There are mates, and then there are mates ;) by JH (i am malala young readers edition .txt) 📕

surprise

The air went hazey but then there was Oz in human form. I manifested some clothes around him and waited for his reaction.
“Why does he smell like you?”
“He’s my mate.”
“I’m your mate”
“Yes”
“So I’m your mate? You choose me?”
“No”
“You choose him?”
“I don’t choose either of you…I choose both. You’re both my mates.”
“How can this work?”
“I’m not your mate any less…it just means your both mine. I don’t love you any less although what you did was wrong and uncalled for.”
“You could have told me when I first came in”
“I didn’t know then…”
“He did…”
“Yes.”
Our conversation reminded me of a tennis match, short rally. Each word punctuated with weight and implication, each next move relied on the other persons.
“Oz, I’m not fully wolf I don’t know how but my soul within myself is split between being a shifter and a wolf.”
He looked at me and took a step towards Damien. Somehow they both mirrored the actions.
“You love her.” They both confirmed to each other at the same time and then the strangest thing happened. They clasped each others hands and forearms and said “I accept you as a part of my mate, you are now my brother- I will protect you as I would my brother- for the sake of my mate- for the sake of our love I love you as I love her. For you are her, in part. I promise to not harm you for I would harm my mate and I do not wish to harm my mate.” They nodded and released themselves from the stiff embrace. And there I was confused and staring at the exchange then I just had to say it…
“Huh?”
They looked at me and laughed “You can take this one.” Oz nodded towards Damien and then went to sit down on a nearby table inspecting his finger nails.
“The original pact between races, it was one of many phrases used to establish the relationship. It would be different in each clan but similar and mutually beneficial, it seemed fitting in our situation. Besides something about you just reminds me of the old pact.”
“I know what you mean…She’s different isn’t she?”
“Yeah, and I’ve got a feeling that this is only the beginning and that if we’re ever going to figure it out we have to let her be the map, lady of the lake, whatever you want to call her and we need to let her find the keys.”
It was really odd seeing them be so civil, and so quickly. I realised they were right though that I did need to find it out and that I was only going to do that if they worked together.
“You guys know my theory right?”
“Nope.” they both said (REALLY CREEPY)
“Urgh, I suppose I didn’t tell you…Okay so my prophecy thing, whatever, is
Oh strength of fire and flame, from the earth come forth and rise again. The moon shall shine upon your wits until the puzzle pieces fit. Water shall calm your soul the wolf shall hunt out for the truth. Air shall make a heart at home and spirit is for which you are known.
And from what I can see is that Oz you’re one of the strongest people I know, your alpha and heir of the werewolves you also contain an elemental power of fire…”
“Wait you can control fire?” Damien looked shocked and Oz responded by streaming fire out of his hands…. /Show off/ I sent to him and he sniggered /I have to assert my dominance somehow to your new boyfriend/ he may have sounded sarcastic but I knew he was only kidding he was very accepting considering moments before he was eating my ‘new boyfriend’.
“Anyway as I was saying… I think Damien’s a part of the prophecy too, the wolf shall hunt out for the truth- I know he’s not a full wolf but he certainly didn’t give up trying to find out what I am. He’s the best researcher at our school and his shifter form is always birds of prey.”
Oz nodded whilst Damien simply remained impartial, I could feel fear and doubt through our bond but willingness to go with the theory. Providing I was the map I should trust my instincts about this and my instincts say at least one thing in this whole plot should be simple.
“We should start looking for the witch…they’ll be moving over the next couple of days and hopefully you can spin some power up that’ll help us predict their movement.”
“Really? That fast? What about the wedding?” Damien winced when Oz said that, I never really thought about how the wedding was going to fit into it. I said being bonded to both of them meant exactly that, and I’d love them both equally but marriage is something which implies a single love.
“I don’t know about the wedding yet, but we can always…postpone it until we figure this out. And we need to act fast else we’ll miss our slot.”
“I’ll go tell my mum and dad…they won’t be happy though. At least I haven’t unpacked yet, load my stuff into your car in case we need to make a quick get away.” Oz sauntered out of the room with a rather reluctant look on his face and Damien quickly moved over to me and put his arms around my waist.
“Would they really stop us from going?” I leant back into him and nuzzled his neck.
“Maybe…if there’s one thing I know about royals it’s that they don’t like being disobeyed and pretty much hate changes in their oh so perfect plan…” I paused for a moment and Damien chuckled. “You can ask it you know…”
“How did you know I wanted to…oh never mind…its just that I get that we’re mates but we never had sex.”
“Yeah well shifters don’t mate like that, we simply accept each other into our minds we have no need to consummate things that way…it worked for my mum and dad for a while but when he couldn’t return her bond they tried his.” He had this sad look in his eye and I decided it might not be good to unite him and his mum right now.
I twisted in his arms so that we were facing each other, I hugged him gently. The relationship with Damien is certainly different to my one with Oz but I suppose it’s a race thing. We never truly understand what mate principles are about until we can experience them for ourselves and you only get to experience one mating…unless your me that is.

A short while later Oz sent me a mate message, by this I mean the telepathy mates have of course our situation was a little different I had the power to block him but I wouldn’t do so unless I was mad, saying that his parents weren’t exactly taking this very well and that if me and Damien left now he may be able to run off in half an hour or so.
I snapped my fingers and nodded to Damien knowing he’d understand, he shifted into bird form and flew from the window sailing down gracefully towards the garage where he shifted into wolf and padded towards the ‘doggy flap’ which the royals had put in so they could enter on nights of the shift.
After one shift I’m not exactly confident in that form yet so I did the next best thing, I trusted myself and headed towards the window Damien just vacated. Taking a deep breath I leapt out the window, now one of my powers is strength anyway and with my advanced healing there wasn’t really much to be afraid of but seeing as you had to take a lift to get to the floor I was on I doubt I’d emerge completely unscathed. I called air to me asking it to perhaps lessen my fall a little bit and it complied. It wasn’t as though I was flying or floating even I just knew it was there and that I was going slower then most people would after jumping that amount of stories. I landed with an ever so gentle…thud. But still not bruised or aching, a quick brush of my hand and the small dent that I’d made into the ground had vanished. As I walked I shifted into my wolf and followed Damien who was by now sitting in the car trying to figure the best way to intercept the witches. I know this sounds terrible but I had only just remembered Freddie and George, between the whole mate thing, and then new mate thing it just slipped my mind and I wasn’t really willing to leave without them. Lucky me I had already located them in my wolf mind, they too were in wolf form and were taking a quick tour around the neighbouring woods ^Come on an adventure?^ I planted the thoughts into their minds and waited for a response, my answer came moments later as an excited howl echoed from the distance. I watched them scamper through the grounds, playfully nipping at each others hind legs as they made their way towards me. Like Oz they looked questioningly at their cousin before licking my muzzle in welcome. I shifted us all into place, for once I wasn’t too fussed about the naked thing, this could be a sign that I was growing up or that the multiple mate things just made it so all my sexual energy was already preoccupied. I did however feel a little nudge on my consciousness as Oz had peeked into my mind asking why I was naked with our friends. I morphed ever so slightly so the boys were wearing some board shorts and I was wearing a baggy t-shirt which covered the essentials.
“So, we’re about to take off to the witch colony, Damien’s going to figure out the direction and we’re going to try and intercept them mid flight.” The boys nodded as if they were used to this kind of sudden departure but then again I guess I was kind of bossy.
“We don’t really like witches…” they said and I snorted as I remembered the time Lizzy Chapman put a incy spell on them which made them chat up dogs for a months, the boys were resultantly banned from the park. She was an odd girl, her great great grandmother had some witch blood in her, it meant that Lizzy had some ability but could only really work with what was already there. The boys were in the middle of their first ‘big boy’ shifts and so had the whole canine attraction down all Lizzy really did was shift their attention slightly. Still it was hilarious, especially seeing as Lizzy owned a toy poodle, it never was the same afterwards.
Anyway… Everything was packed, we were all in human form and I new where I was going to go first, to the gas station as my tank was running low. Or at least that was what I was going to do as soon as Oz got here. Right on cue he popped into my mind with an image of him running towards the garage being chased my body guards, the image would have been comical if they weren’t in the middle of shifting into were’s as well. I revved my engine and flicked my hand to bust open the garage door, I wasn’t going to wait the half hour it took to open and I wasn’t going to drive through it and ruin my paint job. I headed towards the gate and prayed that my timing wasn’t off and that Oz would be able to jump straight into the car.