Their Mistake

Chapter Five

CALDER

We watched as Remi and the twin Lunas disappeared through the door to the packhouse, giggling and chatting.

“Should we be worried?” Cullen asked dryly.

“Well, your mate is already accustomed to handling twins, is she not?” Alpha Remi answered.

“She handles them just fine,” Gentry laughed. His phone rang in his pocket. When he pulled it out, he looked back at us. “I need to take this. I will see you all later. Alpha Remington, nice to meet you.”

Gentry left us, striding quickly into the packhouse. “Well, shall we move this meeting to my office?” I asked. Remington nodded as I motioned for him to enter.

Once we were upstairs, I settled into the chair behind my desk while Cullen stood at the corner next to me. Alpha Remington took a seat opposite us. “So, you need help resolving an issue with another pack?” Cullen started.

“Yes, I am afraid I do,” Alpha Remi answered.

“Please, explain,” I invited him.

“I safely assumed you would be able to assist me in dealing with the new Alpha of Serenity Moon,” he started. Cullen shifted, his attention now peaked by the mention of Zeus. “I guess the best way to explain this would be to say that he is breaking our laws.”

“In what way?” I asked.

“After the most recent Summit on Serenity Moon’s pack land, my Beta happened to come across his mate. You see, we stayed an extra day to meet with Alpha Zane before we departed. My Beta and I did not bring along my Lunas this last year. My mates happen to be distant relatives of the Alpha family of Serenity Moon, and there is still some lingering resentment.”

“Interesting,” Cullen commented.

“Yes,” Alpha Remi sighed. “I left them back at home to make sure there were not any extra dramatics to interrupt the weekend. The day following the Summit, my Beta and I were getting ready to depart when he came across a younger girl named Maya.”

Cullen and I connected gazes. “Are you about to tell us that your Beta is the mate of Zane’s daughter and Zeus’s sister?” I asked.

“DIdn’t she recently come of mating age?” Cullen asked.

“I guess her birthday was the day following the Summit. We only happened upon her by accident on our way out. Thorin is younger than I am,” Alpha Remi explained.

“So your twin mates come from Serenity Moon, and your Beta’s mate is the Alpha’s little sister,” I said. “Shouldn’t this all make an alliance between Serenity Moon and your pack?”

Alpha Remi laughed. “You might think,” he said. “Problem is, Serenity Moon does not like to give up their she-wolves. Zeus has blocked his younger sister from even seeing Thorin for the past few months. They have yet to mate and mark each other because Zeus refuses to acknowledge their bond.”

I let out a low whistle while Cullen chuckled. “You want our help to get your Beta his mate,” Cullen concluded.

Alpha Remi nodded. “I am afraid I don’t stand a good chance of fighting against him myself. I would do anything to help Thorin, but we could not possibly hold our own against Serenity Waters. I thought, given your history with them, having you as my ally here would make Zeus reconsider his actions.”

I looked at Cullen, who had the smallest smirk on his lips. “You are enjoying this now, aren’t you?” I linked him.

“Oh yes, I am,” he replied. “Zeus can’t keep his sister from her mate.”

“Pip already rejected him, and he was plenty embarrassed after it all. Let’s try and resolve this peacefully,” I requested.

“We’ll see,” Cullen said.

“So?” Alpha Remi asked, looking between us.

“We should be able to facilitate an agreement,” I said. Cullen nodded, keeping his expression level. I knew on the inside he was plotting precisely how he would get at Zeus for this.

“I really appreciate it, gentlemen,” Alpha Remi said with a smile.

I could tell there was something else on his mind. “Is there anything else you have to ask?”

He laughed. “I wouldn’t want to be rude,” he said, waving his hand.

“I am sure our mates are still preoccupied; please, enlighten us,” I invited him.

He looked between Cullen and me, trying to figure something out. “So you are both mated to the same girl?” he finally asked.

I let out a low laugh, nodding my head. “Yes, Remi is both of our mates.”

“Who is the father?” he asked. Cullen looked irritated immediately. I swooped in to answer before he could chew out our guest.

“We don’t know,” I answered. “But it would not matter either way. We are just happy that our mate is giving us pups.”

“Pups? As in plural?” he asked, eyes wide.

“Twins,” Cullen answered, holding up two fingers.

“Well, I thought she was just far along. I guess I just assumed because she was marked at the Summit that you would have gotten her pregnant quickly,” he admitted.

“You must understand our position,” I said, raising an eyebrow.

Alpha Remi scratched the back of his neck with a nervous look on his face. “I guess, maybe. It probably a little different with twin Lunas rather than Alphas.”

“How so?” I asked, intrigued. I sat back in my chair, trying to seem more relaxed and make our guest more comfortable.

“My Council was not exactly thrilled at me finding two mates instead of one,” he said. I chuckled at that. “Now the argument is about who will bear the next Alpha heir.”

“I never thought of that,” I admitted. Alpha Remi nodded.

“The girls want me to choose, but I could never choose between them. They are both my entire world. I could never imagine having one without the other. Choosing one to have my pup first is like choosing a favorite,” he lamented.

I looked at Cullen, wondering if Remi felt the same way sometimes. We did everything in our power to make sure she never had to choose between us, but it was impossible to avoid entirely. Cullen looked like he had the same thought.

“That doesn’t seem like a fair choice to have to make,” I agreed. “There must be some perks to having two mates, though. Ours doesn’t have very many complaints.” Cullen nodded his head; the only complaint Remi seemed to have was when she was simply overwhelmed with our attention on her.

Alpha Remi scoffed, leaning back and running his hands over his face. “It was fantastic at first, but it isn’t without its challenges. They are just very different even if they look almost identical.”

“What do you mean?” Cullen asked.

“Catie is very outspoken. She is extroverted and will tell me exactly what she wants. Cori is pretty much the opposite. She will never ask for anything, including my attention. I think they can get jealous of each other sometimes, only Catie is the one who gets vocal about it,” he explained.

“I’m sure it isn’t all bad?” I guessed.

“No, it isn’t!” he said quickly. “They are incredible Lunas. When they put their mind to something, it is impossible to stop them. I also never have to worry about them getting lonely when I need to leave because they have each other. If we didn’t have the whole heir thing hanging over our heads, things would probably be much easier.”

“Well, we can help you fix your Beta’s mate issue and have one less thing to worry about,” I said.

SAMMY

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and blocked out all other thoughts, focusing on lifting the feather in front of me. I spoke the simple incantation and raised my hand with a loose wrist just as the beginner magic text described.

Opening my eyes, I found the feather zipping straight up to the ceiling. The basics were clearly working. I toyed with the feather, not needing words to move it at my will.

I had just spent hours painfully going through all the basic practices we use to teach young witchlings to start controlling their powers. I laid back on the ground in the middle of my workshop, letting the feather loop and float lazily above me.

I had to be missing something, and I still couldn’t find what it was. I clearly had some control over my power, but not all the time. I reached my hand above my head, splaying my fingers and turning them over. Every time it happened, it felt like my magic was out of place all of a sudden. Something about it didn’t belong, but I couldn’t place why that could be.

I sent the feather hurtling over to my massive bookshelf behind me. I craned my neck back, looking upside down at it as it landed on one of the upper shelves. The books I used the least were at the top.

A thought popped into my head as I watched the feather settle itself in front of the dusty volumes. Back in the coven, one of the witches was affected by her pregnancy. Our Coven Nurse had to treat her with something. I flipped over onto my stomach and pushed myself up quickly.

After the birth, the witch’s body held onto some of her child’s magic essence, which conflicted with her own. She had to be balanced, and our Coven Nurse made her a potion for it.

I grabbed my small latter and leaned it against the shelf, opting not to use magic to raise myself up there. I skimmed the volumes, wiping dust away from titles to read them more clearly. I finally found the one I was looking for and removed it from its place on the shelf.

I moved over to my work table and opened the old, yellowed pages. It has been years since I worked with any sort of medicinal magic. I didn’t know why this hadn’t occurred to me sooner. Maybe I really had forgotten more magic than Gentry or the wolves could ever know.

I finally found the page I was looking for and began to skim the ingredient list and instructions. I had everything I needed in my shop, but the potion itself would take about a week to complete.

I had exhausted every other thing I could think of at this point; this was the only thing that could possibly help. I got to work gathering everything I would need. I knew I had made this potion before and remembered there were ways to cut down the brewing time, but it was so long ago I couldn’t remember. I would have to go by the instructions I had.

As I got the potion started, something occurred to me. If this worked, it meant that Grayson’s magic essence was still within me. That meant my baby was not a werewolf but a warlock. I couldn’t help the flutter of happiness in my chest. I knew how to train magic; I knew how to raise a magic-user. I knew nothing about werewolves or how to be a mom to one. I would love Grayson either way, but I was excited that my baby could have power like me.