Gage

I furrowed my brows in confusion. The wolf in front of me was not just an omega, but they were also an alpha. I blinked a few times, looking toward my mate and Maeve for an answer of some sort. The person in front of me was beautiful, of course, breathtaking just as much as Orion was. 

My heart and my mind were fighting against each other. It was wrong to have more than one mate. They didn’t look like they fit into the societal norm of genders, which I didn’t mind. What I did mind was the fact that I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what the right reaction to this would be. 

“My name is Atlas,” the wolf said. Their eyes met mine. My heart wanted me to comfort them. Their eyes were glistening with tears, and I desperately wanted to wipe them away. 

My mind, on the other hand, wanted him to go away. They were going to ruin my perfectly fine relationship with Orion. I looked to Orion, for some sort of answer. But his eyes didn’t break away from the wolf in front of us. I wanted to react, to agree with my wolf that this person was our mate, but no way in sam hell was that correct.

Mateships were only meant to be two people, not more than that. 

I furrowed my brows and shook my head, looking over to Maeve, who had a look of amusement on her face. My chest felt heavy and I knew they were my mate. 

I couldn’t betray Orion, he was my mate. My actual mate. I couldn’t give into my wolf's desires just because their scent was intoxicating. 

“Why’re they here?” I asked Maeve. “Why’d you bring someone here? Are you crazy?” 

“Love, can’t you tell?” Orion spoke, walking toward me. He placed his hand on my chest to calm whatever thoughts I had. “They’re ours.” His eyes met mine. 

“It’s not possible,” I furrowed my brows. “You’re mine, and I’m yours.” I looked behind Orion at the curly-haired wolf. 

“And they are ours.” Orion nodded his head. “They say his uncles are a trio-mated pair.” 

“But—“ I started, but Orion put his hand on my mouth, knowing I’d probably say something stupid. 

The alpha omega got to their feet and approached us, causing me to act defensively. I pushed Orion behind me, and I bared my teeth at Atlas.

“How do I know you’re being truthful?” I finally spoke to them.

Atlas took a step back and tucked their head to their chest. 

Submitting to me…

In a weird way, it made me feel glad that they were willing to do so. “I promise, I’m not trying to do anything wrong… I was there that night. I heard your voice on the other side of the barrier. It was me.” 

I stared into their eyes, trying to find the slightest hint of a lie in them, but I couldn’t see it. I wanted so badly to believe that they were going to do wrong, that this was nothing but a big play on all of us. 

My silence made them continue. “If you don’t believe me, we can go to my parent's pack. You can see for yourself that my uncles are in a poly-mateship.” They pleaded. 

“Don’t brood, you oaf,” Maeve told me. “He’s adorable, look at his cute face. How could you not believe such a cutie?” She asked, pointing at Atlas. 

“Maeve, why did you bring them here?” I asked, not moving my eyes from him. 

“Because my theory as to how he was able to do anything with the border was correct. He felt the need to come onto our land that night because you and Orion were here.” She shrugged. “He even came back tonight, right at the border. This time, he couldn’t get in because it’s not a full moon, and I’ve made it a bit stronger. You shoulda seen him when he couldn’t find the border tonight. He was a sad little pup.” Maeve walked to the alpha omega and grasped his chin into her hands and made him look at her. “It makes sense why he has two mates. An alpha and an omega.” 

“Atlas, which pronouns are okay to use?” I turned my head to them. They looked taken aback, most likely because hardly anyone would ask that question. 

“They/He is fine.” He finally replied. “I– Thank you for asking.” His cheeks turned bright pink. Through my bond with Orion, I could feel a tinge of guilt. 

“Sorry for not asking you sooner.” I shrugged. “But, right now, I don’t think I would feel comfortable doing anything until I meet these uncles you’re talking about.” 

He frowned, but nodded his head. “I understand.” He managed to choke out. “If you’d like to go back with me, I wouldn’t mind taking you guys there.” 

“I’m sorry, Atlas, but I don’t think during the night on a new moon would be the best option for a rogue wolf and a familiar to enter into unknown territory,” I told him. 

He bit down on his lip hard, and I could tell tears were pooling in his eyes. 

He looked like he didn’t know what to say or do. “I’m sorry, but it won’t be easy. If you’re half alpha, that means you’re a large part of your pack. I know many packs don’t take kindly to rogues, and many of them don’t know about shifters other than wolves. Maybe during the daytime, preferably when all of us are rested? Maybe after we know it’s true?” 

He looked defeated at my words, and he nodded his head. 

“Maeve will lead you out of the border so you can go home.” I nodded to her. 

Atlas gave me a painful look. I needed time to think. I didn’t even know if I could handle having two mates. It wasn’t something I would have ever thought of. My world had been turned upside down within a matter of minutes. 

Both Maeve and Orion gave me a look of disappointment, but they didn’t say anything, yet. I’m sure once he was gone, I’d get grilled by Orion. 

Maeve gave Atlas a somber smile and held her hand out for him to grab. Hesitantly, he grabbed her hand and they disappeared. 

“Seriously?” Orion turned his burning gaze to me. “Why didn’t you just invite him in so we could learn a bit about him?” 

I could hear the words, but I couldn’t comprehend them. It almost seemed like I was underwater and didn’t know what to do.  “I need some time alone.” I put my hand up. My chest felt heavy and I just needed to breathe. 

My mate rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Whatever.” He stormed into our cabin. 

I needed to busy myself, and the only way I could get my mind off of everything was to use the same ax that my papa would use. I’d gone back to the cabin once my memories were restored, and it was there, giving me the happy memories of us going out and chopping wood for a cold winter night. 

We’d just got back from chopping wood, and my papa had taken my dad out to a pack nearby. He’d bled a lot that night, the memory of his blood trailing behind them wasn’t promising. For all I knew, they were dead. 

I went behind our house and picked up a log to chop up into firewood and I placed it on the stump I used for chopping wood. I grabbed the worn ax and began to chop the wood up into small pieces. 

My mind went back to Atlas. He had beautiful, curly black and white hair, something that gave his second gender away. He was taller than Orion, and lean. I wished I could see his eyes better in the dark night, but I could tell they were a beautiful hazel color, in the sunlight I could imagine they’d look like a forest, with specs of gold from the sun shining through. 

I swung the ax and I sliced through the wood, and it landed on the grass with a thud. 

“You know,” Maeve appeared in front of me when I swung at the second piece of wood. “You could have been a bit nicer to the boy.”

I ground my teeth together, placed another piece of wood onto the stump, and continued to shred into the wood. 

“I don’t wanna talk about it right now,” I grunted out. 

“You can’t always chop wood when you really need to talk about your feelings.” She rolled her eyes. “You’ve been faced with something. You need to accept it.”

“How can I accept something when I don’t know the outcome? What if my mateship with Orion falls apart? How would that even work? Not just sexually, but emotionally.” I swung again, not bothering to look at her. “I thought it was black and white. You only get one mate to be with, and then you live happily ever after. We were fine. Why would I be fated to another?” 

“Well, sometimes things just work out that way. One thing I do know is that wolf mating bonds are much stronger than others in all my years of living. I think it’s the primal instincts?” She tilted her head. “Anyways, he’s coming back tomorrow. I say this now– don’t break his heart. If he’s a part of the nearby pack, I’m sure they’ll be out for us. Well, I think Orion has embraced the mateship, so I’m sure things’ll be fine. But you need to realize that sometimes others don’t know who they’re meant to be with for their entire lives. Sometimes, they just happen to cross paths. And he’s crossed your path.” 

She then disappeared and left me alone to be in the quiet. To give me the time I needed to think.