Taking a Bite Out of the Moons

CH 56: When?!?

When the door in front of us is pulled open, it's not Forth standing in the doorway though, it's Beam. He looks just as surprised to see us as we are to see him.

"W-what are you guys doing here?" Beam finally asks.

Looking Beam over, I see he's only wearing a pair of sweat pants and his hair is wet like he just got out of the shower. However, when my eyes land on the mark, so similar to mine, on his shoulder, confusion and anger surge through me.

Pushing to the front of our group, I stand facing Beam and reach out to run my fingers across the obvious mating mark. Beam shivers a bit under my touch, then he stumbles and falls back, landing on his ass on the floor when my fist connects with his jaw.

Forth is at Beam's side in less than a second and he growls at me in warning, but I just ignore him as I demand, "When?!?"

"Kitty, just let me exp..."

Pha and Beam have always been the violent ones in our group, so a few seconds ago was the first time I'd ever punched anyone before, but now I feel like I might hit him again. "I don't want your fucking explanations, Beam. I asked you one thing and that was - When?!?"

He's looking up at me miserably while holding his jaw, "Right after the Moon and Star Competition."

My mouth drops open in shock and I'm left completely speechless. I hear Ming's voice ring out beside me and he sounds angry too. "P'Forth, I don't understand. Why didn't you tell us? Mating's aren't kept secret, P'. This isn't how we do things."

Forth helps Beam stand up, and now they're both facing us as Forth answers, "Nong, I couldn't tell you. I made a promise to my mate not to tell anyone until he was ready."

After Forth's damning words, we all look at Beam again, but he is only looking at me. "Kit, I'm sorry..."

When he starts to give his excuses, I find my tongue again, "So, instead of telling me the truth, you made me look like a fool. You must have laughed your ass off at my expense every time I worried about you and Forth. Did you enjoy seeing me stress out over your situation with him? Worrying about the two of you and if you'd end up together. Really, if I think about it, the both of you made fools out of all of us." I say as I gesture to Pha, Yo, Ming and myself.

"You know what, I'm done." I turn to Ming, "I'll be downstairs at the car." I say then walk away.

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BEAM'S POV

This morning, Forth and I had made up from our argument last night. Since, he was feeling pretty bad from being hung over, we made plans to spend the day quietly together instead of him going to the movies with our friends. However, I didn't expect it to turn out like this.

We'd ordered food a while ago and when the knock came at the door I expected it to be the delivery person. If I had paused for a second and looked out the peep hole or even taken a whiff of the scents in the air, I could have saved myself a lot of heartache. However, I didn't, so when I opened the door to find our friends standing there, I had no idea what to do.

Kit was beyond angry with me and I probably deserved the punch in the face, even though I never expected him to hit me. But, I didn't know how to explain.

He was the only reason I didn't reject Forth the first time we met, so how could I admit to him two weeks later that I had fallen for Forth and mated him. I couldn't do it; my pride wouldn't let me. So not for the first time, I let my egomania get the better of me, and now here we are.

When Ming jumped in and yelled at Forth about keeping the mating a secret, I felt even worse. I really had forced Forth not to tell. I had pretty much tricked him into agreeing to keep it secret from the others. I wanted to save myself the lectures from Kit about making snap decisions or even worse about how he was right when he told me I needed to give Forth a chance. Honestly, I only intended to wait until after Ming and Kit mated before we told everyone. I knew Kit, he was my best friend. So, I understood from the beginning he would accept Ming sooner or later.

"You know what, I'm done. I'll be downstairs at the car." He says then stomps away.

We all watch him leave, then Ming turns back to us. "I hope you're both happy with the choices you made to lie and sneak around. Excuse me, I need to go talk to my mate." He quickly walks away, almost running to try to catch up with Kit.

Forth steps out in the hall and tries to call Ming back, but he just ignores him and disappears down the stairs. Hearing a sniffle, both Forth and I turn to face Yo.

Shit. I can deal easily with Ming's anger, but right now Yo's tears are second only to Kit being mad at me.

"P'Forth, why would you agree to something like this? Even I know it was wrong and I'm not a wolf."

"Nong..." Forth starts but I interrupt him.

"N'Yo, it's my fault. Don't blame Forth. I made him do it."

"What you did and what you made Forth do, hurt people who care about both of you. P'Beam, I thought we were all becoming friends, but if this is how you treat friends, I'm not sure I want to be yours." His voice cracks on the last few words and a sob escapes him as he shoves the bags of food into Forth's hands and takes off running for the stairs.

"I told you to clear this up, but you kept screwing around wasting time. You've only made it worse by keeping it a secret this long." Pha says.

He's the only one left and instead of helping me, he gives me an 'I told you so'. "Yeah, great, Ai'Pha as if I couldn't see that myself." I say sarcastically.

He stiffens at my tone, and his next words are in the cold irritated voice I've heard him use with others, but never on me before, "You really are an idiot. Just alienate everyone, why don't you?" He says then walks away shaking his head.

Forth heads back into the room and sits down on the bed. I follow him in, shutting and locking the door behind me. When I call his name, he looks up at me, clearly upset.

"I'm sorry." I say to him. "This is my fault."

"Yes, it is." Well shit, I didn't expect him to agree with me like that. "However, it's also my fault. I knew what you were asking me to do was wrong and that it went against what I believed, but I agreed to it anyway because I wanted you so badly."

The only thing I can think of to say is, "I'm really sorry I got you into this. I promise, I'll fix it and get them to forgive us. Everything will be back to normal soon."

"I hope so, Beam."

After a few minutes of silence, I buck up and ask the one questions I have to know the answer to right now. "Do you regret mating me?"

He looks at me sharply, then reaches out and snags my arm, dragging me to him and pulling me into his lap. "No, I don't regret our mating and I never will. I do regret not telling our friends, but we can't change that now. We just need to figure out how to move forward and get them to forgive us. Ok?" He plants a kiss on my temple and holds me close.

I relax, feeling his strong arms and masculine scent surround me. I think back and remember the day that is the current cause of our problems with our friends. Well, to be fair, it's not the day's fault, it was mine. Why was I so rash? Why did my pride matter so much?

Ah, I remember why now... 

01.04.2018   8:40 am US CST