Chapter 2 - Sage

I’m happy for my mom and my twin. Truly, I am. Our lives collectively vastly improved when we moved to Portland three years ago. Our family went from being just the three of us to including Daddy Hale, a new big brother in Austin and a sister in Suzie.

Now Leo is part of all that. Not to mention, we gained the whole Bloodmoon Pack. The level of community, support, and general acceptance these wolves gave us blew the minuscule acceptance - mostly indifference we were met with back in Massachusetts.

It’s great that we have such a large family and support base. The downside to all this is living in a house with THREE couples. At any given time, at least one of the couples is fucking or about to be fucking. I have seen and heard things that require therapy.

Sure, I was already in therapy, but that was totally unrelated. No one should have to suffer what I’ve suffered by being the seventh wheel in the Carlisle-Shelton household. I’m strongly considering moving into one of the bachelor apartments in Mount Hood.

It’s not something I’ve brought up with anyone. Mom and Hale are so happy to have a full house, and while River’s more distracted by Leo, I know they’d have feelings about me moving out. So, I’ve kept quiet and have not rocked the boat at home.

The only person with whom I’ve discussed the idea of moving into an apartment has strangely been Austin. I only say strangely because while he’s my stepbrother and a good dude, I’m not as close to him as Mom or River.

Austin has been understanding. He considered moving out, too, but staying allows him and Suzie to continue saving money and attending college. I know they plan to move out when they can afford a house, but till then, we’re playing full house, and I’m in the Joey Gladstone role. It sucks, but I’ll suck it up and think like Austin. I’ll use this time living rent-free to get my education and save money.

Today, I felt less like a spare wheel. I came with River and Leo to the Pride Festival in Portland. We’ve gone every year since we moved here, but it’s Leo’s first time attending. I’m sure they are excited to be at the festival. It’s just overshadowed by anxiety about meeting their bio dad.

I doubt Léonel Darby is going to end up being on the same shittastic tier as the cuntbag that mated her mom or mine and River’s sperm donor. It takes a special kind of asshole to be like them, and while he’s not active in his pack, by all accounts, the Darby family are good and accepting people.

I didn’t plan to stick with River and Leo during their meeting with Léonel. As cool as meeting the drummer for Immortal Eclipse sounds, that’s not what that meeting is. I would feel out of place as I’m not Leo or their mate. So, I was mentally prepared to duck away before we got to the club. The opportunity to split off came up when I noticed a bunch of protestors getting riled up.

I do love fucking with these fascists fuckwits. Every year they show up and shout their bullshit bible verses like that means a fucking thing. Hello, this is America. We don’t all follow the bible or its narrow-minded peanut-brain translations.

Old cis white people need to keep their opinions to themselves and stop telling everyone else how to live like ‘good Christians’ when they are hateful fucks that don’t practice what they preach.

“You’ve perverted the rainbow!” Some asshole shouted, and I was triggered.

‘Let’s show them what happens when they fuck with the rainbow.’ Eclipse growled as I threw a punch.

Before finding out that I was a werewolf and getting training from David and others in the pack on how to fight that punch would’ve been a bit pathetic. However, I have been training for the last two years, and with Eclipse on my side, I’ll fuck a bitch up. I shouted my favorite motto as I glared at the fucker as he hit the ground with a black eye and broken nose.

I was ready for a fight. It wouldn’t be the first or last time Hale had to bail me out for fights, but suddenly, all thoughts of fighting disappeared. A scent hit me, overpowering every other smell. It was like black currant wine and the resin of patchouli washed with soothing vanilla. The scent made every muscle in my body relax while every cell seemed to hum in anticipation.

‘Mate.’ Eclipse growled, on alert, trying to find the source.

Mate? I have a mate! Will they be male, female, non-binary? Will they accept me for me? They aren’t on the protestor’s side of this, right? Goddess, I hope they aren’t protestors. I didn’t think I could handle that. I couldn’t handle a mate who can’t accept that I’m non-binary and that I’m demisexual.

As these thoughts raced through my mind, my brain short-circuited as someone’s cool, rough hand danced up my leg, sending electricity through me. I’ve often been told what the mate bond feels like, but feeling it for myself is WOW.

Then, a sinfully delicious Cajun accent spoke, and I felt a need and desire I didn’t know was possible. He said he was first in line. My heart was racing as I turned to face my mate.

I was dumbfounded by what I saw under the festival’s brightly colored lights. I recognized him. Auðr. My mate is Auðr, the lead singer of Immortal Eclipse—the vampire who Caleb Cobain turned. My mate is a vampire!

“Mate,” Eclipse growled, taking my shock as their chance to speak.

I could sense River in our family link. They were worried about me, and I didn’t want River to interfere. I needed to face this myself, and River needed to support Leo in meeting their dad—a descendant of my vampire mate.

‘Go meet Leo’s dad. I… I just found my mate. So, I might be a bit.’ I advised through our link.

‘Holy SHIT! Way to go!’ River shouted back.

‘We can’t wait to meet them and get all the details later. Find us at Enigma.’ Leo instructed

I don’t know if the celebration was in order yet, but I appreciated my twin’s enthusiasm about my discovery. I was observing Auðr’s face, watching for any indication of what he thought of all this. Currently, he was unreadable, like a mask of calm over his features. I wanted to know his true feelings on this revelation. His eyes glanced over my left shoulder, and I saw him stubbly nodding.

Furrowing my brow, I looked over my shoulder. I recognized Rune, the guitarist for the band, helping the protestor I had punched to their feet. Rune arched a brow at me before scoffing as he led the protester away. What the fuck was that about? Why was he helping that guy? And why did he scoff at me? Is it the whole ‘werewolves’ smell bad to vampires? Shit, do I smell bad to Auðr?

I turned back to Auðr’s expressionless face. It was a pretty face. A kissable face. Yet it was also a punchable face. I’m not the kind of person who easily picks up on social queues, so when he’s giving me NOTHING to even try and go off, it makes me a bit nutty. Eclipse didn’t like that Auðr ignored us and was more indifferent than me.

“Are you to fucking say something? Cause this uncomfortable silence bullshit ain’t cutting it, pretty boy.” I asked, folding my arms.

“Relax, skittles.” Auðr held his hands up. “Let’s take this someplace private.” He held his hand out.

‘Private sounds good,’ Eclipse licked his chops.

‘Private also sounds dismissive.’ I grumbled.

“What’s wrong with talking here?” I asked definitely.

“You want to answer to Hana Kinsley for breaking the rules?” Auðr arched his brow, finally showing some facial expressions.

Shit. He’s got me there. If we discuss anything directly involving who we are, which is likely given that we’re mates, we can’t talk in public. Hana and her Alpha Daddy would have my head for breaking the statue of secrecy. And that’s the kind of trouble not even Daddy Hale could get me out of. My shoulders sank as I nodded.

“Fair point.” I conceded, taking his offered hand.

His hand may have been cold to the touch, but the sparks of the bond only left warmth tingles everywhere. As I said before, I’m a demisexual. I’m not like River or most people I know. I don’t get all sexually charged over strangers and their looks. I need an emotional connection to feel desire for someone.

Until I had a thing going with Maitiú Cooney last year, I thought I was asexual. However, I’d formed an emotional connection to Maitiú after moving here, which led to more. I’m not saying more was like sex. We both wanted to save that for our mates. But we did make out a few times. Mostly, we held hands till he found his mate last fall.

‘And you’ve found yours here and now. Stop thinking about Maitiú.’ Eclipse rolled their purple eyes at me. ‘Auðr isn’t a stranger. He is our mate. You don’t get a deeper-rooted connection than the mate bond. It’s beyond physical and emotional. It’s our souls.’

It’s hard to argue with my wolf on that. The mate bond is more than physical and emotional. This explains why holding Auðr’s hand as he led me through the crowd to a back entrance to Enigma felt so intimate. I’d been so in my own head and the mate bond that I hadn’t realized we’d left behind the festival and were in a small lounge till he shut the door, taking his hand from mine.