"Assumptions are the termites of relationships."
― Henry Winkler
When Kyle opened his eyes, he found himself facing a starry sky. He looked at it for a moment, a little mesmerized, before he slowly realized where he was.
When did I fall asleep? For how long have I been passed out?
It turned out the only two persons who could have reply to his questions were not in the state to do so. They were both in their wolves forms, fast asleep. Darren was still blanketing Kyle with his warm fur, while Nate had scooted closer at some point, managing to put his nuzzle on one of the only spot of Kyle's body that wasn't covered by Darren: his right shoulder.
They stayed. They didn't leave me after finding out I was a Sub.
Of course, that didn't mean everything was fine and dandy. They still needed to talk. This would be a long overdue talk. Although neither Darren nor Nate had pushed him to give them explanations, he had seen the questions dancing in their eyes. Telling them about his own past was not going to be a walk in the park, but the hard part was behind, for they already knew his biggest secret. The sooner they talked, the sooner they could move forward. Hopefully.
"Nate? Dar?"
He had barely whispered their names, but it did not take more than a few seconds for his mates to wake up, both werewolves immediatly on high alert.
"What is it, Kyle?" Nate murmured, looking down at the other Beta with worried eyes. "Are you okay? Did you notice anything unusual?"
Kyle felt himself blush slightly, and averted his eyes. Something was telling him he better get used to this kind of reactions, because his mates were worriers at heart, especially when their loved ones were involved.
"I'm fine" he replied, and for once it was mostly true. "I just think that, while I can't sense any immediate danger, we shouldn't stay here, in the open. Direct fights may have stopped, but I do not trust Adrien's warriors not to kill us on the spot, if they find us unprotected."
Darren nodded, and slowly got up, giving a quick, consoling lick to Kyle's face after the latter had unconsciously reached out to his mate, as if he didn't want him to move from above him. He was wearing a pouting expression that the Alpha secretly found adorable. He and Nate exchanged a quick glance, before they started shifting, slowly returning to their human forms.
"Kyle's right" Darren declared, his voice slightly hoarse for not being used for a couple of hours. "Let's go back to the small cavern where we left food and clothes. There, we will be safer and we will be able to talk, if Kyle is up for it. Then, at dawn, we will return to the camp."
He paused for a moment, then, as the young warrior was remaining surprisingly silent, he asked softly:
"Kyle?"
Kyle's eyes, which had been focused on unholy places of his mates' naked bodies, immediatly shot up to Darren's face. Not wanting to embarass the man further, the Alpha didn't make any comments, but kept looking at his mate calmly, waiting for his response.
"Yeah- ugh, what - what was the answer - the question I mean?" Kyle eventually mumbled, as he desperately tried to keep his eyes fixated on the Alpha's face.
What was wrong with him? He had seen his mates naked countless times before, and it had not make him behave like a sex-deprived werewolf. Surely, it had to do with the mating bond. Since the Mating Ceremony, when Kyle had learnt that Darren and Nate were his mates, everything had become much more intense. It had become even worse since he had stopped taking the Suppressants. He sometimes felt like the lightest touches or briefest looks from them could be enough to make him combust.
Were the other two feeling the same? It was the sweetest kind of torture he had ever experimented, making him both want to take it to the next level with his mates, and remain hidden forever where nobody could find him. He was now realising that you could desire something you feared - sometimes, the fear even intensified the desire.
A brief smile lightened up Nate's face, who took a step forward and gave a squeeze to his mate's shoulder - the shoulder he had smashed for hours with his head in his sleep.
"Having your mind somewhere else, sweetheart?" he asked with a knowing expression, earning himself a warning look from Darren. Taking pity on the poor man - or maybe fearing for his own ass - he wisely did not take it any further, and repeated Darren's suggestion to Kyle. The latter immediatly accepted, and they all took off, trying to be as fast and discreet as possible.
Fortunately, the cavern Darren had mentioned wasn't far away, for Kyle's ankle was still injured, and he had stubbornly refused the Alpha's offer to carry him. They reached the hidding place in less than ten minutes, and did not meet any wolves at all. It was a quiet, and so far uneventful night - if you excluded the discovery about Kyle.
The second they entered the cavern, Nate had Kyle sit on the ground, and started examinating his ankle with a focused expression he always wore when he was treating someone. After a few minutes of inspection, he released his leg and concluded:
"You should be fine by tomorrow. The healing process is going to speed up, now that the three of us are reunited."
Kyle nodded, already missing the warmth of Nate's hand. As if the other Beta could read his thoughts, he sat unecessarily close to his him, and took Kyle's palm in his hand, absentmindedly playing with his long and calloused fingers. Kyle stiffened a bit, but thanked the other man in his head, for the gesture was more than welcomed.
"You should have let me carry you, Kyle" Darren adressed him with a stern expression. "It won't do you any good, straining your ankle even more."
"Did you offer to help me just because you now know that I am a Sub, and think I can't take care of myself?" Kyle blurted out.
He immediatly regretted asking that. He had spoken without thinking - something he was doing more and more often around his mates. Turning his head a bit, he saw Nate looking at him in silence with slightly widened eyes. Darren, on the other hand, looked as calmed and composed as ever.
"I'm sorry" Kyle slowly added. "I didn't mean to say that."
Darren shook his head. "No, I'm glad you did. You should always feel free to tell us what you really think." He paused, then resumed, his tone carefully neutral. "So, do you think I wanted to carry you because I just found out you are a Sub?"
Both men looked at Kyle, looking genuinely interested in what their mate had to say. He pondered the question for a bit, thinking back at the views his mates had already expressed about subgenders, the way Submissives were treated in their pack, and what he knew about Darren's personality.
"No." he eventually said. "I don't think you asked me that because you know that I am a Sub."
Before today, he had never pronounced this word aloud to designate himself. His uncle had been the only one to use it, and it had always been preceded by degrading words such as "useless" or "filfthy". It felt weird to say this simple, unaggressive sentence: "I am a Sub." Weird, but not as bad as he would have thought. Still, he was far from feeling empowered by the admission.
"Good." Darren said, and Kyle felt his heart flutter a bit. "I would never look at you differently just because you are a Sub, nor would Nate. You are a great warrior, a brave and loyal man, and you happen to be a Sub, which is neither good nor bad in itself. It won't make us love you any less."
Nate let out a small gasp at Darren's last sentence, and for once, the big man himself looked a bit flustered, but he did not make any excuses about his unintentional admission - excuses that Kyle would have probably easily believe. Instead, he proceeded to make a fire, with Nate and Kyle watching him. The tension between them slowly dissipated as they sat by the fire, giving space to a comfortable silence.
"If me being a Sub won't make you lo-like me any less, then what about this?" Kyle suddenly blurted. "I killed my uncle. All the rumors are true." (not me having Cardi B's song in my head^^')
He didn't know what he had expected, throwing this bomb after hidding the truth for years, but not for his mates to remain silent, as they patiently waited for him to elaborate.
Which he did. He told them about the panic that had seized him when he had discovered that he was a Sub, after years of being convinced he would be a Dom, no doubt about it. How he had been too ashamed to tell his two best friends, who had both turned to be Doms. How his uncle had reacted at the news, forcing him to start a special training...
"Special training?"Darren repeated, interrupting Kyle for the first time.
"I - I started the day around 4am, taking the Suppressants, which always gave me headaches and stomach cramps, but my uncle said I had to stop being so weak and be grateful he was helping me out. Then, just before the physical training, came the confession time-"
He paused, getting lost in his memories, before the feeling of Darren sitting on his other size, and gently carding his fingers through his hair, brough him back to the present. He explained them how most of the times he had nothing to confess, but still had to "cleanse his soul" by repeating after his uncle how he should have been dead instead of his mother, and did not deserve his uncle's generosity.
"If you hadn't killed your uncle, I would have killed him myself." Nate declared, looking horrified, after Kyle had finished talking.
"Maybe he wasn't entirely wrong" Kyle replied hesitantly. "I - I did try to rape you. Maybe I am the monster."
Nate's grip on Kyle's hand tightened at this statement. Taking the other man's chin between his finger and thumb to force him to look at him, he replied with clear, carefully chosen words.
" I am not going to lie, and pretend I quickly got over it, but you were under the influence of the Suppressants, which make instincts much more difficult to control, especially when you are a teen. Plus, with the way this asshole was treating you, you weren't in your right state of mind. I forgive you, Kyle. I wish things hadn't turned out like this, with you being abandonned by everyone, even us."
"Still, we have all our lives to progress, make amends and love the others as much as we can" Darren added. "I'm sure the three of us will be very happy together. I am glad you are our mate, Kyle."
The submissive werewolf was now sitting in his mates' lap, on Darren's left thigh and Nate's right one. His heart felt much lighter. Suddenly, he had this unexpected urge to being kissed, being cuddled, to try new food and to bask in the sun.
"So, now that we know I am a Sub, does it mean you expect me to wear a collar and call you Daddies" he tried to joke, because all this love and affection his mates were showing him was kinda intimidating.
"Every relationship is unique" Nate replied seriously. "But if you allow us, maybe the three of us could figure out how this one could work. You have been repressing your instincts for so long, Kyle. It isn't healthy. We would like to show you that being a Sub can be a very beautiful, pleasurable thing. There's relief in giving control to your mates."
Giving control to someone else. That was the opposite of what he had been doing so far, but somehow, if Darren and Nate were the ones in charge, it did not seem so bad.
"Not only did you run away from us, but today you tried to attack me" Darren added sternly, but Kyle knew him well enough to know that he wasn't mad, only worried about him. "Now, I understand why you did it and I won't punish you for it, especially since we hadn't discussed it and you haven't gave us your consent. However, since we are on the topic, you should know that most Subs would have gotten punished by their Doms for what you did."
Punished. What would a punishment imply, exactly? He had never thought about it before. How would Darren punish a grown-up like him? Certainly not like his uncle did, because the Alpha was a kind man, who only wanted to shower his mates with affection. Would it imply for Darren to touch him? Would he use his Alpha's voice to give him orders? Would Nate take part in the punishment? How would that feel?
New pictures started to appear inside of his mind, and Kyle started feeling a strange heat pooling in his lower regions. Taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, making his mates look at him with a curious expression.
"Maybe - " he started, a little breathless. "Maybe I need to be punished."
A/N: Longer chapter! (I had to make sure you noticed, because your dear author needs a pat on the shoulder!! :P)
More seriously, this is new content, so I would be very interested in knowing what you think about this chapter.
Thank you to all the support regarding my last statement about my health. I feel much loved <3 I am still waiting for some results, but so far the first ones had been quite reassuring, and I am feeling a bit less worried. Really, thank you so much for your messages and good wishes, you're a wonderful bunch of people <3
Enjoy your day/night, and wishing you all a good start of the week :) Love and rainbows xx