Getting It

{ Rio }

"Hey," someone says, moving me and trying to wake me up. When I slowly open my eyes, Lunanci is in front of me. I feel confused, "It's time to go look for your brother."

"Oh, right," I mumble and sit up on the couch, trying to reconcile how the hell I fell asleep in such an uncomfortable and brightly lit place. That's not normal for me, "Your incense made me dizzy. I passed out."

"Really? I'm sorry," she replies with a grimace, "It's necessary to create an atmosphere where I can concentrate better. By the way, I have an idea where your brother might be."

"What? Really?" I ask, standing up. Lunanci nods.

"I connected with you while you were asleep, I did a whole investigation on your brother. He wants to be some kind of cop or something, doesn't he?" She asks, my mouth drops open and I nod, starting to get hopeful, "Then we can go, I don't know, to some police station and ask around."

"Yes!" I blurt out, excited, "You're so smart. By the way, I'm sorry I said you're a scammer. You’re not. Before I fell asleep I could sense that you were actually helping that woman. She smelled like pure misery when she first got here, but then her scent slowly started to change and she stopped stinking so much."

"Yes," she replies with a smile, proud of herself. She should be.

"I think you're a healer," I blurt out, Lunanci looks at me curiously, "Seriously, that was some healer shït."

"That sounds nicer than witch," she mumbles, thinking deeply, "There are healers in your Werewolf pack?"

"We call it a clan. And no, there aren't, I've only read about them in school. It's impressive that humans have something like that," I comment and as we both leave her shop to go in search of Alex, I can't stop thinking about it.

I didn't feel anything yesterday while she was 'connecting' with me, I just got a little dizzy from the smell of that thing, but now that I saw how she was connecting with that human woman from an outside perspective, it was pretty amazing.

Lunanci takes me to a nearby police station and once we’re inside we approach the front desk.

"Hello, have you seen a guy who looks just like him?" Lunanci asks the man behind the desk, pointing at me. The man gives me a deep look and shakes his head, "Are you sure? Maybe he came here looking for a job?"

"I don't think so, I'd remember," he answers and he's being honest, so I deflate a little.

"Is there some... police academy or something? My brother really wants to work in something like this," I tell the man, he thinks and then nods. He takes a moment to write something on a piece of paper and tells me to go to that place, "Thank you."

We take a taxi to go there but once again they tell us they haven't seen him at all. After that failure, we walk around the city a bit while Lunanci tries to feel energy. I have to grab her arm and guide her down the street so she doesn't fall or bump into something because she has to do it with her eyes closed.

I don't know how I ended up being a human's bodyguard, but here I am. Anything to find that damn omega deserter.

Lunanci stops suddenly then looks at the place.

"Were you here yesterday?" She asks, but I shake my head because I definitely wasn't, "I feel you in there."

I immediately open the door and walk in, looking around. I can't imagine any reason why Alex might have come to a tattoo place, but it's worth asking.

"Hey, man," a guy says, approaching me with intrigue, "Everything okay? Did you have any problems?"

"Huh?" I ask, confused. He's talking to me like he knows me. I literally just walked in.

"Is your tattoo okay?"

"I don't have any tattoos, why are you asking me that?"

"Rio," Lunanci complains and punches me in the stomach before taking a step to approach him, "We're looking for a guy who looks just like him, I imagine you've seen him? It's his twin."

"Ohhh," he blurts out and nods, causing my eyes to widen in surprise. Of course, he was recognizing Alex in me, that makes sense, "Yeah, he came in yesterday for an appointment, I gave him a tattoo. Is he okay?"

My mouth drops open. Alex came to get a tattoo? Is he absolutely crazy? Dad will lose his mind.

"Yeah, he’s okay... we just want to know where he might be," Lunanci continues, "Do you have any information? Did he tell you where he was going?"

"Hmm, no. He didn't talk much. Hardly at all," the tattooist answers, thinking a bit, "Actually, he was a bit rude, if I'm honest. And he walked out of here as soon as we were done, like the place was on fire."

"What tattoo did he get?" I ask, still dumbfounded.

"A chest piece. I have a picture," he says and pulls out his phone to show me a picture of my shirtless brother with a giant tattoo on his left pec that extends to his arm. It's a wolf. His wolf, "We were here for five hours, I tried to tell him we had to do it in two different sessions but he insisted we finish it in one."

I nod and think about that for a while, as we get out of there and keep walking trying to follow some path, uselessly.

"We should head back," I tell Lunanci about an hour later. She agrees and we take another taxi to her apartment.

The first thing I do is call Laurie and tell him what I found. He's as confused as I am, Alex had never talked about wanting a tattoo before.

"I think he's honoring his culture and his wolf," Lunaci says from her little table in the kitchen, interrupting our private talk, even though there's not much privacy in this place, "Maybe he feels guilty about wanting to live in this human place."

"Hm, maybe," Laurie murmurs, "Can you stop listening to our conversation?"

"No. I'm not dead yet, I can do whatever I want, you evil wolf," she replies, making me laugh because my cousin squints his eyes in annoyance. He's not used to anyone but Kingsley or us talking to him like that.

"Great, your human knows more and more about us, that's perfect," Laurie spits out.

“It's not like she's going to live to tell the tale, is it?" I reply, causing Lunanci to roll her eyes at me, but Laurie nods and calms down again, "Anyway, Alex lost his mind, but to be honest... the tattoo looks awesome."

"Fuck, can you believe he did it without telling us? We could have gotten the same tattoo, the three of us," Laurie complains. I nod, that would have been great, "Keep looking for him, I want everything to go back to normal. I want us all to live together here, it's too boring without you guys."

"Excuse me? What about me?" demands Kingsley from somewhere. Laurie's eyes widen in fear, "Does that mean I bore you, you big idiot?"

"No, baby, I didn't mean it like that," my cousin defends himself, but ends the call before I can hear their incoming fight.

I toss the phone aside and sigh. Maybe I haven't found my brother yet, but knowing something about him has calmed me down a bit.

I know he can survive just fine on his own, I just... I just don't want him to. I want us to keep being together all day, every day.

After Lunanci makes dinner for both of us, we end up lying in her bed again, but I'm not as tired today as I was yesterday so I just stare at the ceiling.

{ Lunanci }

"I'm still fascinated with your power," Rio murmurs in the dark before I can fall asleep, "It was cool how you managed to heal that woman... do you want to read about healers?"

"Can I?" I ask, excited.

"Sure," he answers and grabs phone. Since I’m lying next to him, I can see him log into a browser I'm not familiar with.

"What's that? It's not g****e," I mutter, moving a little closer to him to get a better look.

"It's called Phantom, it's basically the same thing. My dad created it. It's to keep our information safe and prevent leaks."

"That's cool," I say and once Rio finds what he was looking for, he lets me take his phone.

While I'm reading, the werewolf next to me puts on his mask and falls asleep, and I stay up reading that long article about healers.

It's absolutely amazing. The things I'm reading resonate a little too well with me.

Healers can work with energy to heal the bodies and minds of wolves. They have help from their own 'wolves' who were chosen and blessed with a deeper connection to 'Mother Nature' so she helps them. They can also sense 'fated bonds' or bonds in general and work with that magic to break them, make them stronger or heal them. Before I met Rio I would have no idea what a bond is, but after digging into his head I know what that is. I could see that he has a bond with his twin brother, a family bond, and I could feel it.

Once I finish that article I go into the 'Fallonmore virtual library' and that solidifies my decision not to sleep at all, I just stay up reading.

I almost can't believe this information, but... I do. Because everything about this entity, Mother Nature, resonates so much with me that my soul feels solid and whole just from this new discovery.

Mother Nature is a type of god that werewolves believe in, according to the story she gave the power of the wolf to regular humans so they could shift into this other being so they could provide better, be stronger, have better senses and be more connected to nature.

And these special beings are minimal because a simple couple cannot procreate as easily as an average human couple, because they were created to have a special person. Someone just for them. A 'fated mate'. Oh my god, it's so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes.

I can't believe all of this exists on the same planet as me and I had no idea about it.

I don't know how long I've been reading about Mother Nature, healers and fated mates, but suddenly Rio's phone rings with his alarm and I realize I've spent almost ten hours here, just reading.

Rio groans and pulls the mask from his eyes, finding me immediately, even though we are still in darkness.

"Why do you have my phone?"

"I've been reading all night," I admit and hand him the phone back, "Rio, my god, I can't believe it. Your culture is so beautiful... do you have a fated mate?"

"What? No," he answers with a laugh, "They'd be here with me right now. I just turned eighteen, but... I feel like I'll find them soon."

"Oh, I'm sure you will," I say, feeling excited for him. I wish I could have one, too, "Is it as rare as they say it is?"

"Hm... it depends. I don't know on what, but it depends. My clan has a lot of fated mates, in my family alone there are five fated couples. And in the rest of the clan there are more, but there are other clans where they have only like one fated couple. It's weird."

"Can you explain the alpha-beta-omega thing? I didn't get to read a lot about that."

"It's just our designation, we're born with it but at eighteen our wolf becomes mature and presents. It's something we carry in our scent, everyone can recognize it," he explains, after yawning and stretching out on my bed, almost hitting me with his big arm, "I'm an alpha, that just means I have a shit load of responsibilities and people expect me to always be the one on top of everything and know how to do everything and always be ready to take charge of any situation. It sucks to be an alpha, if I'm honest, my designation is exhausting. Betas are just there, there’s not much to them, they have it easier. And then, take my brother for example, he's an omega. He's just like me, right?"

"Right..."

"Wrong. He's better now," he exclaims, sounding annoyed and starting to speak louder, "We used to be equals until our presentation, but now he's everyone's favorite. Because omegas are just better. He's prettier than me, sweeter, smarter, never does anything wrong. He's just expected to be cute, spoiled, get married someday and pop out kids for the clan."

"Your... brother?" I repeat, to better understand. I think he got it wrong, "Your brother is going to ‘pop out’ kids?"

"Oh, yeah. You didn't get to that?"

"I was too focused on everything about Mother Nature. I liked that a lot."

"Oh, yeah. She's amazing... well, omegas can get pregnant, whatever their gender," he says and my mouth drops open, "I'm not a teacher, I won't explain biology to you. It's just what it is. My dad is an omega too, he gave birth to us. My bitch mom is an alpha, she hates my guts."

"Really? That's horrible, I'm so sorry."

"Well... no, I'm not serious. I love her and she loves me, she's just being annoying right now. She's a total alpha and has too many expectations for me," he explains with a grimace, "But not for Alex. Alex, the favorite, remember? The king of the world."

I'm still confused by the designations.

"So if your mom is the alpha... and your dad gave birth... so she knocked up your dad?"

"Yeah. Female alphas have, you know, a dïck," he explains, "They're still female."

"Oh, wow. Wow."

"Yeah, lets not talk about that," he says with a grimace and settles in to keep talking… gossiping, "Anyway, my brother basically hit the jackpot in life, but guess what? He doesn't like it. He's like 'wah, wah, I don't like the way people treat me now, like I'm weak' and I'm like... okay? I wish people treated me like I'm weak, bro, are you kidding? Then he's all like... 'I can't stand to look at you now, you have everything I want' and I'm like... okay? Like, I have nothing new except pressure and complications, I don't even have a job or a partner..."

I can just blink and wait for him to continue. Werewolf drama is so interesting

"So you don't have a partner... you've never had one?"

"No, I've never had anyone," he mutters, even more annoyed, "Well, I had someone I went out with for a while... he ended up being my cousin's fated mate, though."

"He? So you like boys?" I ask. Rio things about it and just shrugs.

"I just like omegas. Girls are usually more my thing, but boy omegas are rare so they’re like a treasure. Like Kingsley. He is… god, he's so gorgeous."

Kingsley is his cousin mate. The soft-spoken guy. Interesting.

"So you only want an omega?"

"Yes. But... to be honest, just between us, maybe I would be down to experiment with a beta," he whispers like he's saying something outrageous, "Another alpha is where I draw the line, that's gross."

"Oh. That would be like being gay in the werewolf world?"

"Yeah, maybe. It's worse, though. Like, unnatural. It's hard, biologically, to change your nature like that and... submit to an alpha or just being attracted to their scent. But I know there are a few weirdos out there who like that, so I try not to judge."

"But you're not a weirdo, because you only like omegas and maybe a beta one day if you're feeling spicy?"

"Yeah."

"Then gender really doesn't matter at all?“

"Not really. It's not important, that's just like having a favorite ice cream flavor, but they're all good, you know? Designations are way more important. I don't really know anyone who has a strong gender preference. Except for my brother all of a sudden, but he's just a contrarian."

"How so?"

"Maybe he doesn't remember this, but he used to like guys. I always said 'You know what, I like girls they're cute', Laurie would be like: 'I don't care, I like anyone but Kingsley' then Alex would be like: 'I like Tom, or I like Harry' or whatever. I think it's just another way to deny his designation, since there's so few alpha girls, which he wants now. Because now he's all like: I don't want an alpha, I don't even like men. And I wish I could say: you have always liked them you fucking liar. He has always liked very much alpha looking guys, but if I dare to say that he would have a bitch fit because oh now he doesn't, all of a sudden now he likes girls. Fuck off."

“It's so fascinating. But what about you? What if… what if you were to like a human, what would you prefer, a girl or a boy?”

“I would prefer to choke and die,” he says with a disgusted tone, “Human scent is just gross.”

Oh. Okay.