oh, and how could I forget to mention that the whole reason we were trapped in this room was because of that secret I’d kept from them?
That one would be the real kicker.
I squeezed my eyes shut, my voice having trailed off pathetically.
“You’re bonded with someone? You marked someone.”
I found myself gazing back up at them. I shrugged.
Mom, with her eyebrows raised and wide eyes, looked like she was having a bit of trouble coming to terms with it. Yup, I’m a problem child… the only one you got. I pursed my lips.
“When?” Dad asked. “When did you get a mate?”
That’s your first question?
I guess… that’s kind of important…
But it was the only part I didn’t want to say.
“Dad, I…” I looked down, briefly closing my eyes while I thought over my words. I sighed before holding their gazes again. “I’ve had one for a while.”
Their eyes widened.
“How long?!”
“Who?!”
I tilted my head, mildly overwhelmed by this whole scenario. I ran a hand over my face, unable to look at them as I said it.
“When I was… fifteen…”
“Fifteen…”
After a moment of silence, my dad laughed a bit before grimacing in pain.
“I should’ve known…”
“Wait. Should have known what?” Mom looked between us both, confused.
He looked at me, the hint of a smile on his face, his eyes searching mine.
“Stargazing and a tussle on the hill?”
I shrugged, smiling faintly.
“We both agreed. We wanted to keep it to ourselves. Aunt Ashena, she sent Jane a couple bottles and it was supposed to mask it.” I paused. “It did… mask…”
I hung my head. They were probably going to be mad.
But ten seconds later, my mom lifted my head, fingers light under my chin, gentle. I looked to my dad, who was smiling. Their expressions were soft…
Forgiving.
“Are you happy with her,” she asked me, “Jane?”
I nodded.
“You must love her a lot.”
“Jane…” My voice trailed off, but I couldn’t help but smile when I recalled her face. All those moments we shared. The letters. All of it was so precious to me. “She’s… I don’t want to be without her. She is my heart. She’s always had it.”
Mom sighed.
“She better love you too.”
“She does.” I nodded, feeling finally free to tell them the truth openly now. “And it’s kinda crazy. We already liked each other before we knew.”
“Before you knew? Knew what?”
They looked at me with blank expressions and confusion. I stared right back.
Did they…
No.
Really?
They didn’t get it at all, yet they were being this supportive?
In a way, the way we’d acted around them was normal, for us, but it still seemed strange somehow that they hadn’t picked up on it, being one of those pairs themselves.
I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I couldn’t help it. I huffed out a laugh.
“She’s… She’s my true mate.”
They stared at me for a full minute of silence, their eyes wide, their mouths opening and closing like a fish out of water.
Mhm.
They had no clue.
“What?”
“Seriously?! And you didn’t tell us?!”
I laughed harder, shaking my head.
“I’m serious. Though…” I glanced over at the window, through the bars and to the sky. “If we hadn’t been… I have a feeling we would’ve ended up here anyway. We would still be together like this.”
As strong as my feelings for her had been, all those unsent letters I had that said ‘I’m falling in love with you’ and asked her if she’d choose me, true mates or not… She’d told me long ago, embarrassingly, that she had a stack of unsent letters of the same kind.
We didn’t need fate.
We already had us.
We already had those feelings deep down.
It might’ve taken longer for one of us to admit it, but fate just sped up the process. Fate gave us more time, more chances to see each other.
I was grateful for that.
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