Haven't Seen The Light In A While

Chapter Ten

"Why were you running?" Rory asks, coming to sit by my feet.

"I accidentally ran into Caz, literally ran into him, as I was coming out of Sabrina's room. He wasn't nice to me, but I apologized anyway and excused myself, then ran away." I finished, finally catching my breath.

"What do you mean he wasn't being very nice to you? What did he do? " Sam peeks over the back of the couch at me.

"He was mad I was coming out of Sabrina's room and asking if I was her mate, too. That's all. I told him that wasn't possible, and he said anything was possible for me." I shrugged.

"Sounds like your cousin is jealous of Mel, Sam." Rory gives Sam a look. I sit up with my eyebrows furrowed.

"Caz is your cousin?" It all makes sense now. "That's why he doesn't like me. He probably feels like I've taken you away from him. I assume you two are close?" I ask Sam.

"Yeah, we are pretty close, basically like brothers. When I found you, it was the first time I told him that I was gay. He is probably still trying to process that. I'm sorry he is taking it out on you, my love. I'll talk with him later." Sam kisses my forehead, and I smile.

"Speaking of talks," I pause to look at them both. "Let's talk about you two this morning in the shower." I giggle mischievously, and Rory covers his face with his hands.

"You aren't mad at us, right?" Rory mumbles from behind his hands.

"No, I'm not. I wasn't expecting it, but I'm glad you guys are getting —" I pause, looking between them. "Along." I giggle once more and jump up to hug Rory. He drops his hands from his face and embraces my tiny waist, pulling me close.

"Well, good because Rory and I marked each other," Sam spoke, shoving his sleeve up to unveil a small crescent moon tattoo on his wrist.

"Oh, but I thought only mates could.-" My eyes widened. "You've been mates this whole time?" I pull back from Rory.

"I swear to the moon goddess I could not smell it on Sam because your scent was so strong, Mel; it was masking Sam's." Rory's eyes began to water because he thought I was upset now.

"So when we got in the shower and you weren't there, we found out," Sam explains. I grab Rory's and Sam's wrists to inspect their mate marks. The small outline of a crescent moon was on both of their inner wrists.

"I wish I could have been a part of it, but I know I'm not ready to complete the mating bond." I drop their wrists. I felt a pang of jealousy in my chest. "But hey, I need to shower now since I didn't get to this morning!" I reach up to kiss Sam and hop down off the couch to give Rory a peck. I get to the bathroom and turn the water to warm in the shower. I strip and hop in, feeling a single tear roll down my face. I wipe it harshly away. I'm not upset, but I feel a little left out. I slump down the tile wall, letting the water run down my body. I hug my body awkwardly, trying to comfort myself. "Are you going to tell them about that mystery mate?" My wolf reminds me. Oh yeah. I have to impress this wolf. He won't let me show him he is my mate if I smell sad.

Being sad always makes me smell sour. At that, I perk up and wash everything to rid myself of my other mate's scents. I wipe the condensation off the mirror to see I almost scrubbed my body raw. I guess that had become a habit back when Aremus would allow me to shower after he was done using me. I shivered, thinking back to Aremus abusing me. I tried to push those memories deep down and started to get ready. I dried my hair and scrunched the ends to give it a slight curl. I wrapped my towel around my waist and returned to the bedroom.

"Finally, you showered. You were starting to stink up the whole pack house." Caz was on our couch, sitting with Sam and Rory. Sam hit Caz upside the head for his comment.