JULIEN

As we walked to the living room to meet my parents, I looked at Mikaela, even though we hadn’t seen each other for a while he still looked the same, but I noticed something different in him. He wasn’t wearing his collar, and that was odd. I took a peak at his nape. ‘A fresh bitemark….’ I bit my lips, repressing the urge to ask about his mate. After all, we were not alone. Byron and the other alpha wolf, whose name I didn’t know, were following us from behind. I could feel the ginger-haired alpha staring at me, I sensed a little jealousy coming from him…

“He’s my mate,” Mikaela said to me, looking back at the alpha, who was trying to kill me with his stare, smiling. I gasped and then giggled. The coincidence that our fated mates were both wolves amused me. “His name is Mason.”

“Congratulations on your mating,” I said, giving him a smile and a little hug. “Makes more sense now. I think he’s a little jealous though….” 

Mika laughed and went to his mate, hugging his arm and kissing his cheek. I gave Byron a shy look. He was looking down and not even noticing I was staring at him, and he looked hurt and upset. I should be the upset one, he broke his promise. I remembered how before I hugged Mika, I caught a glimpse of Byron with his arms open. Did he think I was going to hug him? I remembered his face causing me to let out a giggle ‘What a dummy.’

Knocking on the living room door, I heard my Papa’s voice telling us to come in. Guards opened the door. Stepping into the room, mom and Papa glanced at us.

“Mikaela, long time no see.” Papa said, smiling at my friend. He glanced at his legs, noticing the bandages. “Wait..don’t tell me….”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I’m the merman that the hunters attacked.” Mikaela interrupted him, somewhat downhearted. Mason approached him, taking his hand and caressing it. Mom frowned at that gesture. “Those men took advantage of the moment I was refreshing my fins in the lake; they tied me up and tried to take my scales. Luckily I managed to escape, and Mason found me.” 

I gasped at his story, covering my mouth with my hand. My eyes teared up, imagining the pain my friend went through. Byron looked at me, wanting to hold me in his arms and comfort me, and I wanted that too, but my parents were here, so we couldn’t. Not yet at least. 

“At least you are better now, sweetie,” Papa said, smiling at Mikaela and then at the other wolf. “Thank you for saving him, Mason. It means a lot to us.” The latter just nodded at Papa.

“I guess you were right then, wolves.” Mom said looking at both Byron and Mason with a serious look. “Guess I’ll allow more of your betas to be on the lookout near our mansion.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Byron said, bowing slightly at her. “We will do our best to protect you all and catch those hunters.”

“So Mikaela, sweetie. Will you be staying with us?” Papa smiled at my best friend. “I’ll tell the maids to get your room ready.”

“Thank you for the offer, but I will be staying in the pack with Mason.” Mom raised her brow at Mika’s answer.

“Oh, why did you decide that?” Papa asked, his eyes filled with curiosity. ‘Oh no, here it comes…’

“Mason is my fated mate, Your Majesty.” Mika smiled, grabbing his mate’s hand. Mom’s face was amazed, with both disgust and surprise showing simultaneously. Then, after a moment of pure silence, she cleared her throat.

“Well, it was nice to see you, Mikaela. I have some meetings to attend.” She stood up, took her newspaper, and left the room.

“Does your Papa know about your mate?” Papa asked, standing close to us. Mikaela nodded with a smile as Papa gave him a big hug. “Well, congratulations on finding your mate, sweetie.”

“Thank you, Papa Henry!” Mikaela hugged him back. Breaking the hug, Papa looked at the rest of us.

“I have some stuff to do too, but you can hang out here as long as you want, and your guests too.” I nodded at my Papa’s words looking at him leave the room, holding back a smile. 

“I thought they were gonna be mad at me.” My best friend sighed, relieved. 

“Why?” Mason asked, hugging him.

“She hates werewolves so much; at least Papa Henry took it well.” Mika laughed a bit, looking at me. “What now?”

Since Papa permitted them to hang out, that means I can spend quality time with Byron too. And the best place to have some privacy in this house was…

“Wanna go to the greenhouse?” I smiled at him. 

“Sure,” Mika turned to Byron and Mason. “Julien asked if we wanna…”

“Go to the greenhouse? It would be a pleasure.” Byron interrupted my friend. I was surprised. Did he know sign language all this time? Mason looked at his friend in shock and then nodded at my request.

Leading the way to the greenhouse, I looked at how Mason and Mika were so lovey-dovey, and then I looked at Byron, his eyebrows in a frown. In the greenhouse, he sat at one of the benches close to the roses in the entry. I lost sight of Mikaela and his mate through the flowers.

I approached Byron, standing in front of him, and noticed he still had a frown. He looked at me, and I heard a small grunt coming from him. 

“Why are you mad at me?” I asked him with signs. 

He didn’t answer. He was just looking at me.

“Byron, answer me. I know you can understand sign language.”

Still, no response. Starting to lose my patience, I sighed and looked into his eyes.

“If you are not going to talk to me, then you shouldn’t have come in the first place. I should be the angry one. You broke your promise. It’s been two days since I last saw you.” I signed to him, and he sighed.

“Why didn’t you look at me earlier?” He said. I thought back at what I did and it’s true I didn’t glance at him or even say hi earlier, but it was because I was worried about Mikaela. Then, of course, there’s also the hug thing. 

“Sorry about that, I was worried about my best friend, and I was not going to hug you back then. There were lots of guards watching.”

“Well, you could have said ‘hi,’ at least.” He snorted.

“Well, I’m sorry. And what about you? You didn’t tell me you knew sign language.” I crossed my arms and raised a brow looking at him.

“I didn’t. I tried to learn because of you.”

“Because of me?” I looked at him curiously.

“Yes, I spend these past two days practicing in my free time. I wanted to be able to communicate with you more.” I gasped, a soft blush forming on my cheeks.

I sat on his lap, taking his cheeks with my hands and then kissing him. I felt his lips moving against mine. It was magical, just as I imagined. After a moment, we separated and looked into each other's eyes.

“I wanted to pull an all-nighter learning, but I fell asleep on my laptop.” He laughed. “And then my dad had me going all around the pack these two days, so I couldn’t come to see you. So I’m sorry, baby.”

“It’s okay. I forgive you.” I smiled, giving him another kiss, this time on his cheek.

Feeling flirty, I approached his neck with my lips leaving kisses and licks all over it. I felt something was getting hard under my butt. Byron let me do my thing, resting his hands on my waist, caressing it. He let out a soft groan, making me smile. Teasing him was fun. I moved my hips, my butt fondling against Byron’s hard bulge. Getting aroused, too, I lost myself to the passion.

A scream, and something breaking, startled me. I looked where it came from—broken glasses, tea, and cookies all over the floor. My face turned pale. 

Papa?!