Accepting My Twin Mates

Chapter 126

Accepting My Twin Mates Chapter 126

Bonus Chapter 5 – Accepting His Fiery Alpha – I of II

Diego

My smouldering goddess’s fire flickered in a dying beat, watching Evie in the black jeep roll away. An upset frown didn’t suit her full pouting lips. A defiant smirk, a naughty smile or a dominant challenge in her onyx eyes, those were the quirks that suited her sinfully angelic face and amplified her creamy cocoa and explosive chilli scent.

I let the back of my hand brush against hers, the sparks of her touch electrified my arm and amassed within my chest. She felt it too, the twitch of the corner of her lips told me as much. Five years I had waited, from the moment of my shift, to feel this torrent of energy that my soul and wolf craved; a gift that I had come so close to losing on so many occasions, starting with my father.

‘That coño is no more our father than a broom handle is,’ my wolf, Dario, chuntered irritably.

He had never liked or felt much for our father from the day he appeared and I shifted. The only thing that had ever tethered us to him was our familial bond and even that wasn’t enough to foster any fondness from Dario.

Growing up, I had made a rod for my own back, I knew it. My disobedient and willful ways had dropped me in trouble from escuela primaria when I was six years old to the day I was issued with my ultimatum from my father…

…“Damn it all, boy. You will not disgrace me anymore with this behaviour in front of our pack,” he had yelled when I came sauntering home with another tattoo, another piercing and having spent another day with the wild horse herds in the lakes of our home in Covadonga, completely shirking my

responsibilities. “It’s high time you start taking your Gamma duties seriously and grow up! And that starts with a mate.”

He threw down a photo of a girl my age with caramel hair and honey eyes. All my usual brazen swagger evaporated and, for the first time, I had no smart-mouth response.

“Her name is Esperanza and she arrives in one week. You will take her as your mate on your nineteenth birthday and that will be the end of it. Mark my words, Diego, you are the future Gamma of Cuna De La Luna and you shall behave like it. Or, you can leave.”

No help came from my mother, who stood at his side, a conflicted struggle warring in her eyes and yet, she remained silent, never once defending me. I would have swallowed my resentment and taken up my role to serve an Alpha and take commands that I had no interest in. But I would never take a chosen mate, not when my soul’s perfect match lay in wait to burn me with her fire.

My father meant it as an empty threat, thinking a sentence of a rogue status would keep me in line, that the shame of such a deplorable title would be enough to curtail me into submission. He thought wrong…

…“Diego?” The divine voice of my mate, purer than the moon, tugged at my hand. “Let’s go home.”

Home.

That word felt as foreign as the ground I walked on. When I had one, it never felt like home, just a noose waiting to trap me.

“Ever since my hermanita here…” my mate’s brother, Thiago, interrupted my brooding thoughts by wrapping his arm around the top of her head and poking her side. She squealed and fought her way out of his hold, cursing him out with every colourful insult. “…Told me about you, I’ve been dying for you to meet our old man.”

The broad grin that lay under Thiago’s heavy black stubble told me I was in for an interesting welcome. “He’s the traditional type, I take it? Likes the old-time ways and will love a tattooed rogue as a son-in- law?”

“We’ll see if we can get you sharing a glass of brandy and having a game of backgammon by the end of the night.”

“I’m sure my dazzling wit will have him hitting the roof with approval in no time.”

“Cata, the moon goddess outdid herself this time. I love this guy,” Thiago threw his arm around my shoulder and walked us over to the high-end saloon car. “Our mom’s been cooking up a storm and even tracked down a bottle of Herbero for you. She’s not as hard up as our dad, so you’ll win her over easily…” he went on.

I noticed Leah roll her eyes, as her mate talked about his mother.

Catalina caught my questioning glance, snickering into the back of her hand. ‘Our mom is great, but she’s a little overbearing at times. Leah feels like there’s three in her relationship and Thiago is too much of an oblivious hijo de mami (mama’s boy) to notice otherwise.’

A small smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth at the thought of a huge Alpha like Thiago hanging on to the skirts of his mother, but at least she involved herself with her son… unlike mine that stood back and remained quiet as I left.

“So, have you ever been State-side before, Diego?” Leah asked as she slid into the front passenger seat, pulling her pom-pom beanie off and smoothing her flyaway hair down.

“No, never. Just a few places in Europe, and France, obviously… that’s how I wound up with my ass in a cell.”

‘But you’re not there now and it led us together,’ Catalina squeezed my hand like a stable rock to anchor my storm.

Maybe fate would have given us another path to meet upon. Maybe there was no other way for our paths to cross. There was no way to know what would have happened. Those chain of events had been stolen.

I had lost count of the number of times I had stared at the ceiling of my cell, or the exposed stone of the wall I was chained to when I acted up, and cursed myself for ever biting the offer of that dressed-up motherfucker, Marceau…

…The Paris slums were a far cry away from the glamour of the city’s centre. However, for a rogue like me, they had proved lucrative. Knowing about horses served no use in an urban environment, but I knew how to use my fists and, in the slums, it was all I had to make money because I was not about to crawl back home like a pup with his tail between his legs.

There were a few spots that held bare-knuckle fights between wolves and the odd human that fancied their chances, either in dive bars, back alleys or abandoned buildings.

It was the latter where a blond man in a sharp suit with a manicured beard and an expensive gold watch ambled over to me as I poured cold water over my head after winning seven fights in a row.

“Quite the show you gave,” he casually leaned on the dusty wall. “I run my own fights, in a far more affluent setting than this establishment,” he circled his finger in the air and nodded towards my pile of winnings. “What you won there, you could win double in a single match of mine. I would provide you with the best food, your own lodging. What do you say?”

“What’s the catch?” I raised my brow, flipping my moth-eaten towel over my shoulder and folded my wad of euros into my pocket.

“You win.”…

…The man couldn’t have screamed ‘stranger danger’ any louder and my wolf had incessantly yelled for me to walk away. But to a nineteen year old with no money, no home, no prospects and an over- inflated ego that told me I knew better, the man and his outstretched offer was the answer to all my prayers. I practically snatched his hand off, thinking I would be making my fortune and never once imagined I was signing my life away as a slave.

The scenery outside the car window shifted from a heavily tree-lined road to a flat meadow and drew me out of my head. On the fringe, where the manicured flats of an immaculate pack house garden met the evergreen forests that surrounded it, sat a pristine mansion built in white stone and gilded with Roman columns and high arching windows. To the right, neighboured an equally grand-looking house on a smaller scale and dotted around on meandering roads were homes that no doubt belonged to other pack members with families.

“Whoa, which is the pack house,” I joked, looking between the two impressive buildings.

Thiago laughed awkwardly. “Yeah, our abuelo went all out when he built the separate home to the main pack house. Our mom, dad and Catalina live in that one to the right. Me and Leah live in the top suite of the big house,” he pointed to the top level with dormer windows and a rooftop terrace.

Thiago pulled the car up to a black brick path that led to the Alpha’s private home and no sooner had the car rolled to a stop, that two wolves were out, front and centre, to open the doors. My home pack had been one to stand on ceremony at every given opportunity, so it was nothing new for me to witness and told me exactly what to expect with this pack.

The main door opened to a huge foyer trimmed with gleaming dark wood that contrasted the modern mosaic tile walls and a grand sweeping staircase to the upper levels. The appearance was not what hit

me first, it was the scents. Fresh food permeated every orifice; freshly fried tortillas, seafood, garlic, roasted herbs, chilli and the sweet tang of tomatoes.

“Daddy!” Catalina exclaimed, rushing towards a large-built man appearing from an adjoining archway where the scents flowed from.

Dario was quick to voice his grumblings, muttering more to himself. ‘I wanted to be daddy.’

From the mature Alpha aura rolling off of him and his heavy similarities to Thiago, only with a pinch of salt and pepper dusting his temples, he had to be Matías. His arms wrapped around his daughter in relief, calling her his princess. It was funny, my mate called her brother a mama’s boy when she was clearly a daddy girl.

“Thiago, mijo,” the older Alpha embraced his son, briefly touching his forehead with Thiago’s and then his mate, Leah. “You two handled the pack well in my absence.”

The fatherly pride that glinted in Matías’s eye and shone so effortlessly pricked an involuntary pang of jealousy. I needed no one’s approval and never had. Yet, I couldn’t shut down the flare of wishing, just once, my own father could have looked at me like that. Not since I was a pup had he shown me any affection and the only emotion that flitted through his features was an increasing swell of irritation, disapproval and reproach.

A tall slender woman, a virtual double of Catalina, hurried in from the same archway Matías had emerged that must have led to a kitchen. She hurried to take off the vibrant flowery apron from her neck that had protected her immaculate red blouse and skirt. The woman possessed the same soft jaw and high cheekbones as Catalina, but with dark green eyes instead of the deep onyx-brown irises that I could lose myself for days in. She had to be her mother, Julieta, the Luna.

After kissing the cheeks of her two children and daughter-in-law, Luna Julieta’s gaze turned to me and I was obviously not what she was expecting, but she covered as best as she could.

“Mamá, papi, this is Diego,” Catalina wrapped herself around my arm, clasping her fingers with mine.

“It’s wonderful to meet you,” Julieta replied and elbowed her mate in the gut when his hard stare didn’t let up.

He nodded out of politeness, but I could tell he was sizing me up, scrutinising my tattoos, my ear piercings and, I gathered, my overall air of indifference. I was not ticking the checkboxes of a respectable wolf male to his little princess and, unfortunately for him, I was never going to be a clean- cut and well-behaved mate or a kiss-ass to the patriarchy. I was the rough and ready bad boy type that ran his mouth and I was itching to poke los huevos del tigre (the tiger’s balls), just for some fun with my new in-laws.

“Alpha and Luna Rivera,” I began, starting with the shine first.

“I am Diego Ortiz Guerra,” I bent at the waist in a sweeping bow. “Of Cuna De La Luna, Covadonga.”

Julieta’s finely arched brows greeted her hairline in surprise and Matías’s mouth parted, neither expecting such decorum from one who looked like me.

“A formal Spanish greeting of the continental wolf packs. I haven’t seen that in at least a decade,” the Alpha admired my display of propriety. “Your father must have taught you traditional values well.”

I would be lying if I said that didn’t strike a particularly small yet agonising nerve. Catalina’s eyes cut to mine, knowing the punch to my gut that Matías unwittingly landed. My father had drilled it into me and had been strict in my education of traditional etiquette so as to never ‘shame the family name’. But I brushed my hidden sting off.

“Yeah, he was a stickler for tradition,” I drawled, regaining my cool and calm air. “Not that I ever gave a flying f**k for the old ways. Tradition is just peer pressure from the grave anyway.”

The Alpha and Luna spluttered, Thiago grinned ear to ear and my mate’s face sparkled with awe. I hoped beyond anything, that was the first bloom of love within her heart for me and that she knew I could handle her family, along with anything else her father could throw at me. ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

Edging my bet that Matías wouldn’t slaughter me in front of his daughter, I drove it home.

“So, what room are we in?” I draped an arm over my mate’s shoulder, my fingertips playing with the light material that separated me from her luscious skin, the tingles of our bond firing away regardless.

“You will have separate rooms,” her father’s eye twitched, his jaw set firm.

“You’re funny, Matías,” I laid it on thick. “Oh, you’re serious?”

I suspected as much, that the older Alpha would think we wouldn’t be sharing a room, but that was what sneaking was for.

‘Separate rooms my eye,’ Dario sniggered, brimming with confidence.

‘Our little button will come to us tonight. I know she will.’

My mate was every bit as defiant as I was and, between her father and me, a challenge had been laid down.

‘Button?’ My wolf repeated, tilting his head.

‘Yes, because we know exactly where to press.’

I liked to win my challenges, as did Catalina and, like me, she would never walk away from one. She would dig in her heels and double down. My mate was the biggest challenge I had ever faced, my wilful equal and I knew exactly how to play her to be victorious; issue the challenge and then walk away to lure her into my court.

“Why don’t you finish up the food? We’re all hungry for our late lunch,” Luna Julieta spun her mate around and shoved him towards the kitchen, looping her bright flowery apron over his neck. “I’ll show our new family where he’ll be staying. Come along dear,” she hooked her arm with mine and began leading me directly up the ornate tiled staircase. “You’ll have plenty of time to settle in and get clean. I made all the meals tapas style, so there’s plenty to go around. I won’t have you going to bed hungry here… And Thiago!” She bellowed, cutting a glare so sharp it would slice a bead of water in half. “If I hear you snigger one more time and I’ll fetch my chancla (slipper). Go help your father, now!”

I held back my laughter as the large Alpha practically left a puff of smoke as his outline with how he shot away so quickly. A boy was never too old to receive the back of his mother’s slipper when he pissed her off.

“I guess I’ll go make sure they stay out of trouble,” Leah muttered, taking off her coat and following after the men.

The bright mosaic tiles continued on the upper floor, artfully fading to smooth walls painted a rich and earthy orange. The hall from the staircase led in two wide directions and, to my glee, Catalina followed behind.

“Here you are, dear,” Julieta swung open the door, allowing me to enter the huge deep terracotta-red room first. “I thought you’d be most comfortable in the guest room just down from Catalina,” she inclined her head further up the hall with a wink.

‘Ok, mother-in-law is cool,’ Dario nodded in approval. ‘Daddy-in-law, we can still poke a little more.’

“Is it all ok?” She followed my path and walked over to a small walk-in closet. “I didn’t know your size, but I’ve developed a sixth sense raising all these pack warriors. So I think you’ll find something for you in here. I hope you like it?”

“It’s perfect, Luna-”

“Julieta,” she corrected. “Come on, Catalina. Leave him to settle in.”

“But I should check his stitches. You know, to make sure they’re ok before Diego showers,” my mate batted her most innocent eyes that wouldn’t fool a soul.

“Check his stitches?” Her mother raised a calculated brow. “Yes, I checked your father’s stitches too, when I snuck around behind his parents’ back. Whose pup do you think you are, honestly?”

She walked away, shaking her head, her heels clicking and fading down the stairs.

The room was nicer than anything I had seen in over four years. The fact it wasn’t a cell that confined me within four hermetically sealed walls was the greatest bonus.

While my previous cell had been unpleasant, it came with good company. I could have had far worse neighbours than Bastiaan in that goddess-forsaken place. Some of the men there were innocent, good wolves forced into a terrible situation. Others deserved worse than the fate handed to them and were the lowest of the low. Some rogues earned their title for a reason.

The downside of living next to an utterly hopeless romantic such as Bastiaan was, whenever the topic of women came up, out of his many conquests, he would fixate on the one he called Galina, whom he still loved. It used to irritate me, serving as a reminder of what I could never possess. Or what I thought I couldn’t.

I stealthily approached my mate, who was too busy focused on her mother’s retreating steps to hear mine.

“Is my personal nurse really going to check my stitches?” I closed the door over her shoulder and caged her between my arms on its surface, her breath hitching in surprise. “Or were you lying to take advantage of a poor homeless rogue?”

I trailed my nose the length of her cheek to her jaw, following the beacon of her creamy sweet cocoa scent cut with the fire of a chilli pepper. The spice of her aroma could burn my tongue just from flicking against the air near her. Her delicate and firm hands reached up into my hair, tugging my head back up to her level. Our lips brushed, a reminder of our first and only kiss where she stole the breath from my body, and all I wanted was to give in to her temptation. If I gave in, I would go all in and we would not be leaving this room, or the huge bed that lurked behind me, till the next light of day and beyond.

Pulling away abruptly, her lips chased mine and fell through the air in a daze.

“Mi vida, that’s not where my stitches are.”

‘What are you doing?!’ Dario pounded his paws on the walls of my mind. ‘We could have had her against the door!’

‘Relájate (chill) wolf. Do you want to take her now or after hours of more teasing and being denied what she wants most?’ And I waited for the caer la ficha (token to drop).

‘Ok, human, I see you. But I swear, if she comes to us tonight and you keep playing, I’m gonna have to get violent with you.’

Catalina’s eyes blinked, her dark lashes fluttering back to reality and piqued that she was being denied. I backed away from her slowly, trailing my half-undone zip down my torso and pulling the hem apart, not forgetting my promise of a second striptease.

“So, everything look ok?” The dark fabric slid from my shoulders and pooled at my feet. “Need a closer look?”

I dipped my fingertips into the waistband of my pants, inching them lower and unveiling the one tattoo she hadn’t seen in its full glory; a snake. It had once coiled over my left hip and over my stomach, but,

because of my s***h injuries, the head had been decapitated. The body ran down my whole left leg in black and nestled in each coil was a red pasque flower… the type that used to grow around my home.

There was no shame in her eyes as they followed every line of my finely cut muscles and tattoos, settling on my c**k, which sprang up eagerly to meet his mate.

“I think everything looks in reasonable order,” my mate finally found her voice, wetting her plump ruby lips with a tongue I wanted to claim.

“Good!” I exclaimed, brightening my tone. “I’ll be able to shower without issues, then. See you at the dinner table, mi vida.”

And I left her standing there, mouth agape and scent thickening as she stared at my bare backside sauntering away to the bathroom.

*

*

*

Luna Julieta lived up to what I expected of a Mexican mamá and she wasn’t exaggerating about the spread she had prepared. It was enough to feed a pack army, which I suppose a family of Alpha wolves wasn’t far off. The huge round and carved wooden table sat the six of us easily in rattan woven chairs with a black iron chandelier suspended above from the exposed wooden rafters. The moon goddess’s most perfect creation, Catalina, sat to my right, still stewing that I had gotten under her skin. Her father and mother continued the circle around to Leah and Thiago, who sat to my left.

The drinks flowed, from wine to ponche navideño, a spiced fruit punch served warm that I had never had, and my favourite that I hadn’t tasted for years, Herbero, an aromatic herbal liqueur. The table

groaned under the weight of the tapas, the smell of the food could have lifted me from my feet.

We had started with bowls of pork pozole and homemade tortilla chips and Leah had talked about how her schooling was going, studying for a Masters in Clinical and Health Psychology. Unfortunately, I had little to add to the conversation. The topic of my family was a sore spot and talking about my time as a fighting slave wasn’t a light and joyful topic for the dinner table.

Matías had silently studied me from where he sat opposite, scrutinising me from a distance. Whether he was trying to appraise how I measured up to the expectations he had for his beloved daughter or simply didn’t know what to ask me, I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t as though he could ask what I had done with my life up until now, he knew. I had only just landed and was breathing freedom for the first time, so neither did I know what I would be doing with my life from now on, except that it would involve my salvation sitting beside me.

The main courses flew around the table from huge dishes to small. Mini tacos were piled high with every filling you could want; beef birria, gambas al ajillo and shredded chicken. Fresh empanadas were served alongside sopes with salsas and dips. Fresh bread with cheeses, chorizo and jamón ibérico sat between our places, evenly spaced out with a staple of any Spanish table; patatas bravas and aioli. And I had already caught sight of what waited for dessert; churros, conchas and fresas con crema.

“Papi, can you pass the pepper?” Catalina asked as she filled her glass with more ponche.

Both Matías and I reached for the pepper pot in the same instance, our movements stopping short of the white porcelain dome. I had been waiting to see if a chance presented itself to prod the older Alpha again, and this was too good to pass over. I couldn’t help the crooked smirk that tugged at my lip watching the vein that began to throb on Matías’s temple, aghast that his princess had a new daddy in her life.

“Which papi, mi vida?” I couldn’t help but say it, turning to my perfectly crimson mate and tenderly kissing the back of her hand.

Her mother choked on her wine, coughing into her napkin. Thiago’s breathing deepened on my other side, desperately swallowing his laughter, and his mate elbowed him in his side to shut him up.

‘If you weren’t son-in-law of the year before, you just made it to the top of the s**t list now,’ Dario howled as the silence stretched.

‘Welcome to the family, bro,’ Thiago tapped his glass of Herbero with mine. ‘I’ve never seen my sister blush for anyone.’

‘I do my best. Do you think your dad hates me enough yet or should I keep going?’

‘I’d say keep going, but only because it’s my entertainment.’

Luna Julieta looked to be silencing her mate’s grumblings over their mind-link, shovelling more food on his plate and telling him to eat. My mate’s hand was still held tight in mine. She hadn’t a clue what to say, how to act, and the pepper she had wanted was all but forgotten. I doubted many had stunned her into silence. She had mentioned few could handle her on more than one occasion, but she hadn’t met someone like me before.

“Diosa mio,” I heard Matías grouse under his breath. “My daughter is mated to a devil.”

A small coy smile tweaked Catalina’s tempting lips. She had heard too. ‘Mi diablo,’ she whispered.

Mine and my wolf’s chest puffed in pride at hearing her voice. I was worried that maybe I had overstepped even my rebellious mate’s boundaries, but it was unfounded. My Catalina was more than game to handle what I could throw.