Accepting My Twin Mates
Chapter 78

2 months later

Astennu

“Let me get this straight, pup,” the irate Alaskan Alpha of Tundra River pack snarled down the phone line to me. “You think I have something to do with your mate being taken?”

How he had the audacity to address me as “pup’ was ludicrous. The man was barely two years older than me or Badru. Konstantin said his former mate's pack wouldn't be an issue, that they wouldn't care about him or Evie. But what if he was wrong? So, with some effort, we had tracked a phone number for the pack via their neighbour to their north, White Cloud pack. The Alpha to White Cloud had surprised me by being both helpful and polite. It aided in our favour that he hadn't much respect for the new Alpha of Tundra River.

“Alpha Dominic, I'm simply crossing off as many suspects as possible,” I did my best to keep my voice level and not escalate the phone call to a screaming match or trigger a war. “But your pack killed our mate's mother. Why wouldn't we suspect you?"

“That wolf was a deserter, she had it coming,” he sneered. “And why the f**k would I care about some she-wolf from 20 years ago that I've never met? Lycan or not, I don't give a s**t. A willful she-wolf is of no interest to me.”

His end of the phone was slammed down with such force, the receiver shuddered on my end. I swallowed my roar of rage, clinging to my urge to hurl the phone set across the study. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the FɪndNøvel.ɴᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“You did better than I would have,” my brother bounced his knee, going over a clip of CCTV footage for the umpteenth time in the unlikely chance we had missed something on the thousandth viewing. “If that had been me, it would have ended in an Alpha challenge.”

“An alpha challenge sounds good to me; Aasim prowled in the back of my mind.

“Sit your ego down, wolf? I warned him before he got any more bright ideas.

“Why don't you save that Alpha challenge for Catalina?" I took a few deep breaths to cool my jets.

“Goddess, I wish I could throw her out without looking like a douche,” he grumbled, clenching and unclenching his fists on either side of his laptop.

Her brother, Thiago, had left a while back. As heir to his pack, he had responsibilities of his own on his shoulders. He didn't need our s**t on top to deal with. Much to the joy of my brother, Catalina hadn't left with him. She stayed by Lucy's side most of the time, assuring that she felt safe, and why Badru couldn't throw her out and not look like the biggest a*****e on the planet. No matter how much he wanted to. Personally, I preferred her here. We were spread thin enough as it was and Catalina's presence meant Lucy's safety was one we didn't need to worry about. Anything that lessened my worry, and my guilt, was a rare positive.

“Mom still out shopping for baby clothes?” A tightness gripped Badru's voice that he was shitty at hiding, already regretting his change of topic.

“Where else?”

“f*#k" he hissed under his breath, slamming his laptop closed with a crunch. “I wish she'd stop... it’s killing me seeing the tiny clothes... why are they so small?”

For both of us, seeing the tiny items made all of this too real, too sickeningly real. For two months, Badru and I had felt the tiny life growing. We didn't know whether they were a boy or a girl, or which of us fathered them and neither did we care. Every day our mate and unborn pup were away from us, another fracture opened up. Mine were on the inside where I tried to hide them. My brother made no such effort.

Our mother was both ecstatic and horrified about the pup. Ecstatic because we were getting exactly what she had always wanted us to have; a family. Ever since we had told her, she had become obsessed with buying things for the pup... our pup, to distract herself from the reality of what horrified her. That she may never meet them... that we may never meet them. What if we found them too late...?

So our mother threw herself into false optimism that we would find our mate and pup any day now.

Our father, on the other hand, was far more grounded and realistic. I saw the hint of a smile on his face when Badru and I told him with our mom at his side. But like us, how could he be truly happy about it? Who wanted to find out about becoming a grandparent this way? He wouldn't say in words, but I could tell how he spoke. He didn't think Evie was coming back; a fear that was internally screaming louder and louder in my head. And while he said he wouldn't paint Konstantin as the culprit, he did. The more that time went by with us finding no answers and no leads other than what was plain to see facts, it stacked against Konstantin further.

Damian had kept watch in secret for as long as he could over Finley's parents, Kate and Lance, and found nothing; a word I was becoming infuriatingly used to hearing. The guy had a mate and a job that he was neglecting, for us. After a month, he had to stop, otherwise, he would unintentionally draw attention to himself. For a wolf who volunteered his time on patrols, Damian was good at what he did. True to my trust in him, he hadn't breathed a word to anyone, not even his mate.

Even though Finley had supposedly returned to his bland and dead home just over a month ago, neither of his parents had gone to pick him up or left to visit. This was mainly due to the pack borders being on lockdown, no one in or out, without express permission. And that permission was yet to be granted to anyone in our pack.

That included Badru and me.

We didn't exactly have our father’s permission the last time we went to Finley's place. We kind of just took the key and went off.

I had wanted to station someone by his apartment, but our dad wouldn't allow it and wouldn't even entertain the notion. He said it was too dangerous to leave a small number of our pack so far outside of our borders with no close back up. I had to concede, he had a point.

With some convincing, the hotel that Finley was meant to have stayed at, The Moon's Courtyard, emailed me their security footage and part of me wished I had never asked. It showed him clearly checking in and then checking out, right there on my screen. I still couldn't believe it, neither could Badru, and it played on our minds daily.

How did all of it it together?

Badru

“There's something we're missing here and it's driving me insane!” I roared, slamming my clenched fists to my solid wood desk, a deep fracture parting the grain at my outburst.

My grasp of control had evaporated over a month ago. When Astennu and I weren't pawing over any possible reported sighting outside of the pack that always led to a dead end, we trained. My brother and I needed our fists strong for when we found our mate. We no longer presided over any training classes, neither of us had the patience for it and it wasted our time. The final slice to my frayed strand of restraint came from the rumours, the little whispers from a few pack members. I expected the ones about Konstantin. They had started the day Evie went missing. The one that tipped me over the edge, was the one I overheard three warriors a few years older than myself whispering over: that Evie had run from us, that she had done what rogues did best, played us and ran. I had nearly put my fist through his face. Astennu had to drag me off of him. “I know it's Fin, but if he drugged Lucy, why didn't he take her? He's gotta still be obsessed," I looked up at my brother as he spun the little tealight candle in its small crystal holder on his desk.

“Yeah.." he had slipped into his forlorn world, which was growing harder to break him out of.

The candle was a remnant from Winter Solstice, a time of year we should have spent with Evie, stroking over her stomach, freaking out that we would be parents before we were ready and enjoying our first of many Solstices together. Some of the Omegas held a small vigil for their future Luna and a few of the warriors came, refusing to believe Evie would leave us, them, and encouraging as it was, refusing to believe her father was behind it. There was normally a huge party held in the night on each of the Solstices where our pack would celebrate. No such celebration was held this year.

“..I'm not so sure anymore,” Astennu murmured, leaving the candle alone to lean back in his seat.

Was he serious?

Is he high?" Baniti stared at our twin with equal dismay.

“I mean it!” he stood so fast that his leather chair spun in circles wildly, colliding with the bookcase behind. “You're so sure it's Finley, like dad is so sure it's Konstantin. You're wanting it to be him and you're trying to make everything fit that scenario... I did too,” he moved to stand in front of my desk, spreading his arms wide and leaning on its surface. “I still think he's involved, but it can't be just him. We're fixating and we're ignoring everything else because we're being single-minded in our focus?

“You're right...” some realisation began to dawn.

“We need to stop assuming who we think did it. No one was missing from inside the pack that night aside from Konstantin and... and Evie,” Astennu unobtrusively rubbed at his chest. Saying her name aloud always sent a rather painful corkscrew through both our hearts. “So it goes without saying an outsider took them.”

“But you think someone inside the pack had to have helped? To get at Lucy's water and Evie's locket, if nothing else. f**k knows how they took Konstantin because the guy's huge, but let's roll with it. Maybe that's where Finley comes in? He's a prick, but ll admit, he's strong? I snorted in derision. “Even though he had to shift to get the best of our mate that time." “Yeah.." my brother blew a humourless exhale through his nose. “If someone else were involved, or more... they had to have access to Lucy's water bottle in the kitchen...”

“..And someone who doesn’t like Evie to do this to her? I finished his train of thought. “Someone who holds a grudge, maybe?"

Our eyes snapped to each other as the answer slapped us across the cheeks in an identical fashion to our blind stupidity. “The f****+g head housekeeper, Janet!” We shouted in synchronicity.

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