CHAPTER 4: Two Mates

Thorne had been working over my sons for twenty minutes, and I'd stopped understanding anything he was saying about ten minutes ago.

He muttered in a language I didn't recognize, pressing his fingers to points on Ash's body that made the light under his skin pulse brighter. Charts and vials covered the table beside the beds. The equipment beeped steadily, monitoring heartbeats that were too fast.

I sat in the chair between the beds, holding Ash's hand in my right and Ryder's in my left. Their skin burned against mine. The silver-gold light had spread from their veins to cover almost their entire bodies now. They looked like they were glowing from the inside out.

Which, I guess, they were.

Caden stood by the window, as far from the beds as he could get while still being in the room. Every few minutes he'd shift like he was going to come closer, then stop himself. His jaw was clenched so tight I was surprised his teeth didn't crack.

"There has to be something I can do," he said for the third time. "Let me try again."

"No." Thorne didn't look up from the blood sample he was examining. "Not until we understand what's happening."

"They're my sons." Caden's voice broke on the last word. "I should be able to help them."

I wanted to feel sorry for him. Part of me did, the part that remembered being eighteen and stupidly in love. But the rest of me was too angry, too scared, too exhausted to care about his feelings.

"You should have thought about that before you threw me away," I said quietly.

Caden flinched. "Lena—"

"Don't." I didn't have the energy for this conversation. Not now. Not with my babies dying in front of me.

Thorne straightened, holding up a vial of Ash's blood. In the fluorescent light, it looked wrong. Too bright. The silver and gold swirled together like oil and water that refused to mix.

"This is extraordinary," Thorne murmured. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Is that your professional medical opinion?" I couldn't keep the sarcasm out of my voice. "Because 'extraordinary' isn't really helping me understand why they're dying."

Thorne set the vial down carefully. His violet eyes were grave when he looked at me. "The mate bond is too damaged. When Caden touches them, his wolf recognizes them as his children, but the bond between you two is so fractured that it's causing a rejection response. His touch hurts them instead of healing them."

The words hit me like a physical blow. "Then what was the point of coming back? If you can't help them anyway, I could have just—"

"Stayed away and watched them die?" Caden's voice was raw. "At least here they have a chance."

"Do they?" I looked at Thorne. "Do they actually have a chance, or did I drag them back here to die in front of the man who rejected us?"

"There's something else." Thorne was staring at the blood sample again. "Something I don't understand."

"Great. Add it to the list."

He ignored my tone. "These children carry two distinct Alpha bloodlines. Not just one dominant line from Caden with recessive traits from you. Two separate, equally powerful Alpha lines."

The room went very quiet.

I shook my head. "That's impossible. There's only been Caden. I haven't been with anyone else. I've barely even talked to another man in three years."

"I'm not suggesting infidelity." Thorne's voice was gentle. "I'm suggesting you have two fated mates."

The words didn't compute. I stared at him, waiting for him to laugh, to say he was joking, to make literally any sense at all.

Caden was the one who broke the silence. "That's not possible. I felt the mate bond three years ago. It snapped into place the moment she turned eighteen. She's mine."

"Royal bloodlines can have multiple mates." Thorne said it like he was discussing the weather. "It's rare, but it happens. The Moon Goddess bonds them to mates who complement different aspects of their power."

I found my voice. "I'm not a royal bloodline. I'm an Omega."

"You're registered as an Omega." Thorne was looking at me differently now. Really looking, like he was seeing something he'd missed before. "But registration and reality aren't always the same thing."

He moved closer, studying my face with an intensity that made me want to squirm. His eyes traced my features, my hair, my bone structure. His hands started to shake.

"What was your mother's name?"

The question came out of nowhere. "I don't know. I was raised by Omegas who found me as a baby. Why does that matter?"

Thorne took a step back. His face had gone grey. "Where did they find you?"

"I don't know. They never told me. I was just a baby. Why—"

"How old are you?"

"Twenty-one. Why are you—"

"Goddess above." Thorne sank into a chair like his legs wouldn't hold him anymore. "It can't be. You were supposed to be dead. Everyone said you were dead."

Caden moved away from the window. "Thorne, what the hell are you talking about?"

The healer didn't answer. He was staring at me like I was a ghost.

A chill ran down my spine. "Who was supposed to be dead?"

Before Thorne could answer, alarms started blaring. The sound was deafening, echoing through the pack house in urgent pulses that made my heart race.

Kyle burst through the door, his face flushed. "Alpha, we have a situation at the northern border."

Caden was already moving. "What kind of situation?"

"The Lycan King is here." Kyle's voice was tight. "He's demanding entry and he won't say why."

My stomach dropped. The Lycan King. I'd heard stories, everyone had. The most powerful wolf in the eastern territories. The one even Alphas bowed to.

"Tell him to go through proper channels," Caden said. "We're dealing with a medical emergency."

Kyle glanced at me, and something in his expression made my blood run cold. "He's asking for someone by name, Alpha."

Caden went very still. "Who?"

"Lena."

The name hung in the air like a bomb waiting to go off.

My wolf surged inside me, stronger than she'd been in months. A pull I'd never felt before yanked at my chest, different from the bond with Caden but just as powerful. It felt like a rope tied around my ribs, pulling me north, toward the border, toward—

My knees buckled.

Caden caught me before I hit the ground, his hands gripping my arms. The moment our skin touched, something inside me exploded.

Two bonds. Two distinct pulls. One familiar and painful and damaged. One new and overwhelming and impossibly strong.

I gasped, the air rushing out of my lungs. The room spun.

"Lena?" Caden's voice sounded far away. "Lena, what's wrong?"

I couldn't answer. Couldn't breathe. The two bonds were fighting inside me, pulling in different directions, trying to tear me apart.

On the beds, both boys started glowing brighter. Their backs arched. They were seizing again, together this time.

Thorne was shouting something about stabilizing them. Kyle was on his radio, urgent voices crackling through. Caden was holding me up, his face pale with fear.

And through it all, I could feel him. The other one. Getting closer.

Winter eyes, Ash had said.

"He's the second mate." Thorne's voice cut through the chaos, distant but clear. "And he's been waiting for you."

The doors to the medical room slammed open.

I looked up, still held in Caden's arms, and saw him.

Tall. Impossibly tall. Dark hair shot through with silver. And eyes the color of ice, cold and blue and locked on me with an intensity that stole what little breath I had left.

The Lycan King.

My second mate.

Ezra Nightshade stood in the doorway like he owned the world. His presence filled the room, suffocating and powerful. Every wolf in the vicinity would be feeling the weight of his aura, the urge to submit.

But when he looked at me, his expression softened into something almost gentle.

"Hello, Lena." His voice was deep, smooth, with an accent I couldn't place. "I've been waiting a very long time to meet you."

Caden's arms tightened around me, possessive. "Get out. This is pack business."

Ezra's eyes flicked to Caden, cold and dismissive. "Those children are dying because they need both their fathers." He looked back at me. "And whether you've accepted it yet or not, I'm one of them."

The mate bond between us snapped fully into place.

I felt it click like a key in a lock, perfect and terrifying and completely undeniable.

On the beds, Ash and Ryder stopped seizing. The light under their skin stabilized for the first time since this nightmare started.

And I knew, with absolute certainty, that everything I thought I understood about my life was a lie.