INTRO { Rio }

{ Rio }

{ 12 years old }

We're just arriving at Grandma and Grandpa's house and I'm thinking about all the things I'm going to eat, when my cousin Laurie forces me and my twin to go with him into the middle of the woods to talk.

He's going on about Kingsley once again, complaining about things that don't make much sense. I look over to my twin to check if he's thinking the same thing as me and his eyes alone confirm it. This is weird.

  "What?" Laurie demands with a frown.

   

  "All this time you've been complaining that Kingsley does nothing but harass you, forcing you to play with him, haven't you? Or did I miss something?" I ask, to understand better. Laurie nods, "So why are you complaining now that he finally stopped?"

   

    "Ugh, you guys don't get it either," he complains dramatically and drops his head back, "I'd rather that idiot had stayed in Asia forever, but I'm not the problem here. It's my wolf. Kingsley befriended my wolf years ago and what they do together has nothing to do with me. Nothing, not one bit, but I'm the one who has to deal with that wolf all fucking day crying and complaining that Kingsley is ignoring him. Kingsley forced my wolf to want to be with him and now he's sending him to hell. That's cruel. And no one cares."

   

    "Oh," Alex says, looking down and feeling bad for Laurie because my brother always understands other people's feelings. I'm not very good at it, so I'm still a little confused, "I'm sorry. Sometimes we forget that your relationship with your wolf is different. Mine never talks, only when he wants to go for a run."

   

    "Yeah, sorry," I mumble, thinking deeply. Everything he's describing sounds like something I sometimes feel too. Sometimes when I see Kingsley I feel things and I want him to give me his attention, but he's always looking at Laurie and only Laurie. Never me. I hate when that happens, too. But if my cousin and I feel the same way, that would be a problem, wouldn't it? "Laurie, don't you think... don't you think maybe you like Kingsley? Not your wolf, but you?"

   

    "What?" he asks, looking shocked that I would even ask that, as if it were something impossible, "No, no... no, of course not."

   

    "Okay," Alex blurts out, meeting my gaze again. I can see that he now realizes that I'm the one who is feeling something weird, "If you say so."

That night when we go into our room, Alex sits on my bed with me instead of going to his.

"What happened in the woods while we were talking to Laurie? You started feeling weird, I could feel it," he says with a grimace and raises a hand to put it on my knee. My brother knows things, he knows everything, he always knows when I feel bad.

"Do you think Laurie really doesn't like Kingsley? Because... because I think I do," I admit very, very quietly. Alex raises his eyebrows in complete surprise, “Is that bad? We can't like the same person, right? That would make us fight."

"I can't believe you hadn't told me that before,” he blurts out, still looking shocked. I can't do anything but shrug because I really just came to that conclusion in the woods while Laurie was describing what his wolf feels, "I think Laurie really likes Kingsley, but I think he hates him even more. And Kingsley hates him too so I don't think the two of them will ever, like, be together... you know? But that means you can't either, that would be like betraying Laurie."

"You're right," I whisper, looking down at my hands, "It's not like I'm going to do anything about it. I just think he’s pretty. Don't you think so, too? I always thought we'd end up interested in the same people, you and me, not me and Laurie."

"He is pretty, I guess, but I don't care much about him," he shrugs, "I think I like someone, too."

"Who?" I ask, suddenly forgetting Kingsley. My brother grimaces, "Tell me, dude! I told you."

"I don't remember his name, I just know he's older than us," he mumbles, "He's the guy we always see at clan gatherings, his dad works with mom and they always say hello to us.”

"Oh," I mumble, thinking deeply. I think I know who he is, "Really? Huh. No wonder you get all quiet and shy around him.”

"Shut up, that's not true," he whines and shoves me. I just laugh at him, so my brother gets even more upset and gets out of bed to yank me and knock me to the floor, he tries to get on top of me to hit me, and that ends in us wrestling on the floor. It only ends when Dad comes in to check on us.

"Break it up! It's time for bed," he says and we immediately separate. Alex runs to his bed to climb in there, "I'll be back in five minutes and if you're not asleep there's going to be trouble, okay?"

"Okay," we answer at the same time. My dad gives us one last annoyed look and leaves our room. We both know he's not playing, so we don't talk again and we both fall asleep.

{ Rio }

{ 16 years old }

I thought my crush with Kingsley was going to go away eventually or that the animosity between him and my cousin was going to go down, but I was completely wrong. My crush is still present and the animosity between King and Laurie is getting worse. Laurent is getting more and more horrible to Kingsley... and vice versa. Kingsley takes it upon himself to hurt my cousin every chance he gets. And I don't think anyone notices besides the three of us, but it's true.

But that doesn't mean that Laurie is in the right when he blows up at King, like right now.

  "Fine. I don't want to touch a whore anyway. Especially not a fat, ugly one." Laurie spits and storms out of the cafeteria like a wild animal. His words astound me almost as much as they do Kingsley, but I can do nothing but follow Laurie out, giving one last apologetic look to Kingsley, who looks completely gutted. Oh, no.

I feel horrible and I didn't even do or say anything, but siding with Laurie is like saying I agree with that, which I don’t.

I'm so upset that I don't even want to look at my cousin once I make sure he's okay and won't do something stupid. Alex is upset too, that's why we leave Laurie alone most of the day.

"Should I go apologize to King?" I ask my twin as we leave the classroom, as Laurie walks off to his car alone. Alex gives me a tired look, "I feel really bad."

"You didn't do anything, Rio, you had nothing to do with what happened. There's no need to apologize, Laurie has to," he says and I nod. He’s right. And it's not like it’ll do any good, anyway.

The more time passes, the more Kingsley hates me just for being associated with Laurie. I know nothing would ever happen between us, which sucks.

Because, that guy? He's my complete fantasy. Hiding that from Laurie has been the hardest thing I've ever done, but I can't let him know because he hates him more with each passing year. But I can't think about that right now, I just follow my cousin until we get into his car.

    "What was that at the cafeteria?" I ask once we get to my house because I can't just leave without saying anything.

     

      "It got out of hand, I just wanted to piss King off," he replies in a bored voice as if he hadn't just said something out of a teen movie. A horrible teen movie.

     

      "Man, you called him a fat and ugly whore? What kind of bullshit comment is that? That's crazy. Seriously, I think you need therapy," my brother exclaims and I just nod. He took the words out of my mouth.

     

      "I was out of line, I know," he mumbles, sounding like he's a little regretful now. Just a little, "It won't happen again. This year I'm going to ignore him and not let him bother me anymore."

     

He seriously has no idea how horrible what he said was. He's not even taking responsibility, he's just blaming King. And maybe Kingsley does a lot of things to provoke him, but this wasn't one of them. This was just King talking to a guy, there was no reason to say all that.

     

{ Rio }

{ 17 years old }

 

Just when I thought I was finally starting to get over Kingsley and watching him do all that damn drama with Laurent in Tallahide had completely turned me off him... this had to happen.

A dominant omega. I have no freaking clue what it means, but my grandfather thinks it's wonderful.

  "Hey, Dumb," King greets me, making me stop looking at Laurie's messages on my phone. As soon as I look up at him, I realize why he's such a big deal. His scent, his presence, his everything... it's fücking mesmerizing.

  "So I'm Dumb? I thought I was Dumber," I reply sounding probably stupid, but my brain doesn't know how to function at the moment.

 

  "Depends on the day," he replies with an amused little smile and I can no longer pretend I don't like him. Laurent is an idiot and he keeps fighting with him like they’re a couple of little kids. He calls him a 'long term enemy' as if that’s not stupid. I think I need to stop worrying about whether or not he's going to get mad at me for being with his enemy. I have to think about me.

So, I open my arms to hug him. Kingsley doesn't hesitate for long, he just steps closer and lets me do it.

 

  "Congratulations on your discovery, King. I understand a lot of things now," I mutter, squeezing his body because it feels good against mine. I have to force myself to let him go, "By the way, our birthday is in three days. We're having a little party at our house. You're invited."

 

Surprisingly, Kingsley says yes.

And more surprisingly, when I flirt with him during my party being an alpha now, Kingsley doesn't seem disgusted. In fact, he answers my flirting and lets me be near him even though I'm drunk. He lets me dance with him and be all over him most of the night, but when I try to kiss him, he moves his face away.

"Stop," he orders, his voice sounds full of power. I stop immediately and I feel like I've been scolded, "None of that."

"Okay," I reply immediately, "Sorry."

"It's fine, just don't try to do it again," he mutters and for a second his flirtatious mask disappears and he stares off into nothingness with a grimace on his face, "I think I'll go home."

"No, I'm sorry," I say and take his hand as he stands up from the couch, trying to stop him. Kingsley sighs and turns to look at me, "Can you give me your number? I want to go on... I want to... can we go out sometime?"

Kingsley freezes and just stares at me for almost a full minute, considering. I try to look as cute as possible to get him to agree and I guess it works because he sighs and nods. He holds out his phone for me to save my number and once I do, I call myself to get his number as well.

Kingsley leaves after that.

This is awesome. I thought this was never going to happen. I jump up from the couch with excitement and look around the house. There are a lot of people here and most of them stop me to spend some time with me. I try to do so, but my attention is now on finding my brother. I can't see him anywhere and that's starting to worry me.

He's been so fucking weird since midnight when we presented that I'm worried he's decided to go hide in our room or something, but I find him outside the house, sitting next to a guy from our class. They're smoking weed and my brother is laughing.

"Hey, are you okay?" I ask, Alex looks at me with red eyes and nods. Huh, well, that's good. I sit down next to them, "Can I have a hit?"

➿➿➿➿

Hanging out with Kingsley is fun and I have to be completely honest, I like how cool I feel when I’m out with him. King is a hot commodity at the moment and everyone wants to be with him, but I'm the lucky winner, at least at the moment, even though our dates aren't that romantic and there isn't as much as a spark between us.

I know King isn't as attracted to me as I am to him, but it's still fun to go out. We have a lot in common and we laugh at the same things.

So when Laurent comes back to Fallonmore, I'm willing to maybe be at odds with him to keep dating King, for as long as it lasts…

… turns out, it didn’t last long. At all. Kingsley broke up with me the very next day.

So that’s the story of how Laurie ended up stealing the only person I've ever liked.

Luckily, I wasn’t that hurt.

They are fated mates after all and there is no way around it.

But being around them and getting to witness their bond made me crave the same thing with such a strong force it left me breathless.

I want the same thing.

Now, I’m waiting for my own mate. Something tells me I’m about to find them.