Chapter Eighty-Four

Havermouth, Present Time

“We raped you,” Cameron hunched his shoulders. “Or I did, right?”

“Both of us,” Heath told him. “That’s what she means, isn’t it?” His voice was hard and angry. “Alright, so whilst we’re thinking about things from each other’s perspectives, how about you considering our perspective.”

“Go for it,” she sat back defiantly.

“A Triquetra is… complicated. It’s believed that it happens in times of trouble, when having more than one alpha male in the family unit might better ensure the survival of the cubs. It happens during times of war, famine, disease… As a result, when a Triquetra forms, our people see it as being warning of trouble ahead,” he said, through his teeth. “And even when a Triquetra forms… well, it’s not like a mate bond, normally, or at least it’s not been recorded to be…”

“And it was for you,” she said quietly, the pieces falling into place. “You love and desire each other, which, in a small town like Havermouth, is a problem.”

“It’s hard enough to be a human and bisexual in Havermouth,” Cameron said uncomfortably. “Without being bisexual in the pack. They don’t even want to think about it.”

“We were trying to work out how to come out,” Rhett confessed. “When you started school.”

“And suddenly you were a bisexual Triquetra with a human mate,” she felt a twist of pain in her ribs. She had threatened to out them. It was no wonder Heath had wanted an equalizer. “I am sorry. That would have been… hard.”

“When Rhett told us that you were his mate, our mate… I didn’t want to believe it,” Heath murmured.

“None of us wanted to believe it,” Cameron admitted.

“Why would we? It was trouble from the outset, and that’s without even taking into consideration what a f-king brat you are,” Heath looked up. “A human mate is a huge thing. Something that didn’t just involve the Triquetra, it involved the pack, because of the risk that you would reveal us all. When it became clear that Rhett wasn’t mistaken… well, I thought that I wanted it to go away. Until I realized that it wasn’t going to do that, and I didn’t really want it to. By that time, you’d firmly decided that you didn’t like Cameron and I, and had your sights firmly on Rhett.”

Aislen’s breath caught in her lungs, one small sentence seeming to stand out. “And that I didn’t really want it to,” Heath had said.

“Our pack could see the dissent, the jealousy, between us, and it concerned them,” Heath continued. “It was suggested that we reject the bond to you. It’s something that werewolves can do. Everyone agrees, basically, that it’s not going to work, and there is a rite, where it severs the bond. But no one in a Triquetra had ever done that. What if it severed the bond between us as well? Were we willing to take that risk? Did we have a choice if having you was already threatening to tear us apart?” Heath finished his wine and rose to retrieve another bottle.

“We didn’t want to do that,” Cameron watched Heath with a concerned frown. “Are you okay Heath? You’re drinking a lot.”

“I’m fine. I’m not going back to the office today,” Heath returned to the table and opened the third bottle of wine. “It caused difficulties with our parents and the pack leaders. But they couldn’t force it. They couldn’t make us reject you and take that risk with our Triquetra, and I don’t think they really wanted us to. They just wanted the problem to go away, really. They considered killing you… We fought for your life, threatened them that we’d go rogue… Let us claim her or else. They told us we had to demonstrate that you could behave, that you could be controlled, that you were… trustworthy, and they’d allow it.”

“I don’t trust you,” Rhett had told her at the river house, the day that Heath had taken the polaroid photos of her. “We can’t fight everyone and you at the same time,” he said, the day that they had taken her back. “Just behave,” Heath had told her, over and over.

“I already knew what you all were, and I didn’t tell anyone.” She held her glass out for Heath to refill, trying to avoid the feeling of guilt that came with the realization that they had been trying, in their stupid, alpha, teenaged-boy way, to fight for her.

“Yeah, Rhett said that.” Cameron nodded.

“If the pack knew that, though,” Rhett explained. “They would decide that you were too great a risk and kill you anyway, so we couldn’t let them know about that…” He looked to Heath.

“And we couldn’t talk about it with you without breaking werewolf law,” Heath picked up from the opening. “Until you were officially ours, officially recognized as part of the pack, we could not openly talk about ourselves to you, or show you…”

“I’m not part of the pack, or yours now.” She was beginning to feel the effects of the alcohol, layering on top of the whiskey she had drunk earlier, she noted, and decided that it would be her last glass as she didn’t want to be drunk when Talen arrived.

“No, but things have changed,” Rhett replied darkly. “You are in danger.”

“You were an idiot,” Heath said harshly. “Arrogant and prideful as always, and decided to show off what you knew with that fucking Secret Keeper poem.”

“When you came back to Havermouth, we had another chance, because of the agreement with the pack,” Cameron said hastily, trying to smooth things over. “Heath, ease up on the wine. You’re an angry drunk."

"The agreement with the pack that Heath spoke about with Abigail," Aislen looked at Heath. The wine was not helping to make the story coherent, she thought, though it had certainly helped to loosen their tongues.

“We had an agreement with the pack. They would let us try to tame you, but they kept interfering, bringing in she-wolves from other packs, offering you the scholarship…” Heath said. “You would sometimes seem to settle, and things would go good for a while, and we could think that we had won… and then you’d do something, say something, and…” he made a gesture of frustration. “Back to the beginning. And," he blew out a breath, "when we finally did get you to behave, you were miserable."

"We went too far," Cameron said softly. "You were frightened of us."

"I wasn't frightened of you," she replied, and turned her glass uneasily, spreading rings on the surface of the table. "I was frightened of what I was willing to do in order to keep you."

They were silent for a long moment, and then Heath sighed. “Our leaders offered that if we agreed to delay the claim, to let you go, to take the scholarship, then, when you returned afterwards, we could claim you. They would accept your return as being a demonstration that you also felt the bond, and you would be old enough to marry one of us and move into the river house. We’d keep you away from other humans, keep you contained until you had a child or two, and then you’d have an investment in keeping our secret to protect them…” Heath trailed off.

“But you didn’t come back, or not until you had to,” Rhett finished.

They had planned to trap her into the relationship with babies, she thought grimly, which meant... “If a human girl fell pregnant to one of you,” she said slowly. “Are the babies always werewolves?”

“Usually,” Cameron shrugged uncomfortably, his eyes sliding to Rhett. “Usually.”

“Does it happen… a lot?” She looked between them. They avoided her eyes, hiding something. "That human girls get pregnant?"

“We’re supposed to be sure before we do anything, that she’s on protection or use a condom,” Cameron answered again. “The town doctors and chemists are werewolves. There’s a list of girls that they make available who are on the pill or have an implant of some type… We're meant to ask, to be sure she's taking it, before we bare-back.”

“How predatory,” she observed dryly. She had been on that list, she realized, as she had been on the pill, and Rhett had double checked the first time outside of the art room when he had smeared his cum over her. “They give you a list of victims. Fuck these ones, it’s safer.”

“For fuck sake, Aislen,” Rhett scowled. “You don’t understand. Werewolves have a high sex drive. Alphas more than others. Once we reach mating age, we go a bit… nuts with it. The system helps keep mistakes to a minimal.”

“But they happen.”

“Well, girls miss a pill, and no contraception is one hundred percent, is it?” Rhett pointed out defensively. “If the girl lets us know, we offer to pay for the abortion, or arrange the adoption into the pack, which is our preferred method. If we suspect, we monitor them. Some slip through, but usually, when the kid goes through their first change at around thirteen, someone notices and… takes care of it,” he finished warily.

“How do they take care of it?” She demanded. “The same way they wanted to take care of me?”

“We abduct them, usually,” he replied guiltily.

“How many girls have you gotten pregnant?” She asked, looking from Rhett, to Cameron, to Heath. None of them met her eyes. “Oh, god,” she took a mouthful of wine. “How many kids do you have?”

“I have a son,” Rhett said softly. “And the answer is three. Two had abortions, and one… Well, she kept it secret until it was too late.”

“Right,” Aislen said slowly, and stood up. “Right.”

“Aislen,” Rhett stood too. “We’re not finished talking.”

“Seriously?” She demanded. “What more is there to say? I’m the mate you didn’t want, the one who is, mostly at least, human, doesn’t know how to behave herself, and that you would have rejected if you had thought it was an option. How old is your son?”

“Five,” a muscle ticked in the corner of Rhett’s jaw.

“Five,” the air emptied from her lungs. “Before or after me?”

“Does it matter?” He swallowed hard. “Werewolves, alphas in particular, are… Well, we… We fuck, Aislen. It’s what we do. We are predators. We hunt, and we fuck.”

“Before or after me?” She repeated numbly.

“During,” he replied angrily. “Alright? During. Whilst you were being a defiant bitch, and Heath thought that we should show you what it would be like without us…”

“The other sex toy,” she realized with pain.

“It doesn’t matter,” his expression softened, and he reached out towards her. “I’m sorry, Aislen. I guess I knew that you would be upset. I wasn’t thrilled myself. But it was… an accident. The condom broke.”

“It could have been any of us, as we all fucked her that day,” Heath added. “But, of course, that wouldn’t bother you as much, would it?”

She stared at him. “You are so jealous,” she said in surprise.

Heath stared back, breathing hard. “You are my mate, too,” he said eventually. “So, yes. I am jealous.” He blinked, as if taken aback by the confession. “But that… none of this… That is not why we’re here. The Secret Keeper… you need to stop, Aislen. Stop rocking the boat, stop exposing the secrets of this town. You are making enemies, and sooner or later, someone is going to…”

“Kill me?” She suggested when he trailed off.

“Yes.”