AIDEN
"Yes, my sister. Tall, beautiful woman with blue eyes and silver-grey hair, although she is more of a brunette usually," Lucien said, with pride shining through in his tone.
Well, that solved the mystery then. Aurelie Moreau was his sister. It made sense now- she had clearly inherited her character from her mother.
"She better not be with Callum again. I should warn him to stay away from her." He spoke again, the pride in his voice having been replaced by annoyance. Here was my confirmation though that there was definitely something going on between Riley and the bear Alpha.
"Erm, I think I saw them earlier doing a tour of the house," Rafe told Lucien but I had a feeling that there was more to the story than Rafe let out.
"Of course they are. Let me go find her and I will introduce her to you guys." Rafe and I both gave Lucien a small nod and an awkward smile, neither of us wanting to tell him of our earlier encounter with his sister.
Once we are alone again, Rafe downed his whisky and slammed the glass on the bar.
"Easy there, wolf boy. I thought that your little disappearance act with the waitress was meant to relax you, not stress you," I joked with him, trying to ease the tension that was clearly present.
"Don't even get me started. On top of that, I feel like I am allergic to these kinds of gatherings- I am literally itching to leave."
I laughed when he said that, only because his choice of words was ironic, as I had been feeling a weird itch on my torso for the last hour.
"I have a solution for you- why don't we go back to my place and crack open one of my premium whiskeys? You can crash at mine seeing as this place will probably be a mess until tomorrow lunchtime." I was done with my Beta duties for the night and didn't mind relaxing with my best friend for the rest of it.
"That sounds like a fucking plan, mate."
***
"What a weird night, man. This is why I don't usually do any of this social gatherings crap." Rafe took another puff of the Montecristo cigars that we were smoking on my deck.
The night was definitely very unusual, although one wouldn't have guessed it if they were to look at the sight of tranquillity in front of us- a completely still Loch Lomond bathing in the moonlight, with nothing but the chirping of the crickets being heard around us.
"Oh, come on, Rafe. You can't tell me that meeting one girl who stood up to you like that threw you off your balance? Aren't you supposed to be the great Rafe Macalister?" I was teasing him yet again tonight but hey, that's what best friends were for, right?
"Not that again, Aiden. And this Moreau girl... she is certainly different. Not sure that my wolf feels at ease with that."
Interesting. I had never heard Rafe talk about girls and his wolf in the same sentence. Then again, my own dragon felt odd when Riley was around.
"How about we jump into the sauna to release some of tonight's tension?" I am not sure how I had not come up with that earlier already and Rafe seemed to like my idea.
We made our way to the sauna and started undressing. As we were about to go in, I noticed a weird tattoo on Rafe's shoulder. It looked like some text in silver writing.
"Are you serious, you prick? You got a tattoo and you didn't even tell your best friend?" I tried to play hurt.
"What the hell are you talking about, Aiden?" Rafe was looking at me super confused as if he didn't even know that the tattoo was there. My next guess would have been that he was drunk when he got it but shifters didn't really get drunk.
"The tattoo on your shoulder, you idiot. How long did it take you to come up with that?"
"With what?" He was trying to peek over his shoulder and clearly failing to see anything. "Fuck, Aiden- just tell me."
"No, you dumb arse. That's what your tattoo says, "How long did it take you to come up with that". Do you honestly not even know it is there?" Now it was my turn to be confused as I watched Rafe make his way to the mirror hanging above the sink close to us and look at the words etched on his shoulder. "What, you are next trying to convince me that it's a mating tattoo..." I laughed at my own joke.
I saw Rafe's eyes go wide like my words actually made him think it was a possibility. "You are one to talk. What the fuck is that on your torso?"
What the hell is he playing at? What on my torso? I looked down and there it was. The same cursive text but in gold and with different words.
Rafe laughed. "When this is over, I want my sanity back. Why the hell would you get that inked on your body?"
I stared at my own body in shock. This was not there before I left for the party, which could only mean one thing- I had met my mate. But how? There were no female dragon shifters there. There was no way that my mate was not one of my kind, right? My mind was having a hard time figuring it out right now. Then I thought about Rafe's tattoo and I realised that despite the fact I joked about it, he must have met his mate as well.
"Well, look at that. It seems that we have both met our mates tonight, Rafe. Apparently even an uncaring son of a bitch like you has been given someone by your Moon Goddess. Poor soul! Although, judging by her future words, it looks like she has already figured out your mental capacities." I grinned at him.
Rafe was looking unimpressed by now. "First of all, there must have been some mix-up as I neither need nor want a mate. Second, who the hell are you to laugh, Hayes? Have you seen your text- your mate sounds like she is stuck in a nightmare, losing her mind in it."
Touché. Our mating tattoos didn't really reflect very well on either one of us and they gave us no clue as who our mates could be.
"Yeah, well, if she is not a dragon shifter, maybe my world might indeed seem crazy for her. I mean, can you imagine my mate having to put up with Cyrus? That in itself probably explains the words."
"Oh shit, man," the realisation had just dawned on Rafe, "It's true that there were no female dragon shifters tonight. So who the hell is your mate then?"
"Your guess is as good as mine, Rafe. I guess we will both have to wait and see." I opened the door of the sauna and walked in, seating myself on the hot wooden benches.
"I guess we will," Rafe confirmed as he joined me as well.
This was a problem to solve another day- now it was time to relax.
***
RAFE
"Hi, Nat. Where are you off to?" I said to my sister as she was practically running out of the house.
"Oh, hi Rafe. I'm going for a walk with Riley."
Riley Moreau.
It had been a week since I met her at my father's party, the very same party where I had apparently met my mate. My wolf was not at peace ever since that night and it was starting to take a toll on me as I was becoming even grumpier than usual.
"What is it with you and her? Is she your best friend now? Are there no girls your age to hang out with? I am not sure she is a good influence." To be honest, I was not sure where all of that came from but it was already out of my mouth before I had a chance to stop myself from saying it.
My sister stopped in her tracks and turned around to look at me, giving me the most pissed off look that she could possibly come up with. But then again, this was Natalia and even when she was angry she looked cute and nice.
"Listen up, Rafe Macalister, you might be my big brother and I love you to the moon and back but you don't get to tell me who I can be friends with. Should I also remind you that Riley was the one that helped me the day that I got injured." Her last words got to me more than I cared to admit because we had still not caught the perpetrators and because I had not been there to protect my sister.
"I'm sorry, Nat. I didn't mean to sound like a prick."
"Well, you did. What's up with you lately anyway? Is it Amy? She keeps on looking for you around the pack's grounds."
Amy was the least of my problems but it was true that she was a pain as well. "Yeah, it's Amy." Lying felt easier than admitting that I had no clue what was really wrong with me. "She won't leave me alone and it's pissing me off."
"Well, tell her that you are not interested."
"You think I haven't tried? Anyway, I don't want to keep you from your walk. Just be careful, please."
"Relax, Rafe- I will be with Riley." She walked over to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek before she went out, giggling. "See you later, big brother."