“Okay, next question, if Ezra wasn’t your mate, who would you choose out of them?”
“Dad?” Why is he asking this?
“Humor me,” he continues, and I think hard about it, though the answer isn’t as straightforward as he makes it seem. I like them both for different reasons.
“I wouldn’t be able to choose if Ezra wasn’t my mate.”
“And that’s because you love Mateo too,” my father says with a nod as if it is no big deal that I have feelings for someone that isn’t my mate. “It’s not a bad thing, Kat, but it does make me wonder why Ezra is asking, I know he is straight, but why would he ask you if he doesn’t already think you love Mateo, or is there another motive behind why he is asking?” My father ponders.
“He knows I won’t leave him, Dad. I told him that already.”
“Then why ask you such a thing? Maybe you should ask your mate, especially if it is making you feel this way. Maybe he intentionally made you question yourself, and from what I can tell, you are doing just that. But the question remains, why?” He asks.
Hmm, now that just makes me more worried, especially knowing how possessive Maddox is. “Was it weird having two mates?” I ask him.
“No, not for me, but for your mothers, it was. We kept everything separate, Kathrine was fine sharing, but clearly your mother wasn’t. For a while, I thought it was working.”
“Do you believe mom killed her deliberately?”
“No, I know she never intentionally did it, Kat, don’t doubt that. Your mother loved her sister and tossed her entire life away to protect her. That’s why she was always training so that she could protect her. And also, because she wanted to be recognized by her father, he never treated your mother like he did Kathrine. Kathrine was special, Shirley had to earn his attention, but nothing she ever did gained her the same treatment,”
“How so?” I ask.
“Your mother was always treated as the soldier, the protector. It was expected of her. Kathrine was her best friend, her only friend growing up. But whenever Shirley fought with her father, Katherine was always on her side. They had a bond being twins, like two halves of a whole, both opposite but the same.”
“All that pressure, all her life… Everyone snaps eventually,” I observe, and he nods.
“Yes, they just need the right trigger,” my father agrees before he looks at his hands. I grab his hand, squeezing it.
“Do you think you can forgive her?’ I ask him. Maybe it’s the child in me, but I want them to get back together again, to get over the betrayal that had happened.
“Yes, but what does that make me if I do? Katherine was my mate.”
“And so is mom, if Katherine, if my mom were really as close with her as you say she was, then she wouldn’t expect you to turn her away, she would just want you both to be happy,” I tell him.
“I know she would, but that doesn’t make it any easier. She killed somebody. I know it isn’t a big deal, she has killed plenty of people, but Katherine, she was mine, Kat, she was mine first, and she killed her.”
The door opens in the foyer, and we both look at the door. Mateo walks in before washing his hands, turning back to my father.
He has a silly smirk on his face before he wiggles his eyebrows at me. I roll my eyes at him, and he slaps my hand. “Hate it when you do that,” he says.
“And I hate you calling me Pumpkin,” I snort.
“You will always be my little Pumpkin,” he says, and I scrunch my face up at him until he laughs.
“We are going for a run if you want to come, Derrick,” Mateo offers, and I peer over my shoulder at him.
“You already asked Ezra?”
“Yeah, he said it was fine, and after training, he will find us, so do you want to come too?” Mateo asks, looking at my father.
“No, I will leave you, kids, to it. I should get to work anyway, I’ve been slacking in that department.” He grunts as he stretches, standing up, and kissing my head. “I will catch you later, Mateo. Have fun.”
I follow him to the door and close it when he leaves, only to turn around and bump into Mateo. “Ready? Ezra just said don’t go past the river, we can always go swimming and then head back,” I nod, and he walks out the back, pulling his shirt off over his head.
“He said we could go swimming?” I ask him, and he nods.
“Yeah, said he might meet us out there,” Mateo replies, dropping his pants. I stare up at the sky and away from him. Kora, the pervert, tells me to look at him when I hear bones snapping and shifting before Ares’ nose touches my hand, and I look down.
“Turn around then,” I tell him, and he does, so I can shift.
Kora shifts and Ares keeps his back to us until she bites his tail, making him spin around. Ares pounces on her and nips at her face before licking her cheek.
“Race you,” she says before shoving him over and darting toward the treeline.
It feels good being in this form, Kora is carefree and loves the feel of the earth under her feet, the way the dirt kicks up behind her as she zips in and out of trees and jumps over fallen logs. The breeze ruffles her fur, and damn was she fast and lithe on her feet.
She slows down, looking for Ares, we could hear him catching up to us when everything suddenly falls silent before he pounces, tackling Kora. Ares jumps off her and darts away, and she gives chase.
“She seems excited to be out,” Mateo mindlinks me.
“Yep, sucks she can’t shift much,” I tell him, just letting her go and do whatever she wants while she can.
“You still want to go swimming, or do you want to wait for Ezra?” He asks me, and I shrug before remembering he can’t see that through the link.
“If you want, I am not fazed. Are you sure Ezra is fine with it?” I ask again.
“Said he was, let me add him to the link,” Mateo offers, and I feel a weird rippling before Ezra’s voice comes into range, it is strange having a three-way conversation. I have had orders barked at me through the link with everyone connected, but never just three people that weren’t family members. There’s an intimacy to it, I’m not used to, and I wonder if the others feel it too.