My Brother, My Mate

FINN

My hands shoved hard against Magnus’s chest. He stumbled back one step, just enough for me to slip past him, and ran for the door. My fingers fumbled with the handle. The second it opened I was out in the bright hallway, shoes slapping against the cold marble.

Behind me I heard him call my name once, low and sharp. I didn’t stop. I didn’t look back. The elevator doors were already open. I threw myself inside and smashed the button for the lobby. The doors slid shut just as I saw the shadow of his bathrobe appear at the end of the hall.

My heart was beating so fast it hurt. The voice that had whispered “Mate” was still echoing inside my head. I pressed my forehead against the cool metal wall of the elevator and tried to breathe. My lips still burned from the kiss. My whole body felt like it was shaking from the inside out.

When the elevator reached the ground floor I walked straight through the lobby without looking at anyone. The night air outside hit me like cold water. I didn’t know where I was going. I just needed to put distance between me and that room.

I found a quiet bench under a streetlight two blocks away and sat down hard. My legs wouldn’t hold me anymore. Cars passed. People laughed somewhere far off. None of it felt real. All I could see was the bite mark on his collarbone and the way his eyes had looked when he said I had left him.

I closed my eyes and the past came flooding in, slow and heavy, the way it always did when I was too tired to fight it.

We were not always like this.

Our parents got married when I was twelve and Magnus was fourteen. Two big werewolf families joining together. Suddenly I had a stepbrother who was taller, stronger, and already starting to show the power of an Alpha. Everyone said Magnus would be a great leader one day. Everyone said I was the quiet one who might never even shift.

But Magnus never treated me like I was weak. He taught me how to climb the big oak tree behind the house. He shared his snacks when the cooks forgot I liked the sweet ones. At night when the pack house was too loud he would knock on my door and sit on the floor with me until I fell asleep. He was the person I trusted most in the whole world.

Years passed. We grew older. Something started to change between us, quiet at first, like a secret neither of us wanted to name.

I remembered the first kiss as clearly as if it had happened yesterday.

It was raining hard that afternoon. We were sixteen and eighteen. We had been arguing about something stupid in the old training room. I shoved him. He shoved me back. Somehow we ended up against the wall, both breathing hard, faces too close. His eyes dropped to my mouth. Mine dropped to his. Neither of us moved for a long second.

Then Magnus leaned in.

The kiss was soft and terrified and over too fast. When he pulled away his face was red. My heart was hammering so loud I was sure he could hear it.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean to—”

“Don’t say sorry,” I said, my voice shaking. “Do it again.”

He did. This time longer. This time with his hands on my waist like he was afraid I would disappear.

After that we couldn’t stop. We became secret lovers. We kissed in empty rooms. We held hands under the dinner table when no one was looking. We knew our families would never accept it. Stepbrothers. Two boys. An Alpha and a wolf who had never even shifted. It was wrong in every way the pack believed.

One night under the full moon we found out it was even more than love.

We were lying in the grass behind the pack house, fingers laced together. Suddenly a pull started in my chest, deep and strong, like an invisible string connecting us. Magnus sat up fast, eyes wide.

“Do you feel that?” he asked.

I nodded, scared and hopeful at the same time.

“We’re mates,” he said, almost laughing from the shock. “Finn, we’re real mates. Fate chose us.”

I remember how happy he looked. How sure. He pulled me into his arms and whispered against my hair, “No one can tell us this is wrong. Not even the whole pack. Not even our parents.”

We made a plan. On the night of the big presentation, the night Magnus was supposed to stand in front of everyone as the future Alpha, he would take my hand and tell them the truth. He promised me over and over.

“I don’t care what anyone thinks,” he said the last time we talked. We were in his room. His forehead was pressed to mine. “You’re mine. I’m yours. We tell them tomorrow and we face it together. Okay?”

“Okay,” I answered, believing him with my whole heart.

I got ready that night. I put on the nice shirt he liked. I walked toward the meeting hall with my heart full of hope.

Then everything went dark.

Someone grabbed me from behind. A hand covered my mouth. Something sharp pressed against my neck. I tried to call Magnus’s name but no sound came out. The last thing I saw was the lights of the pack house getting smaller as they dragged me away.

After that my memory was nothing but black empty space.

I opened my eyes on the cold bench. My face was wet. I wiped the tears away with the back of my hand and looked at my phone. I needed to check on my father-in-law. I needed to think about the medicine. I needed to forget the way Magnus had kissed me like he still hated me and wanted me at the same time.

My phone buzzed.

An unknown number.

I opened the message.

It was a photograph. Old. Blurry at the edges. Magnus standing under the oak tree behind the pack house, smiling the way he used to smile only at me. He looked young. Happy. The same age as the night he promised we would tell everyone.

Under the photo were seven simple words.

>You should have stayed away from him.

My body went cold.

I stared at the screen until the letters started to blur. Someone knew. Someone had been watching. Someone was warning me, or threatening me, I couldn’t tell which.