Upside Down (COMPLETE) Inside Out, Book 2 [BoyxBoy]

Nathan

 "Fuck, I as hell didn't see that one coming!"

Nathan snorted silently to Callan's retort. Well, he couldn't blame the boys since he was able to sense the shocking incident first.

The five of them were hanging out at Nathan's place. They sprawled in front of the TV, nibbling potato chips. None of them was really paying attention to the Netflix show playing on the screen since they were still engulfed in tremor, disbelieving of what the whole pack had just witnessed. As for Nathan, he could only laugh now and then—I knew it, I knew that was going to happen.

"Goddamn it, Stan!" Rick said, smacking Stanley on his head with a flyer he randomly found from the cracks of the couch. "You should've known your brother better! Then this whole crap didn't have to happen."

"Hey!" Stanley replied. "I thought of it before ... Jordan's been telling me he is crushing on a guy, but I thought it wasn't Jace."

The intensity of the atmosphere turned into an uncomfortable warmth that crept inside of Nathan's body. One of the strongest emotional pull that he sensed there was Jeff's—Jace's little brother had been too silent as thoughts ran wild in his brain. Jeff had been so overwhelming with the exchange that Nathan could access some random words in his head just now.

Recently, others' strong moods gave strange effects to Nathan's mind. Caught up in what others felt, Nathan would hear weird voices in his head, whether they were too sad, happy or anything in between.

In Jordan's case, Nathan had first sensed the fishiness out of the situation as he'd noticed Jordan's extreme fear. Then Jordan's mate bond issues got worse, letting Nathan know that the boy was thinking about Jace. Nathan had observed the way Jordan glanced at his mate for a few days, and then everything turned into a simple math.

Dad was the only one who knew about this peculiarity, and they both had yet to figure out why. It might be a lycanthropic superpower some immortals get in the peak of their youth. However, the emotions Nathan felt from the people around him were like dying vibrations—they would strengthen and fade occasionally. Dad had wanted to refer to the pack Alpha about this, but Nathan didn't think that was a good idea. Dan had always gotten carried away with his passion for immortals' psychology he might end up presenting Nathan's case to the whole world, claiming it was his new discovery.

Nathan didn't care about this at first, until this strange ability had invaded his head when he needed his own mental space. One time he couldn't concentrate in Math as a kid sitting next to him lusted passionately over the teacher's behind, leaving a burning hot feeling in Nathan's brain. It had been bothering him for a while now, and he wanted it to stop.

Nathan sensed something like a detachment in his chest as Jeff's intense mood started to relax. He breathed out of relief.

"Poor Jordan," Jeff said. "It's weird. I didn't think it was him."

Suddenly, Jeff glanced at Nathan. Maybe they were starting to wonder why he had not uttered any words since the incident. Rick was quite wordless, too, but the boys could see that he was speechless due to the impact of the pack meeting just now. But they saw nothing in Nathan's eyes; they all were probably wondering how he could be so calm after what just happened, like nothing had affected him at all.

Nathan needed to say something—things were clearly getting awkward.

"Um ... it's pretty obvious since the fight they had last week." Nathan looked at them and tried so hard to put on a suitable facial expression.

A moment later, Rick breathed out and agreed, "Yeah."

"I hope they're all right now," Callan said, his mouth was filled with potato chips. "Jace looked like he really wanted to kill Jordan."

"He won't do that," Nathan said. During the gathering, the turmoil in Jace's soul had been the stealthiest thing Nathan could sense it had blocked the rest of the emotions in Dan's front yard for him to reach. A deadly weakness was pinning Jace down, and the triple-times Combat victor struggled so hard to fight it. It didn't turn out good; Jace turned into someone that looked like he needed some exorcism ritual; a completely Satan-possessed, batshit-crazy person.

Nathan hadn't been pleased with the intensity. If Jordan had been in his reach, he would have carried the boy himself, placed him in front of his mate, push the two's heads, made them kiss as if they were dolls. Fortunately, Sunny had done the job in a way.

But Callan's concern wasn't wholly invalid. It was still possible for Jace Andrews to throw a brutal deadly punch to Jordan, only being near to his mate with the raging mate bond helped preventing that likelihood. When Jace had kissed Jordan, Nathan had caught the feeling as if Jace and Jordan's souls were colliding. Witnessing that with his eyes and his weird ability had left another strange sensation in his body, but this one was pretty pleasant. Nathan Drew had never been so sure about the theory of mate bond until Jace had given Jordan the true kiss.

Nathan knew now that the mate bond wasn't just a theory; it was something real, something no one would find out by questioning or doubting. It wouldn't come to an immortal until they had finally kissed their mates, and Nathan just happened to be lucky at the situation. At least now Nathan could see the silver lining; he got to know how it would be when he found his own mate after he felt Jace's feelings when he kissed his mate.

"So what should we do?" Stanley said, turning to eye each of the boys in the room. Nathan sighed out of disbelief; he's Jordan's brother, for God's sake.

Everyone was probably pleased when Rick pulled Stan hard by his ear. "You dumbass."

"They'll be alright," Nathan said out of the blue in his silence. "Mates don't kill each other—that's stupid."

"Whatever it is, they're still dudes. I hope you remember that," Stanley responded, scowling in pain as he rubbed his reddened ear. "And my little brother—he's helpless, man. If Jace smacks him, he can die—"

Nathan sighed. Despite knowing what was up with the whole situation, he still felt like the boys needed to calm down a little. He knew for a fact that Jordan and Jace were going to be alright—in fact he'd felt it himself.

"He's kissed him, and he likes it. Trust me, Stan," urged Nathan again.

The boys turned to shoot a look at Nathan again. What ... did I say anything wrong?

"Gotta go, guys," he told the boys as he started to stand up. "My dad wants to see me. Just keep chilling here."