Chrissy
2224 Words
Jonathan POV
I was a bundle of nerves as we exited that lobby and got back into the SUV to move it around to park it outside our room. Damien was freaking out, demanding that we go back to our mate.
‘Buddy, we can’t force her to come with us,’ I informed him. ‘That’s called kidnapping and it’s not exactly legal.’
He scoffed. ‘No human jail could hold us, so I care nothing for their laws. I want my mate!’
I sighed. ‘And you think I don’t? But if we pull a stunt like that, she’s going to run fast and far in the opposite direction. So chill out, you dimwit!’
Beside me, Jameson was quiet, but the scowl on his face told me he was probably having a similar conversation with Donovan.
“So, bro, what were you going to explain to me later?” I asked him as we lugged our suitcases out of the back of the SUV.
He looked around, and, after noticing a teenage couple walking across the parking lot to their own vehicle, he jerked his head towards our room, indicating that he would talk when we got in there. So, after locking the SUV up and dragging our things into the room, he locked the door behind then, with a sigh, he went and sat on one of the beds while I sat on the other.
“Do you remember what’s supposed to happen three days after we meet our mate?” he asked me, getting straight to the point.
I had to think for a second, then I facepalmed. “Oh, yeah. I forgot all about that. We’re supposed to be able to shift for the first time. Damien has been going so crazy that I can barely think, so I didn’t even think about it.”
He nodded. “Donovan too. I honestly don’t know what made me think of it. But, as you know, we really don’t know how the first shift is going to go, or when it will start that day. And I don’t know about you, but I’d really prefer not to be driving 70 miles an hour down the freeway when I suddenly turn into a supernatural beast.”
I laughed. “Yeah, that might cause an accident or two.”
He grinned. “And something tells me we’re going to break that whole no shifting in the room rule.”
We both laughed at that. There was no forest nearby that we’d seen, so we’d probably have no choice but to shift in the room.
‘Damien, how will I know when I’m about to shift?’ I asked him. He had finally stopped screeching the word ‘mate’ over and over and was relatively calm.
‘I’ll know an hour or two ahead of time,’ he told me. ‘I’ll give you as much notice as I can, and Donovan will do the same for Jameson.’
‘Thanks, buddy.’
‘You can thank me by getting my mate.’
I rolled my eyes. Jameson noticed my eye roll and laughed.
“I’m going to guess that Damien just told you basically the same thing that Donovan told me,” he told me.
I sighed. “Well, he told me that he’ll know an hour or so ahead of time before we shift, and when I thanked him, he said - “
“ - that you could thank him by getting his mate,” Jameson finished.
I laughed. “Those two really are two peas in a pod.”
‘Well, we are twins,’ Damien reminded me.
“We’re twins too, and I don’t think we’re that bad,” Jameson said aloud, obviously responding to Donovan.
We both laughed again, then I pulled out my phone to video chat our parents and let them know we’d made it safely to the motel. We also explained to them that we would be staying longer than we thought, and told them why. They both smiled at the news and congratulated us. I was honestly amazed with how well they were rolling with all the changes in our lives, and how accepting they had been of our newfound identities.
After them, we video chatted the king and queen, also letting them know that we were safe and would be staying for a couple extra days.
“Why so long?” Havannah asked, looking disappointed. “I’m so ready to hug you both!”
“We found our mate,” we replied in unison.
Her eyes went wide as her hands flew to her open mouth, and Sebastien’s face lit up with a big smile.
“Oh my,” Havannah gasped. “That’s so exciting! You’re totally forgiven for taking extra time to get here.”
We both laughed at that.
“So what’s she like?” Sebastien asked us. “What’s my new daughter-in-law to be’s name? Is she human?”
That word threw me for a loop. Daughter-in-law. I mean, it made sense to expect that we would eventually marry her, but – wow. I had been so focused on calming Damien down that I hadn’t really considered what this meant for my future.
“Her name is Chrissy,” Jameson told them. “She works here at the motel, and yes, she is human. But she was raised near a wolf pack, so at first she assumed that we were werewolves. We’ve invited her to come by later to learn more about Lycans.”
“Well, if your intention is actually teach her about Lycans and not, well, you know,” Sebastien said with a wink, “feel free to video chat us and we might be able to answer any questions she might have. I know that you boys are still new to all this, and you haven’t even gotten to shift yet.”
I don’t get embarrassed all that easy, but for some reason, Sebastien’s first comment had my face turning tomato red. Sebastien noticed it and laughed.
“You’ll have to get used to your old man being blunt about most things,” he told me with a laugh. “Bedroom activities are no exception.”
Havannah rolled her eyes and smacked his shoulder.
He turned and looked at her with feigned innocence. “What? They’re adults now!”
She rolled her eyes again, but she smiled tolerantly at him. “You’re lucky you’re my mate, you know. I can’t strangle you.”
He grinned cheekily at her. “You know you love me.”
She sighed. “Sometimes I truly wonder why.” She tried to keep a straight face, but couldn’t stop the giggle that escaped.
Jameson and I watched them with interest. It was somehow reassuring to see them still so in love with each other after all their years together.
“How long have the two of you been together?” I asked.
They both grinned at us. “Almost 190 years,” Havannah told us.
I felt my jaw drop at the same time that Jameson’s did. “What?!” I exclaimed. “Wait, how old are you guys?”
They both laughed.
“I’m 215, and your mother is 208,” Sebastien replied. “We met when she was 18 and I was 25.”
“Wow!” Jameson exclaimed. “That’s just so – wow. I can’t believe the two of you have been together so long!”
“We’re still practically newlyweds by Lycan standards,” Sebastien said with a grin. “I mean, my great-great grandmother was with her mate for over four hundred years before he passed away.”
I felt my eyes get as big as saucers. “That’s all going to take some getting used to.”
They laughed again. After that, we chatted for a few more minutes, then hung up after promising to keep them updated on how things were going with Chrissy.
After making those phone calls, we got on Google to find the nearest restaurants that delivered – which, thankfully, was pretty much any restaurant these days. We were both starving – after all, we were not only 18 year old guys, we were also Lycans, both of whom are well know for their voracious appetites. And we’d been in the car pretty much all day, so neither of us had any desire to get back in the car to go out anywhere. We chose a local Chinese restaurant that had stellar reviews, and ordered two of the biggest servings of shrimp lo mein that they offered. Since the tracking information told us it would be about 30 minutes, I decided to go ahead and take a shower to get rid of the “travelling dust,” as Mom called it.
About 20 minutes later, I was out of the shower and had just finished shaving when there was a knock on the door.
“Well, that was fast,” I remarked to Jameson as walked over to the door. I opened the door, saying, “Thanks! Your tip is on my ca - “
I stopped short as the smell of cinnamon and vanilla basically attacked my nostrils. There, standing in front of me, was the most absolutely perfect woman that had ever existed, in my opinion.
“Oh! Hi!” I greeted her, stepping back in an invitation for her to come in. “I’m sorry, I thought you were the delivery person. We ordered Chinese.”
I inwardly winced a bit as I heard myself babbling. I really had to try to stop doing the whole word vomit thing around her.
She smiled. “I hope you ordered Lupe’s. It's the best.”
I nodded. “We did.”
“Most people find it odd that a Mexican man owns and runs a Chinese restaurant, but he’s hands down the best cook in this part of the country,” she told us. She walked over and took a seat at the little table that was in the room. “So, um, I’m sorry for not calling, but I was really curious about you two, and my shift is over, so I thought I’d stop by to talk to you both face to face. I have some questions if you have a few minutes to answer them.”
“For you, we have all the time in the world,” Jameson told her. “Ask away.”
“Well, first off, what is a Lycan?" she asked.
“Basically, we’re a little like werewolves except we walk on two feet, and our senses and abilities are a lot more enhanced,” Jameson explained to her. “But since we haven’t been able to shift, we’ve not seen our Lycans, only spoken to them in our minds.”
She nodded. “I remember that some of my werewolf friends would have conversations with their wolves in their minds, so I assumed it would be the same with you guys.” She took a deep breath. “Which leads me to my second question. Why can’t you guys shift?”
We took turns telling the story of our kidnapping, being raised by humans, then finding out on our 18th birthday that we were Lycans, to finding out that we were the long lost Lycan princes. We also told her how a dark witch had placed a spell on us that prevented us from shifting until three days after we’d found our mate.
She sat quietly for a few seconds, seeming to absorb everthing we’d told her. Finally, she spoke. “Wow. That’s just – wow. I can’t believe you two went through all of that!”
“There’s more,” I told her.
She turned to look at me curiously. “Yeah? What’s that””
“Remember how I just said that we can’t shift until three days after we meet our mate?” I asked her.
She nodded slowly. “Yes....why?”
“Well,” Jameson spoke up, “the reason that we extended our stay is because we’ll be able to shift in three days.”
She gave him a confused look, but then I saw the understanding slowly begin to dawn in her eyes. “Wait. Whoa. Back up there. Are you saying that I’m your - ?”
We nodded before she could finish her sentence.
“And one more thing,” I told her. “I’m sorry, I know this is a lot to take in at once, but you need to know that if you accept the mate bond you’ll also become a Lycan.”
“What?!” She shot up off of the bed. “No way! I have a friend who was human and mated to a werewolf, and she didn’t turn into a werewolf!”
“Werewolves and Lycans are different,” Jameson told her. “I’m not sure how or when, but if you accept us, you’ll turn into a Lycan.”
She narrowed her eyes at both of us. “How do I know you two aren’t full of s**t? How do I know that you’re not just a couple of delusional psychos?”
Jameson and I glanced at each other, then we grinned at her. I asked the question. “Got any open fields nearby?”
- Writer
